Friday 30 December 2016

Three of a Kind - Il Tesoro Summerso (Underwater!)

In the last Art of Diving we looked at some posters for the Jane Russell movie Underwater! Here's three more from the Italian release of the film.






Wednesday 28 December 2016

The Art of Diving Goes to the Movies - Underwater!

Today we're looking at two posters from the 1955 Jane Russell film, Underwater! I believe the first example is by Ren Wicks so it's quite likely the second one is also his work.



Here's a picture of the impressive display for the film at a New York cinema.







Thursday 22 December 2016

The Weekly Art of Diving - Typhoon Tracy and the Atlantis Expedition Part 5

It's time for the conclusion of Typhoon Tracy's exciting adventure! As the last part doesn't feature any diving I'm presenting the final two instalments together. (Click for larger images).










Thursday 15 December 2016

The Weekly Art of Diving - Typhoon Tracy and the Atlantis Expedition Part 4

There's plenty of underwater action in this week's episode of Typhoon Tracy! (Click for larger images).




Don't miss the exciting conclusion next week!

Sunday 11 December 2016

Three of a Kind - Bob Morane

French adventurer Bob Morane, a former RAF pilot, first appeared in the novel La Vallée Infernale (The Infernal Valley) by Henri Vernes (Charles-Henri Dewisme) in 1953. More than 200 books have since been published and over 70 albums reprinting comic strips from magazines such as Pilote and Tintin. The character appeared in a 1960 film that was screened once in Brussels before being lost in a fire! A 1965 live-action series and a 1998 animated series were also made.

The eleventh book in the series was Les Raquins d'Acier (The Steel Sharks) and was originally published in 1955. A number of artists produced covers for the series but unfortunately I don't know who painted the various covers featured here.



1961 saw the publication of  Les Mangeurs d'Atomes (The Atom Eaters), the 45th book in the series.
Here we have a French cover plus a larger scan of the same artwork from a Dutch edition. As a bonus there's also a more recent French cover.





Our third and final item is a 1988 ad for Bob Morane: Oceans, one of a number of video games that were produced.



Thursday 8 December 2016

Sunday 4 December 2016

Operation Penalty

Try as I might I couldn't come up with a title for this blog entry. I must be losing my touch!

Raymond Reding (1920-1999) was a French-Belgian artist and writer. He created a number of different series, often for Tintin magazine, several of which had a sporting theme. Jari was about a young tennis apprentice while Section R featured two former athletes who worked as investigative journalists in the world of sport. Footballer Eric Castell is his most famous creation but his first football hero was Vincent Larcher who appeared in Tintin from 1963 - 1971. I think the story featured here comes from the end of the run and it was reprinted in album format in 1975. There's mention of treasure and a time-bomb but as to what exactly is going on, you're on your own I'm afraid!

Thanks to Chris for once again providing the scans (Click for larger images).




Ooh! I can just about remember enough of my school French lessons to work out that their boat is called the Dog's head!


Thursday 1 December 2016

The Weekly Art of Diving - Typhoon Tracy and the Atlantis Expedition Part 2

Here's the next thrilling instalment of Typhoon Tracy, Trouble Shooter from the pages of Hurricane! (Click for larger images).





See you next week for more exciting adventures chums!

Monday 28 November 2016

The Art of Packaging

I think this entry speaks for itself. Thanks to Chris for the first two pictures (Click for larger images).








Thursday 24 November 2016

Three of a Kind - The Illuminated Art of Diving

Who's becoming desperate in their attempts to link pieces of artwork together?!

The first piece is by William George and was used to illustrate a story called The Dark Dive in a 1957 issue of Argosy. Click for larger image).


The second piece is also from Argosy, this time a 1962 edition. The artist is Lou Feck. (With thanks to the Today's Inspiration Facebook group).



I've featured this 1961 Fury cover before but I've since found a bigger scan so here it is again. Artist unknown.




The Weekly Art of Diving - Typhoon Tracy and the Atlantis Expedition Part 1

Typhoon Tracy, Trouble Shooter  was the star of the short-lived boys' comic Hurricane, which ran for 63 issues in 1964-65. His adventures continued for several more years after Hurricane merged with the long-running Tiger.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to present a complete adventure with a diving theme. The artwork is by Geoff Campion (1916-1997) a mainstay of the Amalgamated Press/Fleetway/IPC for three decades. His working life began as a tax inspector but while serving in the East India Command during WWII he became a cartoonist for the forces' magazine Jambo.   After the war he joined the AP and worked on humour strips and as a fill-in artist. Asked to draw cowboy strips he pointed out that he couldn't draw horses. "Bloody well learn then!" was the response! His work appeared in many titles including The Comet, Sun, Knock-Out, Lion, Valiant and Battle. Characters he worked on included Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, Dick Turpin, Battler Britton, Captain Condor, The Spellbinder and D-Day Dawson. He also produced paintings for books such as The Enchanted World of Giants and Ogres and The Enchanted World of Gnomes, (Thanks to David and Phil on the Comics UK forum for identifying Campion's work).

To get the story rolling I'm going to start with the first two instalments (click for larger images).








Come back next week for more exciting adventures!


Sunday 6 November 2016

The Archie of Diving - Joke Book Magazine

Archie's Joke Book Magazine was one of several Archie titles that featured short gags - usually a single or half page - rather than the normal stories. Here a three examples based around diving. The first one is drawn by Dan DeCarlo but I'm not sure who drew the others (possibly Bob Bolling).

Issue 92, 1965.



Issue 102, 1966.



Issue 130, 1968.




Sunday 18 September 2016

The Sculpted Art of Diving

A big Thank You to Chris for sending me the pictures featured below.

Today we're featuring a resin model kit, sculpted by Jeff Yeagher for Monsters in Motion. The kit is called Devonian Encounter and features the Creature from the Black Lagoon. According to the website the female figure is Julia Adams (who appeared in various films as Julie, Julia and Betty (her real name) Adams) who played Kay Lawrence in the film.