From Tina's launch as an 'international' comic in 1967 nearly all the covers had been painted in a very traditional, British style by (I think) Roger Hall. Though beautifully lit and coloured, and not without a certain charm, these looked terribly static and old-fashioned by 1970, as can be seen from this curiously English-seeming Spanish girl who appeared in January 1969:
Given the sudden influx of Spanish cover artists (especially Purita Campos) from about May 1970 it looks as though IPC must have realized they were falling behind the times and turned to one of the Spanish agencies in order to liven up their covers.
Both the covers shown below are from June 1970. While the first is unsigned it is very much in Purita's style, and the unrestrained use of colour and pattern in the paint, wallpaper and clothing - combined with the picture's 'unfinished' edges - give a perfect example of those semi-abstract elements which made her work so appealing. I particularly like the way in which the hand and dribbling brush effortlessly frame the composition in the bottom right hand corner! By contrast the second cover (which does have a 'Campos' signature, even if my scanner couldn't fit most of it in) is slightly more restrained, but it shows how Purita could always add movement to the most traditional image with her background figures.
(By the way Ruth, if you want to re-use any of these scans elsewhere please feel free to do so
)- Phil Rushton
