ORIGINAL ART: Garth on ebay - TheWreckers (G305.5!)

If you read this:

G292 of The Wreckers

Then read this:

G293 of The Wreckers

Then this:

G294 of The Wreckers

Do you think the story is missing something? How did Garth get into the chair? The caption "Interrogation" doesn't really make sense.

But what if between G293 and G294, the guards and Garth had a fight and our hero knocked them out? Then Tallion, the villain who would interrogate Garth, might have been watching and threatened Garth. Then we might have Garth submitting and following new guards to the interrogation chamber. THEN we could see G294.

OR ALTERNATIVELY

G304-G305

G306-G307

What if between these two banks of strips Tallion challenges Garth and we see the two guards on the floor? Why do I say that?

G293.5(!) or G305.5(???)

Where did I find what I'm calling G305.5 until I know any better? On eBay!

An episode of "The Wreckers" DR.CH.73 - Daily Record

The seller (rhfl41) has been in touch and tells me that

The Garth strip belonged to my father, the late Ewen Bain, who was a cartoonist. His own cartoon strip, Angus Og, ran in the Daily Record for 30 years [UPDATE DECEMBER 2020: Rhona has created a website now www.AngusOg.scot]

She describes the Garth strip like this:

Original Frank Bellamy Garth cartoon strip. From the Wreckers numbered DR.CH.73. Printers' instructions in pencil written on front including 'Daily Record 26-12-73'.
Drawn in black on CS10 Line Board.
Measures 20 x 53 cms, outer area, 13 x 52 dimensions of drawing.
(The Daily Record is a Scottish newspaper).

Why would this have gone unnoticed all these years - since 1973? We have seen reprints of the strip in Garth: The Wreckers published by the now-defunct All Devon Comic Collectors Club. The Americans saw the strip (oddly missing  G301-G306 inclusive) in the wonderful Menomonee Falls Gazette (#184 - #202) and lastly in the Daily Mirror from Wednesday 13 April 2011 - Tuesday 7 June 2011 where it was coloured by Martin Baines. But NONE of them have this strip that is on offer!

Just to confuse me the edition of the Daily Mirror for 6 November 1973 states "Here's a double ration of your favourite strips" - no explanation why, but presumably industrial action again - there were loads around that time! However the paper appears to have been published the day before and on 6 November a reprint of the 5 November strip appeared! So our numbering sequence is fine.

If they presented the numbered sequences as above with no 'other' strip needing inserting then what is the one presented here? I think the Mirror numbered the Bellamy strips (not Bellamy) so there was a continuous sequence but I wonder if this strip was NOT published in the Daily Mirror.

If anyone reading this has cuttings from or access to the Daily Record for that period I'd love to know.

This has consequences as we may have other printed strips never before seen in England - and further afield, as well as original art that is unique! And I shall have to correct a note on the website that says the BBC article on FB states he did work for the Daily Record, where I thought he didn't!

I then checked all that I did know and agree that 96 episodes of this story are in the reprinted versions I have between Friday 26 October 1973 and Monday 18 February 1974. BUT that is based on the usual lack of Sunday versions of the Daily Mirror and also no Christmas Day, and Boxing Day editions - times were different back then! However usually there would be a New Year's Day edition BUT the Newspaper Archive says not for 1974! So 96 only works if these conditions are true, i.e. the Archive didn't miss one!

Now to the Daily Record reprinting the strip. The Internet and I know nothing! HELP! I shall do the research when next in the British Library and let you know but we now have to conclude:

1. This is an original Bellamy never before printed except in Scotland - and my guess would be c. 26 December 1973 (for G305.5 to work) - dependent on Scotland printing on Boxing Day - as the writing says on the original
2. There may be others in Scotland that England have not seen
3. Ewen Bain asked Bellamy to create a Garth - and Bellamy jumped off using the story as inspiration - and John Allard lettered as usual - VERY UNLIKELY!
4. This is a fake - which I don't believe! We have some provenance - which can be checked

The last thought I have on the matter is - did the Daily Record receive a clean version of the board - free from the usual 'double-day' information and also the sequential number inserted? More on that another day, but the Scots version is clean of the London markings. Draw your own conclusions!


AUCTION SUMMARY

GARTH: The Wreckers
WHERE?: eBay
STARTING BID: £280
ENDING PRICE: £460
No OF BIDS: 7
END DATE: Friday 27 December 2019

ORIGINAL ART: Garth x 3

Garth: Bride of Jenghiz Khan (H279-H281)

I was just closing down my computer and saw this auction pop up. Unusually the seller (staylor133) is based in Bertrange, Luxembourg and has appeared on this blog before a couple of times. We have here three consecutive Garths from the story which first appeared in the Daily Mirror from 28 September 1974 - 14 January 1975 (#H228-J11), The Bride of Jenghiz Khan.

The opening bid is £1,000, which these days is reasonable for three strips by Bellamy, let alone consecutive, and the seller describes his photos and Garth strips thus:

Here we have THREE consecutive daily strips by Frank BELLAMY from the Daily Mirror. These are from the story "The Bride of Jenghis Khan" published on 27th, 28th and 29th of November 1974; strip numbers H279, H280, and H281.

The photos were taken at night under artificial light and are in fact white and not the yellow it seems to be.

Each page measures 21.5 x 7 inches. Free postage is offered with this item.

Please review the photographs.

And just for your enjoyment here are a few episodes around and including the above (badly photographed by me!) from the sadly missed ADCCC reprint of the story

Garth: Bride of Jenghiz Khan H278-H282

AUCTION SUMMARY

GARTH: Bride of Jenghiz Khan 3 episodes
WHERE?: eBay (Seller: staylor133)
STARTING BID: £1,000
ENDING PRICE: £1,000
BIDS: 2
END DATE: Tuesday 26 November 2019

Frank Bellamy Apollo 11 anniversary

Daily Mirror 11 July 1969
Note the added numbering in each panel

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
(The plaque left on the Moon after Apollo 11 departed)

That was 50 years ago today and I first wrote about Bellamy's brilliant double-page spread (plus single illustration) of the Moon Landing 10 years ago here!  The original was published Friday 11 July 1969 - yes 10 days before the most historic moment - the first landing on the Moon! It showed the stages of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's stay over 21 hours, 36 minutes on the moon's surface plus their lift-off from the Moon

Frank Bellamy artwork from 11 July 1969 Daily Mirror 
 Thanks to Alan Davis for the clean artwork

But I thought to celebrate this momentous day I'd share some of Alan Davis' brilliant archiving of Bellamy's work and add to the story.

Firstly we have this lovely - unfinished - drawing where we can see a sketch of the height of an astronaut worked out (on the right) plus a pencil sketch of an astronaut climbing the steps. All artists use reference material for things like this and whether Bellamy was supplied with photos etc., we don't know. However we do know he owned a model just like the one I had as a child.Did he get it fully assembled? Did he build it himself? We don't yet know.

Lunar Module by Frank Bellamy - thanks to Alan Davis
Note the difference from the LM above

Photo rescued by Alan Davis

Photo rescued by Alan Davis
Compare the top left of the double page spread

Vintage Airfix states the Airfix Lunar Module kit first appeared in 1969:

Complete with astronauts, lunar surface experiments and the American flag, this intricately detailed kit builds into an exact replica of the Lunar Module on its moon base.    - From 8th Edition (1970) Airfix catalogue

3 March 1969 was the date of Apollo 9's flight with an LM in low orbit around Earth so the design was fairly fixed by then so I'd guess Airfix had designs from NASA to produce the model. The "Britmodeller", Ventora3300, shows the stages of his build of the kit here which is far better than the one I did!

Taken from Mike Cavin's Flickr

Taken from Mike Cavin's Flickr

Anyway back to Frank Bellamy. In two interviews we know of Bellamy mentioning the Moon landing piece, of which he was rightly proud. The first is from Fantasy Advertiser:

FA:  "You also did some work for the Daily Mirror, before you started Garth, I believe?"
FB:  Yes.  The first job I did for them was a centrespread at the time of, and about, the first moon landing."

David Jackson wrote to me about this and said

The salvaged studio photos of a model lunar lander, in themselves, have none of the dynamic and nuanced special qualities of the finished drawings, and, whatever visual references of NASA astronauts were provided for this task, again by some inspired means FB brilliantly envisioned and realized what was not there in the reference pictures, and rendered the spacesuits in action on the moon infinitely better than they ever actually looked in real life!

When Anglia TV's Chris Young interviewed him, Frank said:

FB:  "This one is pre the first moon landing.  I must tell you it's the first strip I've ever done minus balloons.  It would have been lovely to say 'We made it' but it is the first time drawing a strip minus balloons, and in this case for real, because after drawing for years science fiction, seemed funny to draw it actually happening."
CY:  "But that was done before the moon landing?"
FB:  "Before the actual moon landing."
CY:  "And were you fairly accurate?"
FB:  "All the way through, I understand."
CY:  "It all came true...ha ha!"

David Jackson commented to me:

His Apollo 11 moon landing work for the Daily Mirror had, uniquely, no stars in it whatsoever - though drawn before it was established by the actual landing that no stars could be seen from the daylight surface of the moon -  I can recall the media prior-speculation as to whether or not stars would in fact be seen - despite the 'ink black' daylight sky there. Frank would create really black areas of black in all his original art even it meant going over it half a dozen times.

Below is the poster that newsagents will have had at the time and many papers and magazines used the opportunity to run special features on this momentous event. The image is taken from Bellamy's centrespread but notice how effective that one panel is even when blown up to this size

Newsagents poster

David Jackson has noted (in Eagle Times 1995, Vol 8: 1 pp.39-44) when writing about Bellamy and his understanding of science and mechanics:

It is not an unreasonable view that "Bellamy . . . had no real interest in science fiction", but to argue from that, [...] that he "had no understanding of science and mechanics", is unreasonable.  Consider FB's graphics for the Daily Mirror 18 [sic] July 1969, published prior to the launch of  Apollo 11. Bellamy correctly anticipated visual reality before it actually occurred or was proved, eg:

1. No stars visible from the daylight surface of the moon
2. Blast-off of the LM ascent stage - which was not actually seen until a later mission left a camera transmitting from the lunar buggy.

It is something of an oversimplification to say FB "drew everything out of his head", but he had the capability of remembering and internalising - comprehending - and the ability to visualise, rotate and articulate geometric solids in three-dimensional space. Quote: Dennis Hopper, art editor TV21 (STRIPS '78/COMICS 103 booklet): "Heros [the Spartan]" must rate highly . . . but this strip ignored two of Frank's greatest gifts. His conception of geometric form and his vision of the future."

FURTHER MYSTERY

On the 1 August 1969 Bellamy paid a cheque for £145 into his bank account which he labelled "Daily Mirror: Apollo 11" and in October a cheque for £75 was paid in labelled, mysteriously, "Daily Mirror Moon Map". I've looked through an awful lot Daily Mirrors from that time and not found this map, but here's what I did find in case anyone else can help.

The amount he was paid for this "moon map" is the same as for a later large black and white image in the Daily Mirror.

A large (two separate double pages) moon map was published in the Daily Mirror Friday 18 July 1969 - a  "Mirrorscope Moon Special". I have a copy and the credits are on the map:
"Moon Map copyright Hallwag, Berne, Switzerland.  Additional graphics by Roy Foster and Roy Wright.".  The map used was created by Hans Schwarzenbach and published by Hallwag, known for cartographic tourist materials, in 1969.

David Jackson also has a copy and adds:

The named lunar places are typeset; plus additions of lettering in "UNO" pen stencil looking style indicating various moon landing sites, with map 'key' text.
BUT
Tellingly you might think (I know I do!) the lunar 'seas' on this lunar map consist of ...dot stipple and scribble shading...

So David can't see anyone else doing the stippling on the maps below but Bellamy.

 I felt maybe this couldn't be the case - no credit and the price he was paid. But David thinks this a red herring as:

The way the industry and Mirror could have been looking at it, might have been that it was two double-page spreads, and in newsprint terms (purely as square feet+inches) would be a way to quantify things  - or that would be natural when it came to selling advertising space for example...

If Bellamy did the stippling and adaptation of the shading to newsprint he might not care about being credited. But being tenacious I looked further.

In the Daily Mirror 4 October 1969 there is mention on page 7 of "The great moon game"

Daily Mirror 4 October 1969, p.7

"BLAST-OFF! Get into orbit today with the Mirror's Great Moon Game competition" [...] "Hundreds of consolation prizes await successful entrants in our Moon Game You could win a superb forty-eight page Moon Flight Atlas, a huge full colour Moon Map. or a fascinating Moon Globe"  -Emphasis mine

Results were to be published in the Daily Mirror for Monday November 3 but I haven't seen that and don't expect to see the moon map there. I imagine as they used the Hallwag map, they bought/were given some copies to distribute. A full colour piece in the Daily Mirror fetched a larger income than the suggested amount of £75so I suspect that David might be right.

What do you think?

Frank Bellamy artwork from 11 July 1969 Daily Mirror

LINKS

When I was a kid in 1969 on the cusp of becoming a teenager, the only experience of the Apollo mission was via television or in books, magazines, model kits and slides. Now we can hear the whole mission spoken by the people who took part and watch video on The First Men on the Moon: The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing.

This project is an online interactive featuring the Eagle lunar landing. The presentation includes original Apollo 11 spaceflight video footage, communication audio, mission control room conversations, text transcripts, and telemetry data, all synchronized into an integrated audio-visual experience.

Turn your PC speakers on, click GO and sit back! And remember Bellamy got there first...in a manner of speaking

The Map House has an exhibition which ends on August 21 2019 - read more here - and see the Hallwag map

Don't forget Alan Davis' site of Bellamy's work

If you want to know more about those experiments that appear in the Airfix kit and Bellamy's illustration, - EASEPs (Early Apollo Surface Experiments Package) and ALSEPs (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package) see Brian J. O'Brien's site

ORIGINAL ART: Bob Monkhouse Estate: Thunderbirds, Garth and Dan Dare

Original art from the Bob Monkhouse collection
Thunderbirds from TV21 #105

UPDATED PRICES BELOW - Frank Bellamy record price for Thunderbirds!

I apologise for the quiet that has descended on this blog. Various life events occurred, the latest of which was my stupidity in lifting railway sleepers (used as raised beds in our garden) by myself and thus damaging my back! I'm recovering and doing my gentle exercises, but can I remind you all, be careful of your back... seriously!

Anyway better things. It's Frank Bellamy's birthday. The more I look at his artwork, the more I am amazed at how this self-taught man moved from a provincial advertising studio in Kettering to another in London before going on to a long career in comics and illustration week in, week out. His use of space in constricted newspaper strips was incredible - even to look at today and his full colour double page spreads still leave me wanting more!

In the latest (May/June 2019) Comic Book Auctions Limited  we have again some artwork released from the estate of the late Bob Monkhouse. By the way, watch him on YouTube in his final performance and remind yourselves what a great comic he was!)

Let's start chronologically with Dan Dare

Eagle 9 April 1960 (Vol.11 No 15)

The printed version

I wrote about how Wally Wood used some of this page (in an article on Al Williamson) and here it is up for auction! Monkhouse looks to have stored his stuff very well and this very unique piece is likely to have started fading before he got it, in my opinion. The printed version above is too saturated in blue and therefore is not a great comparison but I thought might be of interest!


This piece is described as:

Dan Dare original artwork painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 11, No 15 page 2 (9 April 1960)
Dan and Pierre blast off in Nimbus Two in search of the wreck of her sister ship
From the Bob Monkhouse archive
Pelikan inks on board. 17 x 13 ins
£1,200-1,500

It appeared in the third, and last Dan Dare story Bellamy part illustrated in Eagle, "Project Nimbus" - appearing in Vol. 11:12 - 11:28 (19 March 1960 - 9 July 1960) and it's amazing to see this piece become available.   

The second item up for auction in chronological order was produced by Bellamy in  1967 (see the top of this article)

Comic Book Auctions Limited describes this:

Thunderbirds original double page artwork (1967) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 105, 1967
From the Bob Monkhouse archive
Carrying a priceless shipment, Deathprobe 1's controls are jammed and the pilot is refused permission to abort ... Thunderbirds 2 and 3 are go ...
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins
£2,500-3,500

In the photos Nancy Bellamy shared with us, there was a photo of the cover of a magazine called Photography (May 1966). The same image was used on the Hotspur Annual of 1967 (dated 1968). Did Bellamy use it for reference for this Thunderbirds strip?
 

The Hotspur Annual 1968

Lastly we have also got three Garth strips from the story "The Mask of Atacama"  which ran originally in the Daily Mirror from 13 July 1973 - 25 October 1973 (#G165-G254). These are beautiful and show exactly what I meant by his use of such restricted space. Why Malcolm photographed them in the wrong order I don't know, but three consecutive numbers are up for grabs!

Garth #G238, G239, G240

Garth: 3 original consecutive artworks (1973) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy from the Daily Mirror 6-9 October 1973
From the Bob Monkhouse archive
High priestess, Tiahuaca, sets a fiery trap for Garth and Atacama …
Indian ink on board. 20 x 18 ins (3)
£700-900

I suspect these will go further than the estimate (as will the ones above!), and I'll update the spreadsheet with the sale prices as soon as they are published - thank you Malcolm!

And because we are celebrating Frank Bellamy's birthday here's an added bonus from the brilliant Menomonee Falls Gazette (#181), some episodes before the ones above and including them too!

AUCTION SUMMARY

Dan Dare
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd.
STARTING BID:£1080.00
ENDING PRICE: £2050.00 hammer price

END DATE: Sunday 2 June 2019 14:54 BST

Thunderbirds - TV21 #105
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd
STARTING BID:£2250.00
ENDING PRICE: £8300.00 hammer price

END DATE: Sunday 2 June 2019 15:26 BST

Garth: The Mask of Atacama
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd.
STARTING BID:£640.00
ENDING PRICE: £1120.00 hammer price

END DATE: Sunday 2 June 2019 15:27 BST

ORIGINAL ART: Thunderbirds and Garth from Bob Monkhouse Estate

Original art from the Bob Monkhouse collection
Thunderbirds from TV21 #131

I woke this morning to the announcement of three pieces of artwork produced by Frank Bellamy, in the latest (March 2019) Comic Book Auctions Limited  and from the estate of the late Bob Monkhouse. You might recall that the previous lots appeared in November last year. If you follow the link (or jump to my page where I keep sales records) you'll see they raised a fair amount of money. Will these go for more? "No-Predictions Norman", they call me!

Let's start with the headliner: From TV21 #131, this is the second episode from the story which ran in TV21 #130 - 136 (15 July 67 - 26 August 67) called the "Voyage of the President". It is described as:

Lot # 102:
Thunderbirds original double-page artwork (1967) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 131, 1967
From the Bob Monkhouse Archive
Fearing a rebel attack on the President super-ship Thunderbirds 1 keeps station but a rogue tanker is on collision course…
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins
£1,800-2,300

I wouldn't call it a "rogue tanker" as Casta and Golan are deliberately aiming at the 'President'. Here's the page from TV21 so you can see how this page has retained the colour - remember children, do not hang your art on the wall! The sun is a killer as we've seen many times over the years. Bear in mind this is a scan of a printed page and nowhere as clear as the original art above!!

Thunderbirds from TV21 #131

The next lot I found interesting is Lot #92 which is a rare page from the serial "Brett Million" and this story was the only one illustrated by Bellamy, called "Ghost World". I've written about this before (and it's worth highlighting Steve Holland's brilliant index again). It appeared in Boy's World, a photogravure comic which ran the story from Volume 1:46 - 1:49 and continued into 2:1 - 2:17. (7 December 1963 -28 December 1963, 4 January 1964 -  25 April 1964). The lot is described:

Lot # 92:
Boy's World/Brett Million and the Ghost World original artwork (1963) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy
From the Bob Monkhouse Archive
From Boy's World Vol. 2: No 9. To save the ship Brett undergoes the life threatening risk of neural amplication [sic] - invisibility!
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 20 x 15 ins
£1,200-1,500

Original art from Bob Monkhouse collection
Boy's World 29 Feb 1964 Vol.2:9

This, the 13th episode of the story, shows how Bellamy was using different colours for this strip, for some reason. The artwork may be a bit faded but the comparison below with the printed version shows similar colouring. Bellamy had a knack of making ships look very futuristic and alien! Here's a photo of my copy of the comic to compare.

Photo of the comic Boy's World 29 Feb 1964 Vol.2:9

The idea of accelerated time = invisibility appeared on my radar in Star Trek: The Original Series (as they call it now!) in the episode "Wink of an eye". This was aired first on 29 November 1968, so did Lee Coon the author of the story read British comics? I doubt it, but who knows?

Then we have the third offer which is of three consecutive Garth strips from the Daily Mirror.  "The Wreckers" story ran from 26 October 1973 - 18 February 1974 and these three strips certainly show how Bellamy had a very good command of such a small space.

Garth: The Wreckers Episodes G304-306

One episode of the story of "The Wreckers" is held by the Cartoon Museum which will soon be open in its new location in London.

The lot is described thus:

Lot # 104:
Garth: 3 original consecutive artworks (1973) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy from the Daily Mirror 22-27 December 1973
From the Bob Monkhouse Archive
Garth is trapped with Andromeda in Tallion's torture chamber…
Indian ink on board. 20 x 18 ins (x3)
£600-800

I'll update the spreadsheet with the sale prices as soon as they are published - thank you Malcolm!


AUCTION SUMMARY

Thunderbirds - TV21 #131
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd
STARTING BID:£1620.00
ENDING PRICE: £4750.00

END DATE: Sunday 3 March 2019 14:00 GMT

Garth: The Wreckers
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd.
STARTING BID:£540.00
ENDING PRICE: £1320.00

END DATE: Sunday 3 March 2019 14:00 GMT

Brett Million & The Ghost World
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd.
STARTING BID:£1080.00
ENDING PRICE: £1580.00

END DATE: Sunday 3 March 2019 14:00 GMT

ORIGINAL ART: Thunderbirds and Garth from Bob Monkhouse Estate

Cover of TV21 #90 Monster built by Roger Dicken

The November catalogue at Comic Book Auctions Limited run by Malcolm Phillips has some amazing materials up for auction. Follow that link for his catalogue and illustrations and bid via The Saleroom here. He has been entrusted by Bob Monkhouse's Estate to sell some of this collector's extensive artwork and comics. As he says (without hyperbole in my opinion)

We are delighted to draw your attention to some magnificent artwork boards consigned to us from the Bob Monkhouse Archive. They comprise pieces from 1900–1974 and include Ally Sloper by W F Thomas, Film Fun’s Terry Thomas by Terry Wakefield, Erik The Viking, The Trigan Empire, both by Don Lawrence with Garth and Thunderbirds pieces by Frank Bellamy. The Thunderbirds double-page illustration is magnificent and one of his best boards ever to come up for auction.

Tom Derbyshire at Antiques Trade Gazette has written a piece on the auction, which in itself is going to raise some outside interest, in my opinion.

Original art - sans balloons - Thunderbirds from TV21 #90

The Thunderbirds strip comes from TV21 #90, from the story where TB3 crashes on Venus, after blasting some solar matter to pieces. The photo doesn't do this piece credit as I think the colours look very bright and preserved correctly.  What's interesting here is the lack of balloons and captions. This is very unusual to see and I'd love to know how Bob Monkhouse managed to get this like this. Alan Davis' collection of Polaroids and other photos show how Thunderbirds would have been delivered by Bellamy to the publisher, but the artwork I've normally seen for sale has balloons stuck on (or falling off!) so this is a wonderful sale.

Malcolm describes the artwork like this:

Thunderbirds original double-page artwork (1966) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 90 1966. From the Bob Monkhouse Archive. The front cover of the comic screamed, "Nightmare Splashdown for Crippled Ship - Monster Attacks Thunderbird 3!" And here is Bellamy's brilliant double-page artwork to prove it! The 'Thunderbirds' logo is an unattached laser colour copy, as are the word balloons with the original comic, all included in the lot. Bright, fresh Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins. 

Auctioneer's estimate

1,800 GBP - 2,300 GBP (opening bid 1,620 GBP)

The original with the word balloons and captions attached looked like this - bearing in mind it's a scan that's joined together, but you can still see how vibrant the original is.

The three Garth strips  that are being offered form the Bob Monkhouse Estate are from "The Wreckers" story that ran in from 26 October 1973 - 18 February 1974. These three (H26, H27 and H29) show a lovely action sequence in the water - not quite consecutively - and demonstrate how very clear Bellamy's art was for the Garth strip in the Daily Mirror.

Garth: 3 original consecutive [sic] artworks drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy from the Daily Mirror Jan/Feb 1974. From the Bob Monkhouse Archive. Garth saves Andromeda from Tallion's clutches … Indian ink on board. 20 x 8 ins (x3)

Auctioneer's estimate

350 GBP - 400 GBP - (opening bid 320 GBP)

H26, H27 and H29 "The Wreckers" Frank Bellamy

As part of the wonderful public service I offer, here's the missing H28 that would have made these consecutive. BUT you are still getting 2 consecutive strips plus one more from the same story from the same source!

H28 of The Wreckers story

I shall record the details as usual here and on my spreadsheet, when the auction ends

AUCTION SUMMARY

Thunderbirds - TV21 #90
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd
STARTING BID:£
ENDING PRICE: £4550 +16% VAT/Sales tax
NO. OF BIDS:

END DATE: Sunday 25 Nov 2018 14:00 GMT

Garth: The Wreckers
WHERE?: Comic Book Auctions Ltd.
STARTING BID:£
ENDING PRICE: £1200 +16% VAT/Sales tax
NO. OF BIDS:

END DATE: Sunday 25 Nov 2018 14:00 GMT

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Bubble Man (J239)

J239 episode of  "Garth: The Bubble Man" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

There's another Garth strip on eBay - from the "Bubble Man" story (#J239) - many thanks to Chris Power for alerting me to it.  "sweet4action" is the seller who describes the item like this:

You are bidding on an original signed Daily Mirror 'Garth' Cartoon strip from 1975 by the late Frank Bellamy. Drawn in pen and ink on artboard the piece features many of the artistic flourishes Bellamy was famed for.

DIMENSIONS: Approximately 54.5cm x 15.5cm.

ITEM DETAILS: The strip carries the date 10-10-75 in pen, in the top right corner, and the number J239 denotes that it is from 'The Bubble Man' series from that year (1975). Considering that the strip is over 43 years old it is in extremely good condition, being bright and clean with no staining, yellowing and only minimal wear to board corners (see photos). The pen-work is crisp and clear with only the odd pencil outline visible. It has the Daily Mirror copyright stamp on the back (see photos).

This auction is due to end  on 12 November 2018 and the bidding starts at £225.

The seller put up these images too which show the lovely detail

The last episode from this story that sold went for only £255 in March this year. I suy 'only' because I'm surprised that it didn't go for more!

The Bubble Man story has been reprinted in the following places:

• Garth: The Bubble Man All Devon Comic Collectors Club Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.28 [No date]
• Garth: The Bubble Man Spaceship Away Issue 19, October 2009, to Issue 23 March 2011 Coloured by John Ridgway
• Daily Mirror Wednesday 9 November 2011 to Friday 30 December 2011 - Two tier reprint coloured by Martin Baines

AUCTION SUMMARY
WHERE?: eBay
SELLER: sweet4action
LOT #: 223215051163STARTING BID:£225
ENDING PRICE: £376
NO. OF BIDS: 10

END DATE: 12 November 2018

Original Art: Garth on Heritage - The Man-Hunt (K240)

K240 episode of  "Garth: The Man-Hunt" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

Heriatge Auctions have another Garth strip by Frank Bellamy for auction and I suspect, as in many of Bellamy's women, the main figure might be based on his wife Nancy. This strip comes from the Garth story "The Man-Hunt", which was the last story illustrated by Bellamy before his death in 1976. The opening strip (K239) was published on 7 October 1976 and K254 (25 October 1976) was his last signed strip after which Martin Asbury took over this story (ending it 15 January 1977) and the Garth series until its demise in March 1997.


Heritage describe the piece:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip #K240 Original Art dated 8-10-76 (Daily Mirror of London, 1976). This is one of the last few Garth episodes Frank Bellamy illustrated, as he died suddenly in July of 1976. As a result, this installment appeared in print posthumously. In this episode, the science-fiction/superman feature takes a turn into the provocative concept of "synthesisation of organic matter" -- an ahead-of-its time idea, typical of classic SF. The title hero, Garth, receives a summons to meet with the scientist responsible, and is astonished to learn that she is organic, not synthetic. Bellamy lays down some finely detailed inking over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 20.5" x 5.25", it is in Excellent condition.

This auction is on Sunday August 19 2018

The Man-Hunt story has been reprinted just twice in the following places:

• Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection, Mike Higgs, London: Hawk 1998
• Daily Mirror Tuesday 4 November 2014 to Wednesday 12 November 2014 (K254). This was the coloured version (with printed credits for Martin Baines and Bellamy (but not Jim Edgar the author!). The story drawn by Martin Asbury continued until 22 December 2014

Here's the first page from Mike Higgs' Mirror Classic Cartoon book with an introduction

The Man-Hunt drawn by Frank Bellamy

AUCTION SUMMARY
WHERE?: Heritage
STARTING BID:$1
ENDING PRICE: $432 (includes Buyer's Premium) = £334.34
NO. OF BIDS: 10

END DATE: Sunday 19 August 2018

Original Art: Garth on Comic Link - The Spanish Lady (K103)

K103 episode of  "Garth: The Spanish Lady" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

This episode comes from the Garth story "The Spanish Lady", which was the penultimate story illustrated by Bellamy before his early death.   It's up for auction in the USA on Comic Link (their full Original Comic Art auction is here)

Comic Link describes this piece very briefly and I notice they have "1-15" in the title, which I think they've taken from the pencil saying "Fri - Sat 1-5-76" - (a topic I have yet to tackle and try to explain) :

Primary Artist Name: FRANK BELLAMY
Secondary Artist Name:
Year: 1976
Dimensions: The art has an approximate image area of 20.5" X 5".
Auction Start Date: 6/7/2018 8:00:00 PM [7th June]

This auction starts on Thursday 7 June 2018 and the bidding starts at $1, but don't believe you'll get it for that. Recent performance tells me, it will be around 200 times that amount, if not more.

The Spanish Lady story has been reprinted in the following places:

• Garth: The Spanish Lady (Daily strips, Garth No. 3). London: John Dakin, Nov 1979 A4 size reprint 20 pages Reprints Garth strips K65-K160 from the Daily Mirror, March 17 - July 7, 1976.
• Garth: The Spanish Lady All Devon Comic Collectors Club Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.3 [No date] - Information from Garth: the index (Pub: ADCCC)
• Daily Mirror Wednesday 08 June 2011 - Tuesday 2 August 2011 Two tier reprint coloured by Martin Baines

I'll update the sale price here and on my spreadsheet

And for the person who buys the piece, here's the two episodes on either side of K103

AUCTION SUMMARY
WHERE?: Comic Link
STARTING BID:$1
ENDING PRICE: $242 = £190.23
NO. OF BIDS: 15

END DATE: 7 June 2018 28 June 2018

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Bubble Man (J258)

J258 episode of  "Garth: The Bubble Man" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

I noticed that there's a Garth original on eBay. This one sold 6 years ago for £170 and the market has certainly not 'cooled' for original Garths.

The seller describes this piece very briefly:

Original newspaper artwork. This is panel J258 from "The Bubble Man" published on 01 NOV75 published in the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper in 1977.

It's a lovely example of the later Bellamy Garth and the fascinating aliens he concocted! In addition to this Garth the seller also has a Steve Dowling 'Garth' and a Martin Asbury 'Garth'

This auction is due to end  on Wednesday 22 March 2018 and the bidding starts at £200. Do note, the seller lives in Luxembourg but he mentions the manner of postage in his description - and he has some lovely Tony Weare, Leonard Starr, and Arthur Ferrier to sell.

The Bubble Man story has been reprinted in the following places: 

• Garth: The Bubble Man All Devon Comic Collectors Club Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.28 [No date]
• Garth: The Bubble Man Spaceship Away Issue 19, October 2009, to Issue 23 March 2011 Coloured by John Ridgway
• Daily Mirror Wednesday 9 November 2011 to Friday 30 December 2011 - Two tier reprint coloured by Martin Baines

Here's an example of Ridgway's coloured version of the first compilation of 6 strips

Used with permission

AUCTION SUMMARY
WHERE?: eBay
SELLER: staylor133
LOT #: 123014810386
STARTING BID:£200
ENDING PRICE: £255
NO. OF BIDS:4

END DATE: 22 March 2018