Just a quick one today as The Art of Diving goes back to its roots with a Mike Western Valiant cover. The Daredevils was the last of the comic's long line of cover features which had included the likes of It Could Happen, Is It True? and Who Is It?
Updated to add some extra Mike Western goodness with this back cover from the 1975 Valiant Summer Special.
Here are three more covers for The Frogmen.
This 1950s edition is signed "Dix" but I haven't been able to find out anything about them.
Here's a selection of covers from The Boy's Own Paper to finish off the year. (Click for larger images).
1951. Art by Robert Hodgson.
Robert Hodgson's design sketch for this issue was up for sale in 2021.
There doesn't seem to be a wealth of information available about Robert Hodgson but Steve Holland has some over on his Bear Alley Blog. Scroll down to see comments from his grandson and others who knew him.
1955. Art by George Bowe.
The "Underwater Thrills" mentioned on the cover refers to an article on the making of Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Despite there being nothing about it in the magazine, the artwork looks to me like it's illustrating the incident where Jacques Cousteau fought off a shark with his camera, something which has appeared numerous times on this blog.
George Bowe is another mystery man but, again, Steve Holland has some information. Other publications he worked for include Eagle, Lion and Boy's World.
1963.
I don't know the artist for this last cover but, like many others on this blog, he seems to not really understand how regulators work. This diver's hose appears to be connected directly to the manifold, without a regulator to reduce the pressure. Good luck with that!
The Boy's Own Paper was first published in 1879. It was originated by the Religious Tracts Society and later taken over by the Lutterworth Press, Purnell and Sons Ltd, and BPC Publishing Ltd. Originally published weekly, it became a monthly in 1913 and finally ceased publication in 1967.
Look-in, the "Junior TV Times", was a children's magazine that ran from 1971-1994. In addition to interviews, features and competitions, comic strips based on popular TV shows were an important part of its success. For the first two years of publication, the strip that greeted readers each issue was Crowther in Trouble. Instead of being based on a specific TV show, it featured popular TV presenter/actor/comedian Leslie Crowther and his accident-prone adventures, often featuring his real-life wife Jean and their children. Crowther had spent most of the sixties in the children's variety show Crackerjack and so was a popular face with younger viewers as well as adults. Going into the seventies he featured in The Leslie Crowther Show, followed by the sitcom My Good Woman.
During 1972, several issues of the Look-in strip featured the Crowthers on holiday in Spain. I recently acquired the original artwork for issues 15, 16 and 17 (Look-in reset the numbering each year). My motive for buying them was the strip for issue 17 which is presented here. (Click for a larger image).
The art is by Tom Kerr whose worked graced many publications. He was equally adept at adventure or humour strips and his style was easily recognisable in both. Fleetway/IPC sometimes used him as a fill-in artist and he was able to evoke the look of the regular artists while still retaining his own style. I have fond memories of Kit Carter's Clarks Commandos, an advertising strip that he drew from 1969-1972. A new story would appear every few months and would be published in multiple titles at the same time. Unfortunately, not a lot is known about Kerr but you can read a bit more about him here.
Finally, here's a look at the strip as published:
Today I'm bringing you two covers from Practical Mechanics, both of which were for articles on making your own underwater equipment. Unfortunately they didn't credit their artists so I don't know who painted these.
The first issue, from January 1955, gives details on how to make an aqualung. I wonder how many people successfully managed it?
I'm afraid I don't have a copy of the first issue so if you want to make your own aqualung you'll have to look elsewhere. I do have a copy of the second though and you can see how to make your own camera housing here.
Following on from my recent post featuring one of their catalogues, here's a few Nemrod odds and ends.
First published in February 1966 by Odham's Press, Smash! was a sister paper to Wham! and became part of the "Power Comics" line which featured reprints of various Marvel Comics characters. Odham's had been acquired by Fleetway Publications (formerly the Amalgamated Press) in 1961 and in 1963 became a subsidiary of the newly formed International Publishing Company (IPC). In 1969 IPC revamped their comics line and Smash! was relaunched as a more traditional boys' paper in the same vein as the likes of Valiant and Lion.
One of the strips created for the new Smash! was His Sporting Lordship drawn by Doug Maxted (1914-1999). Labourer Henry Nobbins was the heir to the title of the Earl of Ranworth but before he could inherit the family fortune he had to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors and become a champion sportsman. If he failed the family home, Castle Plonkton, would be sold to Mr. Parkinson who wanted to turn it into a glue factory. One of Henry's tasks was to swim the English Channel and, in this sequence, Parkinson attempts to stop him with the aid of his henchman Fred Bloggs.
Douglas Francis Maxted was born in London in 1914. Aged 11 he emigrated to Australia with his family. He began drawing comics in the 1940s and had his own publishing company for a time. In 1962 he returned to the UK and began drawing for various IPC comics. Most of the strips he drew had a humorous, sporting theme and included Legge's Eleven and Yellowknife of the Yard for Valiant and Nutty Slack and the Sludgemouth Sloggers in Buster. in 1983 he returned to Australia where he painted as a hobby in his retirement.
