Plot:
Princess Valentina of Japota is a brilliant high-diver. Ivy Graham, a sports mistress, brings her to a British school to train her to be a champion. But enemies of Valentina’s mother start causing trouble in order to undermine relations between Britain and Japota.
(click on thumbnail for bigger picture)
Notes:
- Artist: Stanley Houghton?
- Translated into Dutch: Debbie Parade Album #21
Appeared:
- Her Highness of the High-Board – Debbie: #70 (15 June 1974) – #92 (16 November 1974)
- Reprinted – Debbie: #465 (9 January 1982) – #487 (12 June 1982)
Published in Dutch in Debbie Parade Album #21:
https://www.comics.org/issue/1943613/
Any details on writer or artists would be appreciated!
Regards,
Ramon
Difficult to tell from the very small picture, but I thought the artist might perhaps be Stanley Houghton.
Hello Goof,
Thank you for chiming in.
I am not familiar with the artist, but googling for images, the styles seem similar, especially the eyes.
How sure/unsure are you? I could add the name with a question mark.
Regards,
Ramon
Looking at the picture again, and comparing it with some other work he did for DC Thomson around this time, I think I can be about 70% sure. His treatment of the eyes is very distinctive, as you say, also the way that he shapes the heads. I think you could add his name with a question mark.
Thank you, Goof. I will do just that.
Regards,
Ramon
Thanks for the extra information Ramon and Goof. I’ve added bigger picture, to help with the artist identification.
‘Her Highness Of The High-Board’ ended in DEBBIE 92 (November 16 1974).
Thanks for the picture, Lorrsadmin. Personally, I’m still not certain. The faces in the new picture seem less characteristic, and the one on the left actually has a slight look of Guy Peeters. Here’s a picture by Houghton from around the same time as a comparison – from Judy PSL 193, another high-dive story called Hayley of the High Board. (I hope the link works.)
http://i64.tinypic.com/a2wtjk.jpg
As far as I can tell, I still think the first picture looks like Houghton’s work. Any chance of a larger version of this picture, or if not a third picture?
There’s a bit of similarity with Ivy character, the Val character is not British so may explain the difference. I added another image but I’m not sure if it is the same artist from the pic you linked to.
Thanks very much for this, Lorrsadmin. Looking at the new picture, I would say that the story was definitely drawn by Stanley Houghton. I think you’re right that Val looks rather uncharacteristic because he was trying to make her look foreign.
I think the Judy PSL which I linked is also by him. The story uses a number of close-ups like this one which show a higher degree of finish than usual, especially about the eyes, and look a little different for that reason. Other panels in the story are sketchier in style, and are far more like the panels from the Debbie story.