Frank Bellamy inspired various artists

 K-9 ANNUAL 1983

If you don't know K-9 he is a Doctor Who character who first appeared in 1977 and went on to appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures 2007-2010. The K9 Annual 1983 (published in August 1982) was created to capitalise on the anticipated success of a full television series featuring the robot dog K9 from Doctor Who, which didn't materialise - except for one episode.

K-9 Annual 1983 cover

 

K-9 Annual 1983 Contents

Does one of those images look familiar? Well, here it is from Frank Bellamy’s run on "Heros the Spartan" from Eagle Volume 15 number 31. The artist is apparently Glenn Rix who drew many World Distributors Annuals at the time. Some of the other images show Bellamy's influence on him, where he uses the Bellamy technique of 'swirls' 

I want to bring together various pieces today which don't really deserve an article to themselves, so I hope you'll bear with me. Most have been sent to me either via email or on Facebook. Thanks to all my correspondents!

Eagle Vol.15:No.31 1 August 1964 pp10-11

 

Glenn Rix 'swirling' art in K-9 Annual 1983

BOYS ADVENTURE ANNUAL 1984 

Next we have "Boys Adventure Annual 1984", an oddity published by Opal Quill Limited - who I know nothing about, except they also published these titles: "Mighty Heroes Annual 1984" (a rip-off of Doctor Solar on the cover) with "The Fearless Roldan and Astroman" which I don't recognise but suspect is a re-packaging (and translating) of Spanish comics.  Both can easily be found to purchase on eBay as can the other titles:."My Bedtime Story Annual 1984", "My Nursery Rhyme Annual 1984", "My Storytime Annual 1984", "My Cartoon Annual 1984", and "My Trains & Planes Annual 1984".  "My Football Heroes Annual 1984" and "Modern Girl Annual 1984" are two which look to be packaged in the UK as their content needed that more than the other annuals. It does look as if the rarer annuals are "Mighty Heroes Annual 1985", "My Christmas Annual 1985", "My Fairytale Annual 1985", "Black Beauty Annual 1985" - no relation to the TV series of the 1970s. The logo on the spine was a dump or tipper truck, which is odd too.

Anyway this is a blog about Bellamy, so here's the artwork in question. The western characters are taken from Frank Bellamy's drawing for "Garth" in the Daily Mirror from the episode numbered G154. See the comparison below.

Boys Adventure Annual 1984

 

"Ghost Town" G154, Daily Mirror

 ARABIAN ADVENTURE

 A couple of websites tell me the artist for this movie poster is Michael Vaughn. Can anyone confirm this for me please? He was obviously inspired by Frank Bellamy in one place - the Skarasen

Arabian Adventure (1979)

Look closely at the creature just below the title - which to my knowledge does not appear in the film, except as a statue that belches fire! - does it look familiar?

Radio Times (30 August 1975 - 5 September 75)
Doctor Who - Terror of the Zygons

 It's the Skarasen or commonly called the Loch Ness monster which appeared in Tom Baker's reign as the Doctor! The story was titled "The Terror of the Zygons"

Frank Bellamy and Look and Learn: New discovery - Castaways

 

Cropped image - see below

In issue 414 (20 December 1969) Look and Learn began a short series - featured on the cover by the wonderful Angus McKie - called "Castaways". They introduced the feature with this paragraph: 

Alexander Selkirk was the most famous castaway of them all. After quarrelling with his captain in 1704, he asked to be put ashore on an island and remained there alone for over four years. From his experiences came Robinson Crusoe, the great novel by Daniel Defoe which immortalised the notion of the castaway. Because Robinson Crusoe has now become an almost legendary character, it has often been taken for granted that no other men suffered as he did. In fact there were a number of castaways, whose stories are just as enthralling as the story of Alexander Selkirk's. This week we begin a new series, telling the stories of these forgotten men....

 The first episode concerned the wreck of the Eclipse where survivors found they had come ashore at Sanak Island, which is at the south-western tip of Alaska. At that time, Alaska and the neighbouring islands belonged to the Russian Empire. Read more here. The second in the series (#415) was Philip Ashton who was captured by pirates before escaping to a Caribbean island. The third tale (#416) was about Pedro Serrano who was the sole survivor of a shipwreck off Central America - both images that appeared in L&L can be viewed on the L&L website. The fourth story (#417) tells of William Mann who found himself in the Marianas. Look and Learn have a transcript of the whole article plus one of the accompanying images by artist Graham Coton. 

In issue #418 (17 January 1970) we read about the steamship U.S.S. Saginaw which was working on the Midway Islands and decided to head to the nearby Kure Island but became caught in treacherous currents and smashed in total darkness on - they found out later - Kure Island. After an unsuccessful attempt to get drinking water one seaman suggested creating a condenser from the steamer's boiler but they knew to escape the lonely place they'd need to build a boat and sail 1,200 miles south east to Hawaii.  A boat was built and a crew of 5 men headed out. They were apparently blown off course several times but eventually washed up in violent seas and one man survived to alert the authorities. The crew of the Saginaw had been stuck for 68 days before being rescued and the only casualties were the four men in the skiff. 

 

Look And Learn #418 (17 January 1970), pp.6-7 by Frank Bellamy

Now here comes a surprise. The above black and white page is drawn by Frank Bellamy! How do I know? Well, see if you can follow the facts below.

On 30 January 1970 Nancy Bellamy paid two cheques into the bank. 

The first she called "Capt Cook L&L" which we know was full colour and appeared in issue #422 (14 February 1970) for which Bellamy was paid £50. 

The second cheque was for £18/18/- - i.e. 18 guineas and Nancy titled that one "Look and Learn / Shipwrecked". I'll come back to that in a moment. Then on 3 March 1970 she paid in a large cheque for £177/10/- and stated this was for "Look and Learn First World War, 1,2, 3 and Castaways £20".

Well let's get some publication dates on these items:

• LOOK AND LEARN  418 (17 January 1970): "Castaways"
• LOOK AND LEARN 422 (14 February 1970): "The Man and the Moment: James Cook"
• LOOK AND LEARN 437 - 462 (30 May 1970 - 21 November 1970): "The Story of World War One" (and #1,2,3 were specifically published in 30 May to 13 June 1970)

The cheques are out of order - sort of - so what could that mysterious "Shipwrecked" I mentioned be? The payment of £20 is just under half of the colour double-page rate for Captain Cook, so the above B&W drawing is likely to be the one. Just look at the way the rocks are drawn, the composition of the figures struggling against the waves,  even their shadows are included, notice the explosions of wave formations. If you are able to see the rest of "The Castaways" series you'll see a variety of art styles, but this one, once focussed on, is Frank Bellamy's work. 

But that still leaves us with the mystery of what is the 18 guineas for "Shipwrecked"? Where was it published? I checked all the Look and Learn magazines from August 1969 to April 1970 I couldn't find anything resembling Bellamy's handiwork. I then had inspiration and checked the Look And Learn Book 1970 and 1971. No joy! There was a later series called "Shipwreck" which appeared between 28 November 1971 to 23 January 1971 but again I don't think any are illustrated by Bellamy.

I asked my friend Steve Holland and he wrote back to me:

"My guess is that he illustrated two episodes of 'The Castaways' -- issues 414 and 418 -- but I wouldn't have guessed they were Bellamy. The second illustration in issue 414 isn't by the same artist as the first."

 So here it is so you can decide. .

Look And Learn #414 (20 December 1969), pp.6-7

I spoke to Paul Holder too and he thinks that the only Bellamy is #418 as stated above. But then he suggested that the amount of £18 guineas compared to the £20 suggested something else..

 

If you scroll back up and look at "The Castaways" heading, it could be that the series title was going to be "Shipwrecked" - after all that was used later in the year - and then at the last minute changed to the title above and that Bellamy drew the header! Now that's a really hard one to call as it's reproduced in each episode at such a small size that even scanning at hi-resolution and enlarging it on my screen doesn't convince me (or Paul for that matter!) but that was our best shot. However, and there's always a however, looking at the episode in issue 415 there's the exact ship which appears in the header, just reversed! Admittedly there is a bit of landscape added to the header but I've no idea who drew that! The L&L site has these two images but could not suggest an artist's name, and nor can I. If anyone wants to have a guess, do let me know, because at first I 'saw' Millar Watt, but I don't think it's him

Look And Learn #415 (27 December 1969), pp.6-7

What do you think? 

 

So we solve one puzzle and introduce another. Any Look and Learn fans want to check my research and tell me they think they know of a 'Shipwrecked' image is by Bellamy? I'd love to hear any theories. maybe it was never published?