Bob Hope Meets the Mermaids - Comics by Owen Fitzgerald - High-Resolution Comic Book Scans

The Adventures of Bob Hope 20 mermaids underwater

Cartoonist Owen Fitzgerald drew a whole run of great Bob Hope comics in the early 1950's. In issue #20 from April/May of 1953, Bob takes an undersea adventure where he finds all kinds of buried treasure!

Bob Hope Mermaids drawn by Owen Fitzgerald

It all starts when Bob Hope's landlady is hassling him for the rent...

Landlady yells at Bob Hope When are you going to pay your rent?

Bob gets a brilliant idea to raise money by looking for rare coins at the bottom of the sea.

pier docks comic cats diving equipmenr for rent sale

So he rents some diving equipment---

Bob Hope tries on a diving suit

-- and goes to the ocean floor looking for treasure.

diving suit Mermaids and treasure chest ocean floor

Much to his surprise, he encounters a beautiful mermaid!

bob-hope- mermaid diving suit

cute girl slips out of her mermaid suit

Hey you're not a fish!

In fact, there's a whole lot of cute dolls down there!

Bob Hope gawks at the cute mermaids

Subtlety is not Bob's strong suit.

Mermaid queen and cute undersea girls

Bob Hope begs like a dog in front of the cute mermaid queen

do not allow the stranget to enter door 27

bob-hope- opens box 27 discovers 1912 Coolidge nickels

Wow! Look at all the 1912 Coolidge Nickels!

Bob Hope closes the chest full of 1912 Coolidge Nickels

Bob Hope stands in front of the forbidden room 27

What's behind door 27?

I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll let you find out for yourself below. Click on any of the thumbnails below for a nice BIG high-resolution comic book scan. If you'd rather download the whole comic book as ONE .PDF file, click HERE. It's a big file (over 17 Megabytes), but it's worth it!

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Click on any of the thumbnails for a nice BIG high-resolution comic book scan.

bob-hope-20-07 bob-hope-20-11 bob-hope-20-12

bob-hope-20-14 bob-hope-20-15 bob-hope-20-16

bob-hope-20-17 bob-hope-20-18 bob-hope-20-19

Click on any of the thumbnails for a nice BIG high-resolution comic book scan.

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bob-hope-20-27 bob-hope-20-28 bob-hope-20-29

bob-hope-20-30 bob-hope-20-31 bob-hope-20-32

Here's a GREAT article on
Owen Fitzgerald by John K

More about Bob Hope Comics here

Read about cartoonist Owen Fitzgerald HERE.

7 comments:

  1. Vincent WallerMay 19, 2008 at 9:10 AM

    That Owen Fitzgerald sure could draw.
    I meet him at DIC. Kent Butterworth had him doing freelance boards on What A Mess.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 20, 2008 at 8:23 PM

    Sherm,..this is wonderful! The colors on the cover take me back to a feeling of "Old Florida 50's Design" with pinks, sea greens and blues. I just love the colors and the art is wonderful!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eddie FitzgeraldMay 20, 2008 at 9:24 PM

    Owen makes it look so easy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 27, 2008 at 11:45 AM

    Wow! Just disccovered your blog and can't believe the time, effort and generosity you showcase in sharing all of this fantastic material with us peons.

    I'll be back regulalry to get educated and inspired.

    ReplyDelete
  5. David LymanJune 3, 2008 at 8:45 AM

    Coolidge!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Amir AvniJune 3, 2008 at 8:49 AM

    Great stuff Sherm!

    I was wondering if you can post some of the notes made about storyboarding while watching Clampett's "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" at the Archive

    They were very insightful, good theories.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mike MiloJune 7, 2008 at 11:05 AM

    Beautiful artwork! If only they still did comics like this. Of course I'm not sure if a Lindsey Lohan comic would be so innocent. The art is so fluid and they even use thick and thin inking. Amazing! Thank you very much for letting go back in time to see this and for taking the time to scan it all!

    ReplyDelete