The Inaccurate Art of Diving - Hook Jaw

 The mid-1970s were a time of change for British comics. The contents began to reflect the trends seen in  films and TV. Writers Pat Mills and John Wagner, who would go on to create 2000 AD, were brought in by publishers IPC to help with the new direction, with the results being seen in the long-running Valiant and the new Battle Picture Weekly. Mills was then involved in the creation of  Action, a controversial comic dubbed the "Sevenpenny Nightmare" by the press. The violent nature of many of the strips would eventually lead to publication being suspended before the comic returned in a watered-down form.

Gracing the colour centre pages of Action was the Jaws-inspired Hook Jaw, written by Ken Armstrong and drawn by Ramon Sola. The colour allowed them to include plenty of blood and they did! I'm not sure what research Ken Armstrong did but his knowledge of diving left a lot to be desired. In the very first issue, the following sequence took place:

(Click for larger images)

Rapid ascents can, of course, be very dangerous for divers. In addition to decompression sickness caused by nitrogen bubbles, barotrauma such as lung over-expansion injuries can be caused by rapidly expanding air. However, no diver has ever exploded in the way depicted in the strip! To make matters worse, the incident is then blamed on nitrogen narcosis, which, while it does exist, is a completely different problem from decompression sickness. Cousteau called nitrogen narcosis "the rapture of the deep" and said, "I love it and I fear it!" American technical divers used to call it "the Martini effect" - every 50 ft of depth was like drinking another Martini! Once you start going deeper than 30m (the recommended limit for recreational divers, with 40m being the absolute limit), nitrogen can began to have a narcotic effect which can lead to impaired judgement. Ascending to a shallower depth will generally deal with it quite quickly. 

Poor old Bannion was only the first of many divers to come to a gruesome end in Hook Jaw, but most of them were just bitten in half or eaten! There was at least one other erroneous mention of nitrogen narcosis though:

Judging by this next sequence, Armstrong's research into great whites wasn't particularly thorough either.

Newborn great whites are actually about 4-5 ft long with their main diet consisting of small fish, rays and squid. Ken certainly had a lively imagination though!

Look out for another Hook Jaw post coming soon.

And Thereby Hangs a Tail...

 Today I'm pleased to bring you three mermaid-themed images.

In the years I've been doing this blog I've featured many wonderful pieces of artwork but this first image is right up there among my favourites. It comes courtesy of Leif  Peng of the Today's Inspiration Facebook group and he has posted a number of other great covers from News and Views magazine. A motor industry magazine, it was published by GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation, GM's finance division) and MIC (Motors Insurance Corporation). I hope you enjoy this beautiful cover as much as I do!

Sadly, the artist remains unknown at the moment.

I do wonder how exactly the diver's regulator is attached to that cylinder but it in no way detracts from my enjoyment of the piece!

The second piece is a 1960s aftershave ad. It's signed but I can't decipher the signature. Anyone got any ideas?

The final piece comes from 1959 and was drawn by Ogden Whitney.

The cover illustration is somewhat misleading (a similar scene does appear), and the story doesn't really feature much diving, but you can read it here if you wish. Superman fans might notice some similarities to the first appearance of Lori Lemaris which had been published six months earlier.

Ogden Whitney (1919-1975) began his comics career in 1939 at National Allied Publication, one of the companies that later became DC Comics. He then worked on Skyman and Rocky Ryan for Columbia Comics and was called up to the army in 1943. In 1946, Big Shot #67 heralded his return from the army but it appears he had been able to produce work while he was serving. Towards the end of the decade he drew crime stories for Magazine Enterprises.

From 1950 - 1965 he primarily worked for American Comics Group but also did work for Marvel predecessor Atlas Comics. AGC's Forbidden Worlds #73 saw the first appearance of the character with whom he is best associated, Herbie. Also known as The Fat Fury, Herbie later graduated to his own title and Whitney drew all 23 issues.

ACG ceased publishing in 1967 and he proceeded to work on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for Tower and The Two-Gun Kid and Millie the Model for Marvel.

Divers Down! Adventure Under Hawaiian Seas

 Divers Down! by Hal Gordon was published by Whitman as part of their juvenile fiction range in 1971.

The book contains the following notice:

This story takes place at Makapuu Oceanic Center, fifteen miles from Honolulu, Hawaii. It is a real place - the home of Sea Life Park, the Oceanic Institute, Makai Undersea Range, and the Oceanic Foundation, as described in the story. All place names are real, as are the Makapuu ships Westward and Holokai. Mr. Taylor A. Pryor, known as "Tap" Pryor, is a real person. The characters, while typical in many ways of the young people employed during summers at the Center, are entirely fictional, as are persons other than Tap Pryor. If any of the characters in the story resemble real persons, the resemblance is coincidental. The story, too, is fictional, even though the background is real.

Founded in 1960, Makapuu Oceanic Center became the Oceanic Institute in 1972 and still exists today. In 2003 it became an affiliate of Hawaii Pacific university with a formal merger occurring in 2013.

The illustrations are credited to James Temple which I assume includes the cover artwork.

Debbie Does Diving

 Earlier this year I featured some artwork from the final Judy annual, Judy For Girls 1993. Today I'm presenting a story from 1968's edition.

Deep-Sea Debbie got the annual off to a fine start with beautiful colour art from British comics legend Ian Kennedy. The depiction of diving in the story indicates that both Kennedy and the writer had done their research. 

The octopus encounter is a little cliched perhaps, but I enjoyed the use of buddy-breathing.

Ian Kennedy (1932-2022) was born in Dundee and at 17 he joined local publishers DC Thomson as an apprentice illustrator, having already received some training from Thomson employee and family friend David Ogilvie. In 1954 he went freelance and worked for Collins and the Amalgamated Press (later Fleetway/IPC) as well as DCT. Although his earliest AP work included westerns, he soon found himself producing stories based on war and aviation, the fields for which he is best known. He worked for their picture libraries such as War and Air Ace but is probably most associated with DC Thomson's Commando series. He produce over 1600 covers in addition to his interior work and continued to do covers even after his retirement in 1997.

He also worked for girls' comics such as Bunty and Judy and later produced some notable science-fiction work for the likes of 2000AD, Starlord, Blake's 7 and the 80s revival of Eagle where he worked on Dan Dare. For more information check out the following links:

Obituary

Lambiek Comiclopedia

The Art of Ian Kennedy

The Incorporated Art of Diving.

 Just a quick one today - the cover and some interior illustrations from Scuba Diving Adventure, a children's book published in the United States in 1975. The book credits Roger Herrington with designing the cover, while the illustrations were provided by Product Illustration, Inc. Now this sounds like some busy, bustling studio providing artwork on demand wherever it was needed, but could just have easily been a couple of blokes in an office! We may never know.

Ο ΚΟΣΜΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΥΘΟΥ (The World of the Seabed)

I was delighted to find another set of transfers on eBay, this time originating in Greece. It's a nice size - the background measures 52cm x 20cm - and I really like the bold, colourful artwork. No scuba-divers but it's such a nice package I really don't mind.

I'll update this post when I've had time to virtually rub down the transfers!

*Updated! 16/8/25*

(Click for larger images)

The Art of Diving for Girls

 Judy was a long-running (1960-1991) girls' comic from D.C. Thomson that ended when it was merged with its sister title Mandy. The final annual, Judy For Girls 1993 was published in 1992. The endpapers featured three girls snorkelling and then enjoying their treasure with the friendly marine life so I thought I'd share them here (apologies for the gap in the artwork which is a result of the binding). If anyone knows the identity of the artist, please let me know.