The Christmas DIANA (1965)

It's back to 1965 again for the third in our festive flashbacks. This time we're looking at a copy of Diana, No.149, dated 25th December 1965, published on the 18th December of that year.

Diana was a high quality tabloid sized girls' comic published by D.C. Thomson and was very successful. (I remember girls at my junior school reading it.) A slick 24 page glossy comic with 16 of its pages in full colour at a time when most comics were on newsprint with black and white interiors. 

I chose this issue for my Christmas comics selection because of its superb cover painting. Does anyone know who the artist is? 

Unfortunately, the stories inside the comic don't have a Christmas theme, but they do feature excellent artwork. Here's the penultimate episode of sci-fi strip The Pink Peril...

...and a chapter of a serialised adaptation of Ivanhoe...

I don't know who illustrated the strips either, so if any of you can identify them. please let me know in the comments section below.

There were a few festive features in this issue though, such as these activity pages...

Finally, a page that advertises that year's Diana annual and also plugs the Dennis the Menace Book. Curiously, the Dennis book is only marketed at boys, unlike today's Beano which is aimed at both boys and girls. 

Come back again tomorrow for another Christmas comic, and every day until Christmas for more!