GULLIVER GUINEA PIG IN HAROLD HARE COMIC

As a follow-up to his article about the origins of Gulliver Guinea-Pig, John referred me to a blogpost about another appearance of the little traveler outside of his home-paper (Playhour). It turns out that Gulliver made a guest appearance in Harold Hare comic immediately prior to its merger with Playhour in April 1964. Apparently, the intention of the editorial team was to entice the readers of Harold Hare to start following Gulliver’s adventures in the new combined paper.

What’s curious about the episode (apart from the fact that it was printed in another comic) is that it looks like it was illustrated by Mendoza who had stopped drawing the feature for Playhour 4 years ago. The episode is unsigned - not very typical of Mendoza, but I am positive it is by Gulliver’s original artist. The style and even the theme (lost treasure, etc.) are quite similar to those of one of the last Playhour stories by Mendoza. I have shown it below for you to compare.

I wonder if it was an unused episode that Mendoza drew back in 1960, or perhaps it was printed in a Playhour annual (I don’t have copies to check, but the size of the panels suggests it may very well have been the case)? If you have the last issues of Harold Hare, I’d appreciate if you could check how many featured Gulliver.

These scans of the episode from Harold Hare comic are from the issue cover-dated 4 April, 1964 (the last one before merger with Playhour), I borrowed them from http://www.artofdiving.co.uk – a brilliant blog owned by someone who runs it combining his two hobbies – scuba diving and comics/illustration. 

And here are the pages from Playhour issues cover dated 17 and 24 December, 1960; the Harold Hare story and the one below have certain similarities, don't you think?