Saturday, November 27, 2010

Diana: The Fine Line Between Adventure & Romance

This schoolgirl ghost story is drawn in very fine-line art by an artist I can't identify. "Sadly the Olives Grow" is from the Diana annual of 1977. This little adventure takes place on a residential school trip to Spain for this English girl and her class. If this had been an early 60s girls' comic they probably would have gone skiing in Switzerland or the Austrian Alps, but by the 1970s Spain was the popular overseas destination for British vacationers. I have to say the supervision is a little slack, enough for the protagonist to wander off up the hill, using the freedom gained by feigning illness and being left alone in the hotel all day!

This second story, "The Friday Rocking Horse", is a charming tale of two lost souls who finally find their way, by finding each other. It's by the same artist, this time from the 1976 Diana annual. I really like the splash panel on this one. That's the kind of country cottage with a dry stone wall around a beautiful garden that I've always wanted to live in with my wife. Very unlikely to happen, so I'll have to be content with the occasional daydream prompted by pictures like this!

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