The Expensive Art of Diving

 The Art of Diving. A blog barely alive...

Sorry!

The Six Million Dollar Man was one of a number of popular US TV shows that featured in strip form in the popular weekly magazine Look-in, the Junior TV Times. It was written by Look-in stalwart Angus Allan and was graced with dynamic artwork from Martin Asbury. In December 1976, a story began that would feature our bionic hero in some scuba-diving action.

When a top-secret reconnaissance plane crashes in neutral waters of the North Pacific, Steve Austin is assigned to retrieve some equipment that it was carrying. He is flown to the crash site and is dropped into the waters in a one-man submarine. The second instalment ends with Steve approaching the crashed plane...

Captured by the Chinese, Steve pretends to defect. Tricking them into administering a tranquiliser injection into his bionic arm, Steve is able to escape in a life-raft with the secret equipment. Due to pre-existing tensions between Steve and his boss, Oscar Goldman, the US believe he has really defected and send a sub to sink the Chinese ship. Steve manages to avert the destruction of the Chinese ship and is rescued but, in the process...

After studying at St. Martin's School of Art, Martin Asbury began working as an assistant to Dan Barry on the Flash Gordon daily strip. He spent some time designing greetings cards before working for various British comics including Bunty, The Hotspur, TV21 & Joe 90 (Forward From the Back Streets), TV Comic (Doctor Who) and Countdown/TV Action (Captain Scarlet/Cannon). In addition to the adventures of Steve Austin, he also drew a number of other strips for Look-in: Kung Fu, DickTurpin, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and The Story of Elvis.

In 1976, following the death of Frank Bellamy, he took over Garth in the Daily Mirror. He continued to draw, and later write, the strip until it finished in 1997. In 1984 he also began working as a storyboard artist for the film industry, working on Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. His list of credits is extensive and includes every James Bond film from Goldeneye to No Time to Die (with the exception of Spectre).

You can see a list of Martin's credits and artwork available for purchase at his website. Check out the storyboards for Tomorrow Never Dies for some more underwater action!

The Art of Diving in Brass II

While I tend to concentrate on SCUBA gear from the Aqua Lung onwards, I'm always happy to include artwork featuring the classic, brass-helmeted divers of the 19th and early 20th century.

Click for larger images.

This 1954 edition of  Down to the Ships in the Sea (love that title!) has a credit for Robert Crowther as the designer. I haven't been able to find out anything about him or whether he was the actual artist on the cover. I really like the simple colour palette used and find the whole cover simple but eye-catching.

1937. L'Empereur des Scaphandriers (The Emperor of Divers). We're used to seeing divers fighting off sharks and octopuses so this cover is a nice variation on that theme.

Maurice d'Escrignelles was a pseudonym for prolific science fiction author Maurice Limat. The cover is by cartoonist and illustrator Henri Armengol (1884-1944). He provided illustrations for a number of humorous publications as well as illustrating tarot cards, posters and sheet music. He had a long association with publishers Ferenczi et Fils throughout the 1920s and 30s. Sadly he fell ill in the 1940s and was destitute when he died aged just 60 years old.

This next piece is from the Eagle Annual for 1967 (published 1966). This one's got a giant squid and a shark!

What do you think? Did it ever happen? You can find the answer at the bottom of this post.

Books like this next one were a common sight during the first half of the 20th century, full of exciting tales for their young readers.

The cover was painted by Geoffrey Eyles (1906-1965). The son of Suffolk artist Charles Eyles, he grew up and remained in Hertfordshire. His work included the Round the World series for the University Press as well as covers such as this one for Frederick Warne and Co. Another of Charles' sons, Derek Charles, was also an illustrator, providing cover paintings and illustrations for boys' annuals like his brother, and later working on comic strips for the Amalgamated Press.

The Beezer 1956.

Cartoon by Tom Bannister (1923-?). Born in Lancashire, he studied at Norwich Art School from 1946-48, following his service in World War 2. In 1952 he entered an art competition for D.C. Thomson and, although he didn't win, they kept his name on file. As 1955 drew to a close, he was asked to draw Pop, Dick and Harry for their new weekly comic, The Beezer, which began publication in January 1956. The strip was popular enough to usurp original cover star Ginger from issue 34 onwards. The trio held this coveted spot for five years before moving to the back page.

From 1958 he also drew Colonel Blink -  the Short-Sighted Gink. Both strips often showcased his talents at drawing physical comedy and he also enjoyed employing the "dropped horizon" favoured by his favourite fellow artist, David (Dennis the Menace) Law. In 1960 he began working for The Beezer's sister paper, The Topper, initially drawing the misadventures of the inept Mexican bandit Figaro. This was followed by Desert Island Dick in 1964, and Tiny - the World's Biggest Dog in 1968. At this point he was drawing five strips every week for the tabloid-sized comics, with four of the being full pages (Desert Island Dick was a third of a page). 

His later work included Nero and Zero for Buzz and Al Change for the Topper. After 25 years on the strip he drew his final Pop, Dick and Harry in 1981 when the Beezer was reduced in size. Various factors reduced his workload until his final Colonel Blink strip appeared in 1987, by which point he was approaching retirement. (Information taken from a 1988 article by comics historian Ray Moore)

At the time of writing this I've been unable to ascertain whether or not Tom is still with us.

1954. Oh look, it's a pesky giant octopus! Artist unknown I'm afraid.

Finally, here's the answer to that Eagle strip. Did you get it right?

Kalkitos - Undersea World (O Mundo Submarino)

 We're back, with some more rub-down fun!

I recently acquired this Portuguese version of the Kalkitos Undersea World set. I've previously mentioned that you can see one iteration of this set on the excellent  Action Transfers  site, but I've now got the larger version that comes with a bigger background and more transfers.

(Click for larger images.)

As before, I've rubbed down the transfers virtually so I can leave the set intact.

The Humorous Art of Diving - Bonus Boltinoff!

 When I posted the third of my three selections of Henry Boltinoff''s humour strips from the 1960s, I thought I'd included all those that featured diving. Well, as Sean Connery might have said, "Never say never again!" Here are two more Homer strips that I found lurking in a couple of Sea Devils comics.

The Elderly Art of Diving

Miss Lavinia Pickerell, Ellen MacGregor's unlikely heroine, first appeared in the short story Swept Her Into Space, published in 1950. The following year, MacGregor expanded it into Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars and launched(!) a new series. Her aim was to write fantasy stories that contained accurate scientific information and would appeal to children. She completed fours books about Miss Pickerell, the last of which was published posthumously in 1954. MacGregor left behind lots notes and ideas for further books and the series was continued by Dora Pantell.

Miss Pickerell Goes Undersea was the third book in the series. All four of the original series were illustrated by Paul Galdone (1907-1986).

Here's the original cover:

This paperback edition was first published in 1961 but this copy dates from 1973.

This rather battered copy dates from 19767.

Here are some of Galdone's interior illustrations:

Paul Galdone was born in Budapest but moved to the USA in 1921 where he studied at the Art Student's League and New York School for Industrial Design. He served in the United States Army during World War 2. He was an author as well as an artist and wrote many of the almost 300 books that he illustrated. Fables and fairy tales were popular subjects and he illustrated the adventures of Eve Titus' mouse heroes, Anatole and Basil of Baker Street. 10 years after his death he was awarded the 1996 Kerlan Award for his contributions to children's literature.

This French edition dates from 1974...

and finally, this one dates from 1981:

The Marvellous Art of Diving

Today we have two covers from Pierre Labat's Le Merveilleux Royaume (The Marvellous Kingdom). 

 

Labat had earlier served in the French army during World War II, earning the Croix de Guerre for acts of bravery. He also worked with Cousteau who wrote the following about him: "Labat is one of those men who have to fulfill the most beautiful mission: that of dazzling youth by leading them to conquer the splendours of Nature, to reveal to them the deep joys of effort." His death occurred while diving the wreck of the Arroyo near Toulon. He was just 29 years old.

The French cover is by Pierre Joubert (1910-2002) who also had a long association with the scouts. You can read a bit more about him here.

The cover to the English edition was painted by Desmond Knight. Unfortunately, apart from a few more credits, I haven't been able to find out anything about him.

The Art of Diving with Dolphins - Turtle Trouble

 Dicky Dolphin's time in The Topper was long gone by the mid-seventies, but in 1976 the comic featured a fortnightly series of "Golden Oldies" and one of the strips selected was from Lucky Dicky Dolphin, the first series of Dicky's adventures. Thanks to Ray Moore's excellent Topper Tales - A Complete Index to The Topper Comic, I now know that Dicky was an orphan who was nicknamed "Lucky" by his chums because he was so unlucky. Eventually he manages to run away from the orphanage and is befriended by Skipper Dolphin and his daughter Sue who just happen to share his surname. Well that was lucky!

I can't say I approve of Dicky's turtle-trapping activities but the 1950s also saw Cousteau happily using dynamite to obtain fish specimens so I guess it could have been worse!

Art by George Ramsbottom (Click for a larger image).