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.

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.