NEW FRANK BELLAMY ARTWORK: Football Telegraph and "The Biscuit"

"In the Pink" - Artwork based on that by Frank Bellamy

Mum starts clearing the table,
Stacking the plates in the sink.
Would Dad think it funny
If I borrow some money
To buy the Sporting Pink?

My wife pointed out Gareth Owen's poem "Sports Report" from which the verse above comes. It certainly reminds me of Saturday afternoons in England when my Dad did the football pools! Ian Addis (author of "A Passing Game" volumes 1+2, and co-author of "A Kettering Kaleidoscope") has published his latest book and it features a few Frank Bellamy cartoons. I gave Ian some help on this and the end result is a fascinating background to a football and sports newspaper that was produced every Saturday - within a couple of hours after the whistle blew on football matches! "At its peak it sold 50,000 copies" from Leicester to Hunstanton! It was very well read!

Included are various cartoons drawn by Frank Bellamy and besides the wonderful discovery of the certificate - on which Ian has based his front cover - he also shares the following artwork - never seen by myself before. 

Anyway here's how this all came about.... 

Frank Bellamy and "In the Pink" - The Legend of the Pink 'Un 

Ian Addis wrote to me to let me know he was writing another book - this time on the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph (hereafter NET) publication the Football Telegraph or as it was nicknamed the Pink 'Un. We exchanged notes (mine all about Bellamy's time plus some background to the newspaper) and some images.

Ian reckons the first football cartoon in the Pink' Un was 1903ish and Bernard Hugh started the characterisations of football teams in 1914, and Hugh also designed the masthead that ran until 1961, the last being published in October of that year. Our interest here is Frank Bellamy but it's worth recording who preceded and succeeded Bellamy in providing witty cartoons of each week's matches and how long they drew for the Pink 'Un. As Ian said at one point "All nationally recognised and working for a provincial  newspaper"  

1. Bernhard Hugh fl.1913 - 1930s
2. Frank Bellamy 1946 - 1949
3. Gus Fidler 1950 - 1961

Bernard Thomas Hugh was born in March 1881 in Llanelly [Llanelli] in Carmarthenshire, Wales and appears in the 1911 Census as a "Painter artist", living in Kensington. He died aged 55 on the 12 August 1936 in Surrey and is buried in All Saints Churchyard, Sanderstead. The cartoonist Bernhard Hugh actually supplied artwork to the Pink 'Un before WW1 and continued into the Thirties. He was originally employed by the Croydon Advertiser to supply illustrations for Croydon Common Football Club, a Southern League side from 1908-1915. Hugh designed the covers of the 1921 and 1922 FA Cup final programmes.  

All Frank Bellamy's work - that we have discovered - and here I must thank Paul Holder (who managed to see the NET's archive before it was handed over to the Kettering Library - where we hope one day it will re-surface after their building works are complete!) is listed on the NET page of this website. By the time the announcement was made that football supporters old friend was returning - after the war - Bellamy must have been back at Blamire Studio.

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph 28 August 1946

As Ian states, 

attendances at football matches during the late forties reflected the enormous popularity of the game and ground records were established which have never been seriously challenged since. During 1948-49 a total of 41,271,414 watched the Football League programme. Kettering’s highest ever attendance,11,526, had been recorded on November 1st 1947 when Peterborough United visited Rockingham Road for an FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Road tie. Peterborough’s victory is graphically illustrated in Frank Bellamy’s cover cartoon captioned, ‘This is the match that set him alight’.

Football Telegraph 1 November 1947
Taken fron Ian's "Passing Game Part 1 1945-70"

Again thanks to Ian for permission to quote his amazing research:

The Pink ‘Un’s famous biscuit had first appeared back in 1921 and in September 1949, a Junior version recognising the day’s outstanding performance by one of the area’s minor clubs was introduced. Winners received a certificate designed by Frank Bellamy. 

And thanks again to Ian, here's the actual certificate, probably drawn in the 1940s, going by the style. Note how Bellamy shows footballs in all four corners but makes sure to show the 'T' shape - perhaps to remind readers of the [NE]Telegraph? The Football Telegraph header is, as Ian found, by Bernhard Hugh.

The Pink 'Un biscuit award certificate

After Bellamy went off to London to seek employment where his talents could be seen nationally (and internationally) he was succeeded at the Pink 'Un by a cartoonist who signed his work GUS. 'Gus' worked  for the Pink 'Un until the last published copy in October 1961. Due to Ian's tenacity he discovered GUS was Cuthbert S. Fidler, born 20 March 1907. The 1939 Register, ironically, tells us he was an Assistant School Master (Elementary School) and lived at 24 Love Lane, Spalding, and was married in 1931 to Elsie Walker in Spalding. He died 7 March 1982 in Spalding.

I am not a fan of football, as such, but having now read Ian's fascinating account of a provincial - but widely circulated paper - I can highly recommend it. It's a historic document that I'm pleased to have contributed to. 

• TITLE: In the Pink: The Legend of the Pink 'Un
• PUBLISHER: Bowden Publications
• DATE: December 2025
• ISBN: 9780992755928
• PRICE: £12.00  

TO ORDER:

Email: [email protected] or Phone: 01858 467713

RIP David Slinn

 

Swift 9 October 1954

My correspondent and dear friend David Slinn has passed away at the age of 88.

Steve Holland will say more as he puts together an obituary but I just wanted to share how helpful David was to me. I always felt a fraud  - an amateur sleuth - when talking to him, the professional, but he never ever made me feel as if I didn't have an opinion and knowledge worth sharing. He encouraged me to get the facts right. He was supportive in all my efforts to record the smallest details of illustrators and comic artists. He was so kind sharing scans of Raymond Sheppard's comic work and identifying Frank Bellamy's work in Swift - especially confirming with personal knowledge that Bellamy did indeed draw "The missing lynx" - his usual flare for puns coming into each email subject line! We learned that he quietly "drifted away  at 08:50 this morning" - Wednesday 22 October 2025.  

I wondered how to pay him tribute and felt the best way was to show you some of his writing about Frank Bellamy. All the writing below is David - and you'll see how broad his knowledge was of artists and writers from the late Eagle period. Rest in peace dear friend. You will certainly be missed.

Eagle Vol. 9:39, (27 September 1958)

"...[all this is ] related to the events during the early 1950s, I had avidly followed as a young – but especially motivated – reader.  However, around the time Frank was working on the opening episodes of ‘The Adventures of the Swiss Family Robinson’, following some tentative correspondence – and an encouraging response from both Michael Gibson and Arthur Roberts – the lucky outcome was a chance to begin to learn about things from the inside.  Early visits to Shoe Lane were, obviously, only occasional – but the aim was to, maybe one day, get a break into the world of children’s publications.

Anyway – so as not to get diverted from the main path – suffice to say (following a suitable period of youthful enthusiasm and study, plus just perceptibly improving artwork samples), a couple of life’s more fortunate coincidences resulted in my becoming a regular caller at the Hulton Press offices.  I started by doing freelance balloon-lettering and minor artwork tasks, for all four publications.  Clearly working for Eagle, and its companion titles Girl, Swift and Robin, was pretty heady stuff – but, for a callow newcomer, one of the most important aspects was a chance to see the newly delivered artwork.

 

Being a “new boy”, still in my late-teens (and the world being a rather different place to that which exits now), I remained slightly in awe of it all for the first few weeks.  There were established contributors coming in with scripts and artwork, but any introductions were brief and they weren’t really there just to chat to the likes of me.  Even so, gradually over the months I got to know some of them, including Frank, but these encounters were not only random but also tended to be quite spaced out.

Eagle Vol.10:19 (9 May 1959)

This period provided a memorable opportunity to properly study (if only briefly) some of Frank’s episodes of ‘The Happy Warrior’ – and hopefully gain some crucial insight to just how he achieved them.  (Actually, of course, by simply applying himself to the task in hand and doing the very best job he could in the time available?)  Probably, I saw more pages of ‘The Shepherd King’, than any of his other series; but certainly remember the start of ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’, and especially the artwork which included the, full-page width, desert panorama looking across the sand dunes.  Then, of course, this was when Frank found himself drafted onto ‘Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future’, and Peter Jackson was recalled to the Eagle back-page feature to take on the remainder of Marco Polo’s adventures.

 

One of the most striking things about Frank’s weekly pages, apart from the consistently high quality of both the draughtsmanship and graphic content, was the presentation.  Each finished board, complete with a protective overlay, used to arrive in its own coloured, heavy-cartridge folder, with the accompanying script tucked inside.  The appropriate details, title, episode/issue number, instructions etc., were all neatly lettered in architectural-style at the foot of the artwork.  That’s not to say other contributors didn’t also take care to protect their weekly endeavours from careless handling, but no-one came close to being so immaculate.  Of course, another distinctive thing about his work in those early years, was the fact that he always lettered the captions and speech-balloons – and, at the start of each new series, drew the title panel with the main lettering in place.  As far as I know, none of the other strip-artists tried their hand at this – but (sensibly) expected the art staff to letter the title piece.  Later on, when patching speech-balloons and captions became the more frequently used method of production – and weekly episodes ran to two, or more, pages – even Frank thought better of it. 

 

Something that is worth touching upon, and may be of constructive interest, is a little of the background to his time working for Swift.  Certainly on more than a few occasions, I have heard others querying why it took so long for Frank to get into the pages of Eagle.  Naturally, they are making this observation with the hindsight of knowing what happened to his career after he’d made such an impact with his work on ‘The Happy Warrior’ – and the fact that it rapidly went from strength to strength.

What seems to have been forgotten – or perhaps some of these exponents of “what-if and why-didn’t?” aren’t even aware of – is that when Frank first joined the Hulton weeklies in 1954, it already was the place to be.  The existing line-up on Eagle was pretty impressive: fronted by the Frank Hampson team at Epsom, it also included John Worsley, Frank Humphris, Martin Aitchison, Richard Jennings, Harold Johns and Norman Williams, with Robert Ayton not so far away over the 1955 horizon.  Not really much room for manoeuvre there?  As well, already on Swift, there was Harry Bishop, Giorgio Bellavitas and Patrick Williams, soon to be joined by Cecil Orr and Jim Holdaway (the two of them also having contributed to different series on Mickey Mouse Weekly).

Eagle Vol.8:51 (20 December 1957) 

It is interesting that, although the paper was the least successful of Marcus Morris’s creations and catered for a junior readership, Swift didn’t suffer from a lack of quality illustrators.  Apart from those already mentioned, William Backhouse drew a long-running, animal adventure series on the centre-spread, Alfred Mazure took over from Jim Holdaway when he went off to do ‘Romeo Brown’ for the Daily Mirror, and later came Harry Lindfield, Peter Jackson, Cecil Doughty, Don Lawrence and Neville Colvin.

One aspect, which may have occurred to you while researching this project, is to what extent events were influenced by the unexpected death of Norman Williams, at the beginning of 1957, while he was nearing the end of his work on ‘The Great Sailor’.  Simply from memory now, I do recall a conversation with Arthur Roberts about the circumstances surrounding Peter Jackson’s somewhat hasty christening as a back-page contributor on ‘The Great Explorer’, the story of David Livingstone.  In contrast, the careful preparation that went into Frank’s collaboration with Clifford Makins on ‘The Happy Warrior’, though extraordinarily thorough, was a somewhat more leisurely business.

 

 

AUCTION: Heros the Spartan and Thunderbirds at Compal

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 13:44 (2 November 1962) (Original art)

Over the last years "Heros The Spartan" original artwork has popped up - some faded, some not. The prices for just those from Volume 13 of the Eagle are as follows:

• 14 August 2022 "Heros the Spartan" in Eagle 17 November 1962 Vol.13 No45 £3,800.00 Comic Book Auctions Ltd
• 12 May 2022 "Heros the Spartan" in Eagle 10 November 1962 Vol.13 No45 £4,350.00 Comic Book Auctions Ltd
• 7 Nov 2019 "Heros the Spartan", in Eagle 1 December 1962 Vol 13 No48 £5,000.00 Excalibur
• 27 Mar 2017 "Heros the Spartan", in Eagle 1 December 1962 Vol 13 No48 £4,332.01 Heritage

The highest price, so far reached for any "Heros" original was in 2019 (Eagle 17 July 1965 Vol.16 No29) which sold for £7,300.00

The latest offering from Compal Auctions is the above piece from Eagle Volume 13 (number 44) published in 1962. It looks to be in great condition and if you compare it to the published page you'll see that the printing at the time was nowhere near enough to do Frank Bellamy's art justice. I suspect it is this 'darkness' that stopped me bothering to read it back in the day. Having now seen some of the original artworks, I can honestly say besides the art department's choice to colour each caption differently, it's a brilliant series.

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 13:44 (2 November 1962) (Published version)

The auction is described like this:

Heros the Spartan double page original artwork (1962) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 13. No 44 1962. 'Caesar had promoted the young Spartan to a higher rank, and to test Heros's worthiness, Caesar ordered him to take 100 men and conquer the mysterious Island of Darkness...' Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 19 ins. The 'Heros' title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork

If I ever owned such a piece I would not have added the title lettering or captions, wanting to see as much of the original as I could. But each to their own. Incidentally a copy of the complete reprint of the "Heros" strip is also at auction. 

The second piece on offer this time round by Compal is a "Thunderbirds" page we have seen up for auction before. It sold for £9010 by Heritage Auction in November 2022, and I noticed that the Thunderbirds logo has since been added (see my comment on the original blog post).

The latest photo of "Thunderbirds" in TV21 #88

Anyway it's described thus:

Thunderbirds original double-page artwork (1966) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 88, 1966. 'The World President has given the order to hand over the bomb so International Rescue can destroy a piece of the Sun which threatens to destroy the Earth - Project Sunburst precariously moves into action...' Bright, fresh Pelikan inks on board. 26 x 17 ins. 

In this year of the 60th anniversary of "Thunderbirds" who can say what this will go for?

Good luck to anyone bidding. I'll add the final price here (and on the spreadsheet)  when the auction finishes

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Heros The Spartan" Eagle Vol. 13:44 (2 November 1962)
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 82
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800)
ENDING PRICE: £4250
END DATE: Sunday 31 August 2025

"Thunderbirds" TV21 #88
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 146
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800)
ENDING PRICE: £6300
END DATE: Sunday 31 August 2025 

Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World book

 

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Deluxe hardback edition

IT'S ARRIVED! 

Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World

For the first time Frank Bellamy's complete "Ghost World " story from Boys' World has been commercially reprinted! Full praise must go to Geoff West (the Book Palace boss!) and  Stuart Williams (design & production) and John Symonds for the scans. Book Palace does a great job reprinting comic strips and this one must have been their hardest - see below.

There are two versions available and they are incredible. I received the Super Deluxe Collectors' Edition clamshell case version - or "fantastic" version as I called it - because I contributed the introduction to "The Ghost World" section.

I have been sent the 'clamshell' very spectacular version (am I gushing too much?) which you can see me unboxing in the above video. You can also turn on the sound to hear what a quiet place I live in - with the addition of a Robin singing! Many thanks to my wife Nicola for her superb work - all in one take!

THE CONTENT

The Boys' World comic ran from 26 January 1963 - 3 October 1964 (just 89 issues) before being subsumed into Eagle- with the name still being used on the Annual until1972! It was very much a comic like Eagle and created for and aimed at the 60s generation. If you want to read more about the comic and see a full listing of the contents with a great background essay on the creators plus lots of pictures send Steve Holland your money.

The Book Palace books have reprinted "the complete Wrath of the Gods by Ron Embleton and John M Burns and the complete Frank Bellamy's The Ghost World in one huge volume."

Paul Duncan - whose book credits are a fanboy's dream - wrote the introduction to "Wrath of the Gods" and I wrote the introduction to "The Ghost World"

THE BOOKS

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Deluxe hardback edition

The first is the Deluxe Collectors' Limited Edition of 450 copies. "All the Embleton and Burns double-page spreads are printed as deluxe fold-outs (see my video above) in this monster full colour volume. A glorious 124 pages including 60 double fold out pages."

DETAILS

• Authors: Willie Patterson, Harry Harrison
• Artists: Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, John M Burns
• Publisher: Book Palace Books, May 2025
• Number of pages: 124
• Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
• Size: 13" x 10" (324mm x 253mm)
• ISBN: 9781913548599
• Price: £75.00
• [Introductions to both strips by Paul Duncan and Norman Boyd (yours truly)]
• ORDER HERE or if in America, try Bud's Art Books

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Super Deluxe hardback edition in 'clamshell' box

The second book is the 'clamshell' shown in the video above. It's called the Super Deluxe Collectors' Edition "Limited to just 50 copies worldwide, enclosed in a glorious hardcover clamshell case.
This Super Deluxe Edition includes:

1. The complete Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World book
2. 16-page book reprinting the final Wrath Quests from Boys' World Annuals
3. Two prints scanned from Frank Bellamy's Ghost World original art
4. Two John M Burns prints scanned from unpublished artwork
5. Plus a print of an original pencil sketch by John M Burns.

DETAILS

• Authors: Willie Patterson, Harry Harrison
• Artists: Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, John M Burns
• Publisher: Book Palace Books, May 2025
• Number of pages: 124
• Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
• Size: 13" x 10" (324mm x 253mm)
• ISBN: 9781913548605
• Price: £130.00
• [Introductions to both strips by Paul Duncan and Norman Boyd (yours truly)]
• ORDER HERE

AUCTION: Heros the Spartan at Compal

 It's Frank Bellamy’s birthday. This morning I've helped friends to clear their house they've been living in for 30 years and suddenly I get a message that Compal Auctions has a piece of Frank Bellamy original art, which I thought I'd highlight today as it's Frank's anniversary.

 

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 16:28 (10 July 1965)

The auction is described as:

 Heros the Spartan original double page artwork (1965) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 16 No 28 1965. 'Heros and his band of escaped slaves fought their way out of the desert stronghold of El Raschid. Swelled by the Moorish army of Abdullah the Cruel, El Raschid's savage band streamed in hot pursuit...! Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 19 ins. The 'Heros' title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork

 This comes from the fourth story drawn by Bellamy "The Slave Army" and the fact that whoever added captions back in, did it so accurately they've also added the 'smudged' blue caption in the third row second panel - here's my printed version!

Compare print copy here to the original above!

 Still this looks lovely and the blues are still there. Good luck to anyone bidding. I'll add the final price here when the auction finishes

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Heros The Spartan Eagle Vol. 16:28 (10 July 1965)
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 61
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800-£3,200)
ENDING PRICE: £3300
END DATE: Sunday 1 June 2025

Frank Bellamy NEW DISCOVERY- Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail

Something different for you this time. It's the anniversary of Frank Bellamy’s birth today - 21 May 1917 and I've kept this back as I was over the moon to discover this image - admittedly not so much because of Bellamy's quality but more because I live near the area mentioned! The Fens and the Wash are very familiar places so I've enjoyed researching this one for you more than I suspect anyone will want to read. But I'm a completist when it comes to listing Bellamy's output so what better day than today to introduce you to....a man-made estuary for the River Nene!

The following image comes from Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail dated Friday 24 September 1948 and perhaps some of you might need a bit of background to what's being discussed. 

Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail Friday 24 September 1948

The Rivers Nene, Welland, and the Great Ouse flow into the Wash. Floods were constant threats to Northampton and Wellingborough much further up the River Nene - where I recently learned the River is pronounced the "NENN" - whereas in Peterborough and the Fens, it's the "NEEN".  

A sluice was needed north of Whittlesey, just east of Peterborough to maintain water levels in the City and stopped the tidal flows on that part of the River Nene and that was placed at the Dog-in-a-Doublet - which was named after the (in this century) award winning pub that stood there but is now boarded up since 2023.  Why any pubs in England are called this is a controversy I'll leave you to investigate, but I favour the phrase being a form of ridcule - someone looking out of place dressing up beyond their position! But this link will show you the lock and also provide some background to the draining of the Fens.

 I checked as I thought all waterways were nationalised after the war, but apparently there were exceptions.  The Nene Catchment Board was not disbanded with the nationalisation of the waterways in 1947; instead it continued until about 1951 when responsibility for the Nene passed to the Welland and Nene River Authority. 

The  Northamptonshire and Evening Telegraph (dated Saturday 20 February 1939) has a front page with images of Councillor H. Turland's bungalow "by the sea" and the Wicksteed Park aviary - where "the waterfowl were in their element but the peacocks pocketed their pride and took to the rigging"! This was all due to the tributaries feeding the Nene having dumped their water and flooding the Nene Valley between Ringstead and Oundle.

Anyway the above is another example of  Bellamy making a diagram to show readers very clearly where some information - in this case the new channel was to end in the Wash. When searching the Northamptonshire and Evening Telegraph around Bellamy’s time working at the Blamire Studio, I often saw examples of such artwork but have not listed them as I can't be sure they are Bellamy.  But here, on his birthday, one paper gave him the credit he deserved.

Heritage auctioning an episode of Garth: H84

 

Garth: The Beast of Ultor H84

This is a quick note to record that Heritage are auctioning this original artwork between the 2 April and to 9 April. Their description:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip #H84 Original Art dated 9-4-74 (Daily Mirror of London, 1974). In this episode, the title hero, Garth, is faced with having to battle three women... to the death! A moody daily by the celebrated British comic strip artist created in ink over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 20.5" x 5.25". Slight toning, staple holes in the corners, abrasions in the top left and bottom right corners, whiteout touch-up, with light staining and handling wear. In Very Good condition.

I should add that Bellamy was very proud of never using whiteout. The whiteout referred to here is on the borders and most likely done by John Allard who lettered this and all other Garth artwork during Bellamy’s time on the strip.  The image above is small as this is a preview. If Heritage add a higher-resolution, I'll replace the above.

Heritage have sold this before in 2006 when it went for $134.55. I expect it to reach c. £200 this time, but let's see.

AUCTION SUMMARY

Garth: The Beast of Ultor (G84)
WHERE?: Heritage Auctions
ENDING PRICE: £509.52 ($660 inc BP)
END DATE: Wednesday 9 April 2025