Frank Bellamy Checklist Website and Blog: AUCTION: Thunderbirds + Happy Warrior original art

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

AUCTION: Thunderbirds + Happy Warrior original art

Thunderbirds, TV21 #111

Anderson & Garland have an enormous Peter Hansen sale with things to interest loads of people and sure enough Frank Bellamy is represented

THUNDERBIRDS TV21 #111

The above original Thunderbirds artwork sold on eBay for £1,500 back in February 2008. It was faded then and has not worsened and when you zoom in, the linework shows Bellamy's usual excellence. Anderson & Garland describe it as:

Original Thunderbirds artwork by Frank Bellamy for T. V. Century 21
An original artboard by artist Frank Bellamy for the Thunderbirds series 9, published in TV Century 21 Comic No. 111, pages 10 and 11 double spread, coloured inks on artboard signed by the artist, 50 x 70cms unframed.

Whoever wins this, I'd love for them to talk to me about the substituted heads I discovered when comparing the published art to what Bellamy photographed before delivering the artwork.

Here are the other images Anderson & Garland shared

"HAPPY WARRIOR" EAGLE 2 MAY 1958

Eagle 2 May 1958 (Vol.9 No.18) original art

The last time any pages came to auction from the Churchill strip "The Happy Warrior", (August 2022), Comic Book Auctions Ltd got £2,450 for the page from Eagle 22 November 1957 Vol.8 No.47. This one is the sort of thing I love from Bellamy - but be assured I won't be bidding. The hand reaching from the swastika over the island of Crete! Beautifully graphic and a technique he repeats for the Radio Times.

Graphic devices were a speciality

Bellamy's assured hand at portraits

The research paid off!

Anderson & Garland describe this as:

Sir Winston Churchill by Frank Bellamy
An original painted artboard by artist Frank Bellamy for the story-strip The Happy Warrior: The True Life Story of Sir Winston Churchill for episode 31, published in the Eagle Comic for Boys, coloured inks on lineboard, 53 x 41cms overall, unframed.
The Happy Warrior was written by Clifford Makins and appeared on the back page of Eagle Comic during 1957 and 1958, its success was such that it was quickly republished in 1958 by Hulton Press as a stand alone book. Other reprints came in 1981, 2008 and 2014.

Here's what the comic page looked like

Eagle 2 May 1958 (Vol.9 No.18)

Also for your interest Bellamy took a photo of the finished artwork before despatching it to Hulton for publication and this seems the logical place to show it.

Bellamy's Polaroid of the above work

The auction also has three circus posters in two lots - I've written about them before on the blog - so even though they are not original art, I thought I'd mention them here for those who missed the information before. Look for Lots 356 and 357

Lastly I should mention that there is also a publisher's file copy of some Eagle comics with Dan Dare and Fraser of Africa (January to December 1960) by Bellamy (and others) at Lot 271.