Monday 28 May 2012

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Wolfman of Ausensee

Just a quick note to highlight the sale on eBay of a fantastic piece of Bellamy original art.  It's episode F180 of the Wolfman of Ausensee and looks to be in fantastic condition

I have avoided using the complete picture from eBay as it's not too clear, but here's a view of the details:



Bellamy's trademark drawing of getting the characters to literally leap out of the page and what examples in one strip!

The strip looks like this - a scan from a reprint - so not a copy of the seller's original. BUT be aware the seller says very clearly he will not post abroad (outside the UK, in other words!)

© Daily Mirror
 And for those who can't afford even the starting bid of £260 (post free) this is what happens next in the Garth story!

© Daily Mirror
Update price to follow

Saturday 19 May 2012

John Ridgway colouring Garth

When I saw some of John Ridgway's colouring of the newspaper strip Garth, I had to catch him by email and ask permission to reproduce it.

John was kind enough to not only share the one I wanted (above) but also to send me copies of several others and agreed I could share them. I like to reciprocate and said is there anything he is working on that I can advertise for him? He hasn't actually got a web presence but DownTheTubes have kindly set up a page for him and he sent me this list:

"Currently I'm working on
  • a Commando book for D.C.Thomson, 
  • Colouring Age of Heroes for Strip magazine 
  • Colouring some Ron Turner Space Ace stories for possible publication 
  • Colouring Fudge and the Dragon and Speck's Inventions (yes that's Ken Reid's creation!) for ROK Comics 
  • Working on designs for Frontiers – a space series I want to write 
  • Working on scripts for two other series – Wereworld and Alternate Earth 
  • Continuing to colour the Garth stories and Earthspace("I've been colouring up Earthspace by Sydney Jordan with the hope of convincing Express Newspapers to let us get it done in full colour as a graphic album")"
© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

Thursday 17 May 2012

Bellamy - Lasting influence on Doctor Who illustration

various RT listings by Frank Bellamy
Various Doctor Who listings from Radio Times

You might have already seen the adverts around the Net for the following and I'm recommending it as I have followed Andersonic (the sister fanzine) for many years and find them both great fun.



Being your keen reporter on all things Frank Bellamy I had to try it as it cunningly has an article entitled: Frank’s Who – the lasting influence of Frank Bellamy’s Radio Times art on Doctor Who illustration - catchy huh? I confess now,  to not having a clue what the title meant but the Net proved useful and I soon educated myself. The article on Bellamy's influence on Doctor Who illustrators is really interesting. I'm not going to reproduce it here as I think you ought to support the Editor's efforts in getting out a regular print fanzine in these e-days!

The article is an intelligent overview of Bellamy's lasting influence and contains many interesting insights in just 4 pages including how Haylock appears to have swiped Bellamy and how Chris Achilleos was influenced by Bellamy. BUY ONE NOW

Plaything of Sutekh is a new Doctor Who fanzine from the people behind Andersonic.

Issue 1 is now available and it includes:
  • What Did the Sixties Do For Who? 
  • a look at how the Troughton era of Doctor Who reflected the changes facing Britain in the late 60s
  • Frank’s Who – the lasting influence of Frank Bellamy’s Radio Times art on Doctor Who illustration. 
  • Secret Who – we re-evaluate a clutch of less popular stories and find there’s more to them than meets the eye: Underworld, The Krotons and The Android Invasion. Don’t be afraid – they’re better than you think. 
  • Accidental Art – while Nation and Adams were pulling in opposite directions, Ken Grieve’s innovative approach raised Destiny of the Daleks above the norm.
  • A New Direction? – a look at the evolution of Doctor Who under Steven Moffat · 
  • DWDVD – recent DVD releases Invasion of the Dinosaurs and The Daemons · 
  • Return of the King – a look at (or a listen to) Tom Baker’s return as the Doctor in Big Finish audios … 
  • and more 
The issue is 40 b/w A5 pages, fully illustrated with colour covers. To order, visit the Blog



As for the above mentioned Andersonic - Issue 13 of Andersonic is available now and is just plain fun to read and Richard farrell's charicatures are beautiful. The current issue features:
  • A 9-page interview with Space: 1999 director Ray Austin in which he discusses his time on the series, including his favourite episodes, his style of direction and working with Martin Landau. 
  • Jan King Interview - Jan discusses his time working on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Terrahawks, including burning hotel rooms, puppet eunochs and old Ninestein himself. 
  • Specsavers TV Advert - a photo feature on the making of the recent Thunderbirds Specsavers TV advert. 
  • Thunderhawks - the aborted concept that later evolved into Terrahawks with loads of photos, some even in colour. 
  • Pat Silver - a short Q&A with the co-writer of Space:1999/ Full Circle. 
  • The Bringers of Wonder - a review/script to screen feature of this Space:1999 two-parter. 
  • Recollections of a Floor Puppeteer - John Last recalls his brief time working on Joe 90 
  • Plus reviews of The Sound of Silence, Attack of the Alligators and more. For more details on ordering, click here

Monday 14 May 2012

Facebook group for the Garth newspaper strip

I think it's about time I mentioned Ant Jones' Facebook page which follows all things Garth. At the moment he is linking daily to the Daily Mirror's reprint of Garth by Frank Bellamy, but the FB (!) page has lots of really interesting versions of Bellamy including Bellamy's Garth in Hindi! Its brief is wider than my interest as it covers the whole history of the Garth strip.

I personally have not jumped into the "Facebook waters" in any depth but skirt around the fringes, but this is one place worth lingering. I generally watch new developments on the Net and sign up an account (using Frank Bellamy's name) in order to see whether I'll do anything with it at a later date. Facebook demanded too much time so I left it there. However it's worth dipping your toes in and visiting Ant's page just to browse the images by clicking on one and then 'scrolling' through.

To wet your appetite here's a piece from the Women of Galba story, coloured by John Ridgway and used with his permission

© Daily Mirror