There's not a lot I can say about the subject of today's entry I'm afraid. This cloth from the 1950s was recently for sale online but that's all I know about it!
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Sunday, 17 April 2016
Two of a Kind - That Riviera Touch
"Two of a Kind" posts have been a regular feature of this blog but today that title is particularly fitting as it concerns much-loved British comedians Morecambe and Wise who appeared in a series of that name for ITV from 1961-1968. During the same period they made three feature films, the second of which was That Riviera Touch (1966). There were no underwater sequences in the film but Eric Morecambe and co-star Suzanne Lloyd were both seen in scuba gear and this featured in the poster artwork.
This British quad poster was painted by Italian artist Arnaldo Putzu (1927-2012) who produced artwork for numerous Italian and British films. His work included the Carry On series, Get Carter and Hammer films such as Creatures the World Forgot and The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. He is known to a generation of young readers as the cover artist of Look-in (the junior TV Times) from 1973-1981. (Click for a larger image).
Interestingly, the Putzu poster is completely different to the other artwork produced for the film which featured Eric in his scuba gear. This one-sheet (artist unknown) is one of a number of variations produced of this design.
Below, as a bonus, you can see the cover of the press brochure and a couple of the print ads that cinema managers could place in their local papers when they were running the film. These brochures would be sent out for all films and showed what posters, stills and other publicity materials were available. This was in the days when most cinemas had a single screen and had space to display FOH stills (Front of House, also known as Lobby Cards) in addition to the poster.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Three of a Kind - SP-350 "Denise"
Built in 1959, SP-350, also known as Denise, was Jacques Cousteau's "diving saucer" (Soucoupe Plongeante). Here are three illustrations of the two-man submarine.
The 1967 Eagle Annual carried a four-page feature on Cousteau's film, World Without Sun (Le Monde Sans Soleil) which featured the saucer in action. (You can view the article here).
This 1979 Russian postcard by Petr Pavlinov was one of a set of 32 featuring geographical discoveries.
World of Wonder was one of a number of educational magazines aimed at children that followed in the footsteps of Look and Learn.
The 1967 Eagle Annual carried a four-page feature on Cousteau's film, World Without Sun (Le Monde Sans Soleil) which featured the saucer in action. (You can view the article here).
This 1979 Russian postcard by Petr Pavlinov was one of a set of 32 featuring geographical discoveries.
World of Wonder was one of a number of educational magazines aimed at children that followed in the footsteps of Look and Learn.
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
The Art of Diving with Dolphins - Flipper - The Final Test
The Final Test was the lead story in the first issue of Gold Key's Flipper comic. Art by Dan Spiegle (Click for larger images).
The two scientists want to test Flipper to see if dolphins could act as messengers for divers working underwater. Unfortunately, Flipper loses the first message he's given due to another playful dolphin. Later, Bud and Flipper go to warn Glenn and Fuller of an approaching storm.
Flipper returns home and Ricks and Sandy equip him with the extra oxygen (sic) tanks.
Another happy ending thanks to Flipper!
The two scientists want to test Flipper to see if dolphins could act as messengers for divers working underwater. Unfortunately, Flipper loses the first message he's given due to another playful dolphin. Later, Bud and Flipper go to warn Glenn and Fuller of an approaching storm.
Flipper returns home and Ricks and Sandy equip him with the extra oxygen (sic) tanks.
Another happy ending thanks to Flipper!
Monday, 21 March 2016
The Art of Diving with Dolphins
Apologies to any fans of Dicky Dolphin and his family but this post features actual dolphins and not those plucky divers from the Topper!
I've just returned from a fabulous week of diving in the Red Sea with SMG Scuba and we were extremely lucky to be joined by dolphins on two of our dives. I've been waiting for this for years and I thought I'd mark the occasion here. Before we get to the artwork, I'd like to share some video footage I shot on the last dive of the trip:
This first example doesn't actually feature divers but regulars will know that I can never resist the chance to show one of Mike Western's wonderful Valiant covers! And no, this one isn't true! (Click for a larger image)
In 1966, D.C.Thomson's Diana featured a story called the The Golden Dolphin. Here's the first instalment (artist unknown I'm afraid):
A few years back, DC published a new comic starring Will Eisner's The Spirit. Issue 20 saw The Spirit investigating the murder of a dolphin trainer at the local aquarium.
Discovering that terrorists are using the dolphins to recover dirty bomb components from the sea bed, our hero finds himself in trouble:
Artist Paul Smith (b.1953, inked here by Walden Wong) had no formal art training when he started working for Marvel in the 1980s. He's probably still best remembered for his run on X-Men at a time when that title was rising in popularity. Other notable runs include Marvel's Doctor Strange and Leave it to Chance for Image Comics.
The Dana Girls Mystery Stories were published by The Stratemyer Syndicate to cash in on the success of their Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. Teenagers Jean and Louise Dana were amateur detectives who solved mysteries while attending boarding school. All the books were credited to Carolyn Keene, the same pseudonym used for the Nancy Drew books. In this case the author was Harriet S. Adams. You can read more about the Dana Girls here. Here's a selection of covers for The Secret of the Silver Dolphin:
The most famous fictional dolphin must be Flipper who first appeared in the 1963 film of the same name.
The film spawned a sequel and a TV series that ran for three seasons. The 1990s saw remakes of both the film and the series. Gold Key published three issues of a comic to tie in with the 60s series and I'll feature a story from one of those tomorrow. Lots of other merchandise appeared and here's the artwork from one of a number of jigsaws:
Finally for today, Oum le Dauphin Blanc (Zoom the White Dolphin) was a 1971 French-Japanese amimated series.
Nestlé's Milky Bar is known as Galak in many European markets and, instead of the Milkybar Kid, Oum was used to promote the product until 2004.
I've just returned from a fabulous week of diving in the Red Sea with SMG Scuba and we were extremely lucky to be joined by dolphins on two of our dives. I've been waiting for this for years and I thought I'd mark the occasion here. Before we get to the artwork, I'd like to share some video footage I shot on the last dive of the trip:
This first example doesn't actually feature divers but regulars will know that I can never resist the chance to show one of Mike Western's wonderful Valiant covers! And no, this one isn't true! (Click for a larger image)
In 1966, D.C.Thomson's Diana featured a story called the The Golden Dolphin. Here's the first instalment (artist unknown I'm afraid):
A few years back, DC published a new comic starring Will Eisner's The Spirit. Issue 20 saw The Spirit investigating the murder of a dolphin trainer at the local aquarium.
Discovering that terrorists are using the dolphins to recover dirty bomb components from the sea bed, our hero finds himself in trouble:
Artist Paul Smith (b.1953, inked here by Walden Wong) had no formal art training when he started working for Marvel in the 1980s. He's probably still best remembered for his run on X-Men at a time when that title was rising in popularity. Other notable runs include Marvel's Doctor Strange and Leave it to Chance for Image Comics.
The Dana Girls Mystery Stories were published by The Stratemyer Syndicate to cash in on the success of their Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. Teenagers Jean and Louise Dana were amateur detectives who solved mysteries while attending boarding school. All the books were credited to Carolyn Keene, the same pseudonym used for the Nancy Drew books. In this case the author was Harriet S. Adams. You can read more about the Dana Girls here. Here's a selection of covers for The Secret of the Silver Dolphin:
The most famous fictional dolphin must be Flipper who first appeared in the 1963 film of the same name.
The film spawned a sequel and a TV series that ran for three seasons. The 1990s saw remakes of both the film and the series. Gold Key published three issues of a comic to tie in with the 60s series and I'll feature a story from one of those tomorrow. Lots of other merchandise appeared and here's the artwork from one of a number of jigsaws:
Finally for today, Oum le Dauphin Blanc (Zoom the White Dolphin) was a 1971 French-Japanese amimated series.
Nestlé's Milky Bar is known as Galak in many European markets and, instead of the Milkybar Kid, Oum was used to promote the product until 2004.
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
The Humorous Art of Diving - Shiner
As 1969 drew to a close, publisher IPC's line-up of comics lacked any real rivals to D.C. Thomson's range of humour titles. Whizzer and Chips changed that. At the time the mighty Beano and Dandy were 4d (four pence) each for 16 pages. Instead of competing at the same level, Whizzer and Chips gave readers 32 pages for 6d but with the gimmick that it was two comics in one (16 page Chips sat in the middle of 16 page Whizzer). This proved to be a success and the experiment was later repeated with Shiver and Shake and the football title Score 'n' Roar.
Cover star of Chips was Shiner who was constantly in trouble with his mum for getting a black eye. The strip was drawn by the prolific Mike Lacey (son of adventure strip artist Bill Lacey) who also produced work for Buster, Knockout, Monster Fun, Cor!!, Whoopee!, Jackpot, Shiver and Shake, Wow and Cheeky Weekly.
This example from 1973 has a twist on the usual outcome and features a great cartoon octopus by Lacey. (Click for larger image).
Monday, 22 February 2016
The True, Thrilling Art of Diving
Operation 'Rescue' - True Thrilling Tales of Human Endeavour was a weekly feature in Valiant comic during 1966 and 1967.
The following page from a December '66 edition features an incident mentioned on a couple of covers featured in an earlier Art of Diving. The shark involved was an Oceanic Whitetip but the artist here has just drawn a generic, comic-book shark! (Click for larger image.)
In November 1950, Life magazine published a feature on Cousteau and printed some of the pictures taken by him during the incident. You can see them here (pages 124 & 125).
The following page from a December '66 edition features an incident mentioned on a couple of covers featured in an earlier Art of Diving. The shark involved was an Oceanic Whitetip but the artist here has just drawn a generic, comic-book shark! (Click for larger image.)
In November 1950, Life magazine published a feature on Cousteau and printed some of the pictures taken by him during the incident. You can see them here (pages 124 & 125).
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