Comics UK

I always wondered how the Spanish artists who drew strips for British comics managed to acquire all the visual references they needed for everyday life in the UK - telephone boxes, double-decker buses, policeman, etc. - so it must have come as a welcome relief for Ferran Sostres in 1966 when DC Thomson assigned him to draw a series set in his own country for Diana.

As seen in the first episode shown below 'Elaine in Spain' featured a disabled English girl enjoying the holiday of a lifetime when she befriended the daughter of a rich Andelusian wine grower. This series was typical of a number of educational features that appeared in the central section of Diana during its early years (hence the 'getting to know' label).





- Phil Rushton

I do know how they got visual references. The have different methods, of course. Purita Campos, for examplo, had been a few times there but they used a lot of travel guides (no google earth back then!) and some others (like the ones in Toutain's agency) used their friends and colleagues and the man Toutain himself to bring them photos in their trips.
Resourceful lot!

The scenario itself dates the story. Can we ever imagine allowing a grown man with no CRB check taking a young girl for a tour of a foreign country nowaday? Ah, the past is truly a different country, we did things very differently then.

How I mourn for the loss of our innocence.