Wednesday 29 August 2018

The Familiar Art of Diving - Dan DeCarlo

I mentioned Dan DeCarlo in my last blog and realised it's far too long since I featured some of his work. Here's a 1973 cover that was then redrawn in 1983. This recycling of gags was common practice at Archie Comics. (Click on Everything's Archie for a larger image).





Friday 17 August 2018

The Mad Art of Diving - Dave Berg

Artist Dave Berg (1920-2002) began his long association with Mad magazine in 1957. This look at skin diving is from 1959 (Click for larger images):






1961 saw the start of his most famous creation, "The Lighter Side of...", which he wrote and drew for the next forty years. The feature was retired following his death but a final set of jokes he had written were published as a tribute, illustrated by 18 other artists. The gags below come from "The Lighter Side of Water Sports" published in 1964.





Although mostly associated with Mad, Berg had worked for many other publishers in his early career, including time spent in Will Eisner's studio and working with Stan Lee at Timely Comics. Additionally, like Art of Diving favourite Dan DeCarlo, he was also known for his pin-up cartoons in the Humorama range of magazines.


Thursday 9 August 2018

The Art of Wall Diving - More Fire Extinguishers

Way back in 2015 I posted some pictures of artwork based around wall-mounted fire extinguishers. Arriving at Jakarta Airport yesterday I was delighted to find three more examples which I'll share here:






Tuesday 7 August 2018

The Familiar Art of Diving

This illustration by A. Fedin from the Golden Treasury of Knowledge (1960) was also used on a French magazine cover as shown in an earlier blog entry. (Click for larger image).



I recently discovered that it was later copied by another artist and, slightly modified, used on the cover of what I believe is a stamp album. The artist has also thrown in the good old SP-350 "Denise" aka Cousteau's "Diving Saucer".




Monday 6 August 2018

The Timely Art of Diving

Work has been keeping me very busy lately so I haven't had a chance to work on the blog. Today I finally had some time on my hands(!) so here's a quick look at a couple of watch advertisements.

For some reason, Universal-Genève decided not to show the actual watch in this ad! The artist obviously had some knowledge of dive gear as he's drawn the exhaust bubbles coming from the right place.




This Aquamax ad features a typically happy cartoon diver but the artist doesn't seem quite as knowledgeable about how scuba equipment actually works!



And here's a display stand for the Timex Skindiver watch which features a nice piece of artwork. Unfortunately I couldn't find a bigger picture of it.