The Art of Diving with Dolphins - An Angry Mum!

Back to August 1958 and issue 291 of The Topper we go for another adventure with that plucky diving family, the Dolphins. Once again poor old Sue gets sidelined, this time with a pesky cold. Unlucky Sue!

Art by Bill Holroyd (Click for a larger image).

The Art of Diving in Brass

Before we had scuba gear, underwater work often involved wearing heavy brass helmets that were fed from the surface. Here's a few covers featuring some helmeted heroes!

Ah, where would the Art of Diving be without the old "Diver attacked by Octopus" cover?! This Mr America cover from August 1953 is by Henry Luhrs (1897-1964). As well as being a fine-artist and an illustrator for Cosmopolitan, he also founded the Luhr Boat Company. Here's the printed cover and the original for you to enjoy.

Nowadays people probably associate the name Saga with holidays for older people but it used to be the name of a men's adventure magazine. I don't know the artist of this November '54 cover I'm afraid (Click for larger image).

Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko (b 1927) worked for Charlton Comics before and after his time with Marvel. This Out of this World cover is from 1959 and, once again, I'm presenting the original artwork along with the printed cover (Click for a larger image on the original).

The Art of Diving for Younger Readers

Harold Hare appeared in a number of comics and from 1959 - 64 was the star of Harold Hare's Own Paper (later just Harold Hare) a nursery title aimed at younger readers. The strip below is from the final issue before it was merged with the long-running Playhour.

Gulliver Guinea-Pig seems to have been a popular character, with spin-off books and a board game featuring him, and later appeared in full colour in Playhour. Gordon Hutchings and Phil Mendoza were two of the artists to work on Gulliver but I'm afraid I'm not sure who drew the strip featured here (Click for larger images).

You can find out more about Gulliver Guinea-Pig at the excellent *Kazoop !! blog.