Frank Bellamy and OA Dan Dare

 

Eagle Vol.10:36 (24 October 1959)

Having just had the holiday that was planned many years ago I quickly added the latest Comic Book Auctions entry as a placeholder here. Here now are the full details for future reference.

Frank Bellamy's beautiful front page cover for Eagle Volume 10 issue 36 (dated 24 October 1959) is up for auction. It's Lot #38 on Thesaleroom.com and the opening bid will be £1260 with an auctioneer's estimate of £1400-£1800. This is from Bellamy's first story "Terra Nova".

The description goes like this:

Lot # 38:
Dan Dare/Eagle original cover artwork (1959) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 10 No 36
'On Terra Nova Professor Jocelyn Peabody and Lex O'Mally are carried off by 'Nagrebs’ giant, man-eating ants. Dan's spacesuit is infused with 'Oro' - a vine-juice which repels Nagrebs and might protect him...'
Bright Pelikan ink on board. 15 x 13 ins
£1,400-1,800

Here's my scan of the printed page to compare but you can see the original is so much brighter.

This is quite an iconic page with Dan himself featured and will be interesting to see what happens with the bidding next week - as it appears many bids are placed at the last moment. I'll update the spreadsheet when the auction is over as well as completing the details below.

AUCTION SUMMARY

DAN DARE: Eagle 24 October 1959 (Vol. 10:36)
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £1,260 (Estimate: £1,400-£1,800)
ENDING PRICE: £1,700
END DATE: Sunday 25 February 2024

ORIGINAL ART : Compal Auction November 2023 - Heros, Dan Dare and a cartoon

 

Eagle 27 March 1965 Vol 16:13, pp10-11

This time round we have three pieces of original art and lots of comics with Frank Bellamy's art up for auction.

The latest Compalcomics auction is now live. The listings at both on Compalcomics and TheSaleroom

HEROS THE SPARTAN: Eagle 27 March 1965 (Vol. 16:13)

The image at the top of this article shows the 5th episode of the story "The Slave Army". It looks very bright compared to the printed version but that's nothing as the print versions under Longacre were a far cry from the wonderful photogravure of the earlier Eagle comics. The blues are still bright which is normally where we see these artworks fade first.

It is described as:

Lot # 114:
Heros the Spartan original double-page artwork (1965) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 16: No 13
'After a revolt in the gold mines of Libya, Heros was captured by the escaped slaves - led by a Briton called Garthac - and forced to lead them across the desert. Suddenly they are attacked by an army of strange horsemen...'
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins. The Heros title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork
£3,000-3,500

I remember David Jackson pointing out to me an error in the story. The cry of the attacking group, the men of Raschid, is "By the Prophet!"

As Wikipedia tells us, Muhammad was born c. 570 and died on the 8 June 632 A.D., as we would have said back then. So the founder of Islam was born approximately 100 years after the initial sacking of Rome which led to the fall of the Roman Empire. But I notice that throughout Tom Tully's writings, he loves expletives - "By Mithras!" in this episode; "By the Gods!" and "By Tanarus!" in the previous one, so it's not too surprising he messed up here. I suspect if the Reverend Marcus Morris (Eagle's co-creator and first long-serving Editor) was still in post, he might have spotted this. Anyway, a lovely bright piece with a classic Bellamy battle scene.

DAN DARE: Eagle 12 September 1959 (Vol. 10:30)

Eagle 12 September 1959 (Vol. 10:30)

During the year in which Bellamy drew "Dan Dare" he was 'assisted' mostly by Don Harley, Bruce Cornwell, Keith Watson (and occasionally Gerald Palmer). The above page is undoubtedly Bellamy - the cover page this issue was by Harley. Bellamy hasn't signed this page but he didn't when he felt the whole thing wasn't his work and particularly while he was getting used to this peculiar work arrangement. His first signature on Dan Dare was three issues later in Eagle Vol.10:33 (3 October 1959). Take no notice in the following description where it says 'gouache'. These are all inks!

This auction is described as:

Lot # 65:
Dan Dare/Eagle original artwork (1959) by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol 10, No 30 pg 2 with original comic
'As the rescue party follows along the Terra Nova Jungle trail, Dan, Sir Hubert and Digby are mysteriously given the freedom of Pax, The Novad central city ...'
Bright gouache colours [sic] on board. 15 x 13 ins
£1,500-2,000

BELLAMY SKETCH: To be or not to be

"To be or not to be"

This sketch originally was in the Bob Monkhouse collection and been moved around a bit since it was first sold. The valuation, in my opinion, is correct for an original Bellamy with such provenance. 

Frank Bellamy original signed sketch (1940s) 'To Be or Not to Be' The Catering Corps Sergeant in a dilemma over the troops tinned rations menu (Probably hung in the Sergeant's Mess!) From the Bob Monkhouse archive. Indian ink and wash on card. 14 x 10 ins

I have never seen this original in person but is it really ink "and wash"? I thought the paper just looked aged - and there was a war on!

Finally check out the complete runs of TV21s and some volumes of Eagle in the auction!

AUCTION SUMMARY

HEROS THE SPARTAN: Eagle 27 March 1965 (Vol. 16:13)
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £2,700 (Estimate: £3,000-£3,500)
ENDING PRICE: £2,700
END DATE: Sunday 19 November 2023

DAN DARE: Eagle 12 September 1959 (Vol. 10:30)
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £1,360 (Estimate: £1,500-£2,000)
ENDING PRICE: £1,520
END DATE: Sunday 19 November 2023

BELLAMY SKETCH: To be or not to be
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £70 (Estimate: £80-£120
ENDING PRICE: £60
END DATE: Sunday 19 November 2023

ORIGINAL ART- Heros the Spartan, Eagle Vol15:23

 Just a quick note to mention that a lovely copy of Heros the Spartan artwork has come up in Compalcomics Auctions latest auction. The whole catalogue is open for realtime bidding at  thesaleroom.com and Malcolm still lists them on his website too at Compalcomics

The piece we're interested in comes from Eagle Volume 15 number 23, dated 6 June 1964. It's a very nicely preserved piece and is the first episode of "Axe of Arguth", Bellamy's third story (of four plus the annual) about Heros.

 The lot is described thus:

Lot # 60:
Heros the Spartan original double page artwork (1964) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 15. No 23
'Surviving a terrible storm, Heros and his crew are attacked by strange vessels, their wild, stocky leader screaming the Romans will face a task more terrible than any the spirits of evil and darkness could devise!'
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins. The Heros title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork
£4,000-4,500

I'd like to have seen the artwork without the lettering added by a keen collector, but I understand the desire to have a copy of what was published. 

That last panel always reminds me of Graham Ingels gruesome work for the infamous E C Comics and which influenced Bernie Wrightson's work later in the late 60s where he would often use the device. I can see a similar image by Wrightson, but can't lay my hands on it. Anyone point me to the right image?

***UPDATE: 4 September 2023 ****

Malcolm Phillips has written in his Market Report:

A Heros The Spartan artwork painted and signed by Frank Bellamy sold under its estimate after the auction’s close at £2750

I spoke to a collector who was of the opinion there was nothing exceptional about this particular piece, and I agree.

AUCTION SUMMARY

Heros the Spartan Eagle 6 June 1964 (Vol.15:23)
WHERE?: TheSaleroom / Compal Auctions
STARTING BID: £3600
Auctioneer's estimate: £4,000 - £4,500
ENDING PRICE: £Unsold at starting bid - sold after auction at £2750
END DATE: 27 August 2023

ORIGINAL ART: Montgomery and Garth

Copies of Montgomery plus original artwork

Well, this has been a busy month for me. Omega Auctions (of Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside) c/o TheSaleroom are auctioning some original art and a collector's bound copy of Heros the Spartan and also Thunderbirds in their "TV, Film and Entertainment Memorabilia with Comics" auction.

MONTGOMERY OF ALAMEIN

"Montgomery of Alamein" Eagle Vol.13:21

Boards from the "Montgomery of Alamein" series in Eagle are very rare and this one is in pretty good condition considering its age. The last one sold that I recorded in nearly 15 years of keeping figures, was in November 2009 (from Eagle Vol 13:17) and that raised an impressive £2,849 for Comic Book Auctions Ltd. Here we are 13 years later with the episode from Eagle 26 May 1962 (Vol.13:21). The biography of Monty ran for 18 weeks from 10 March 1962 - 7 July 1962 and is one of my personal favourites, written by Clifford Makins. 

The auctioneers descibe it thus:

An original artboard (60 x 44cm) with original art across various panels for 'Montgomery Of Alamein' by Frank Bellamy, published 26th May 1962 in 'The Eagle'. Marked to lower right hand 'Vol 13/21'. Also a set of 18 sheets of the strip from March to 17th [sic] July 1962.

I love the devices Frank Bellamy used in this series which appeared as shorthand for troop movements and the large lettering for "Operation Market Garden" (one of the airborne forces most famous operations). Then we have the cameo of Monty himself. When comparing the original as being sold I feel I must say that at this point in Eagle's 12 years of publication, the printing quality was nowhere near as good as it had been and looking at the original we can see that this well-preserved piece shines compared to the printed version. All of the text boxes which will have been glued in place by Eagle staff seem to have gone, but what a beauty! I'd love to see a hi-res scan of this, if the winner feels like sharing!

"Montgomery of Alamein" Eagle Vol.13:21 (my photo)

GARTH - THE DOOMSMEN (J180)

Garth- The Doomsmen (J180)

I suspect they do not have a comic strip expert at Omega Auctions, but nevertheless:

An original storyboard [sic] by artist Frank Bellamy, depicting a panel from a 'Garth' comic, published c 1975. Measures 54.5 x 17.5cm.

This is from a later story "The Doomsmen" and the auctioneer's estimate is £150 to £250 which suggests they haven't been reading my blog! But these are strange times so let's see!

The other three lots, of Bellamy interest, are "a large collection of Thunderbirds comic pages" described as 

"A large quantity of bound colour pages from TV Century 21 magazines with art by Frank Bellamy. One volume with pages from Jan 15th '2066' to Oct 22 '2066', one from Dec 10th '2066' to July 8 '2067', More from '2067' to '2069'."

From the images, I'm guessing you are also getting some other Bellamy cuttings such as Doctor Who and I can't see how the different sizes are bound. 

Then we have another group: "A bound collection of colour cover [sic] pages from 'Heros Of the Spartan' by Frank Bellamy, from 27th October 1962 to 26th Oct 1963. Good condition. "

It sounds like the first two Heros stories are here. I'll leave you to explore my comic listing to see what's missing from these volumes after you check with the auctioneers if required!

Then there is Dan Dare collected together and described:

A bound run of Dan Dare comics from The Eagle from 29th August [1959] to 9th July 1960. Excellent condition.

which sounds like all three Bellamy stories - but do check!

I'll update sales figures when they become known.

AUCTION SUMMARY

MONTGOMERY OF ALAMEIN

WHERE?: TheSaleroom / Omega Auctions
STARTING BID: £
ENDING PRICE: £2800
END DATE: 6 December 2022

GARTH - THE DOOMSMEN (J180)

WHERE?: TheSaleroom / Omega Auctions
STARTING BID: £90
ENDING PRICE: £220
END DATE: 6 December 2022

Bound copies of Heros

Bound copies of Thunderbirds

Bound copies of Dan Dare

Happy Birthday Frank Bellamy

Crosse & Blackwell advert 1971

It's the 21st May and in 1917 one of Britain's greatest artists was born in Kettering 105 years ago - not "600 years ago"! I'm happy to remember this date every year, but what to show you?

I've decided, for no other reason than these are images with a subject of "many years ago" to show you three pieces you will enjoy

The first (at the head of this article) comes from an advert drawn by Bellamy for the agency Lonsdale Crowther Ltd whose client was Crosse & Blackwell. Bellamy was paid £115.50 for the full colour battle scene titled "Life as it was 600 years ago". Notably there is no signature. This advert appeared in various comics (where they were printed in colour) including, but not exclusively Countdown No.12 (Week ending 8th May 1971) and Look & Learn No. 485 (1 May 1971). If anyone knows where the original artwork is, I'd love to know and if you spot the advert anywhere else, I'd add that to the listing. 

Eagle 28 August 1965 (Vol.16:35

The second piece appeared in Eagle in the summer of 1965 and shows one of the "Arms through the ages" series. You can see the others here. What's interesting is the missing panel which appeared bottom left on the printed cover. As it contains a somewhat violent image(!) it may have been cut out and omitted in a further reprint, but I've not found one yet! Bellamy was paid £44 for this.

Eagle 28 August 1965 (Vol.16:35

 And lastly, again through the kindness of collectors, I have another original art to show you. This comes from Swift Vol2:37

Swift Vol.2:37 (10 September 1955)

The seventh episode of "King Arthur and his knights" - copies of the whole story can still be found on Book Palace's website.

Frank Bellamy and Brian Lewis and Captain Condor

Eagle Vol.11:9 (27 Feb 1960)

You may have seen adverts for Hibernia Comics latest collection in their "Fleetway Files" series. It contains three "Captain Condor" stories illustrated by another artist I like, Brian Lewis. Bellamy and Lewis were contemporaries and I always say Bellamy's demise was too soon, but Lewis was only 49 when he passed away (3 June 1929 - 4 December 1978) but he left us with some superb artwork. 

The character Captain Condor was created in February 1952 as a direct competition to Eagle's "Dan Dare" by Frank S. Pepper, a stalwart of story papers and Tiger and Lion - the latter is where Condor first appeared.

Hibernia Comics "Captain Condor"

I bought the Hibernia comics book and was reading quite happily in my nostalgic place when I was brought up sharp - some of these images looked similar to Bellamy's "Dan Dare" - what irony as the two were seen as competitors!

Taking each image that I spotted in order - there are likely to be a few more  as so many faces and groupings of people look very familiar but as a quick glance I couldn't find their immediate references so i thought I'd publish this and see if others can play along! 

The first I spotted was on page 5 of the Hibernia version (originally published in Lion 30 December 1961)

Lion 30 December 1961 -
scan of original comic

Compare the bottom row to the Eagle comics - firstly at the top of this article (where we see the helicopter devices strapped to Dan Dare and friends' backs) and then the following where Dan Dare is looking somewhat shocked (bottom right)!

Eagle Vol.10:30 (12 December 1959)

On page 62 of the Hibernia book we get our first glimpse of the aliens in the story "The Slave Hunters from Space", and they appear very similar (to me at least) to the aliens from the Dan Dare "Project Nimbus" story.

Lion 21 July 1962 -
scan of original comic

And here is the Bellamy version from 2 years earlier!

Eagle Vol.11:22 (28 May 1960)

Next we have (on page 93 of the new book) what some think might be a predecessor to Thunderbird 2 - which I cannot prove or disprove as I don't know if Derek Meddings - its designer -or one of his children read the Eagle comic. But I'm certain Brian Lewis did. He contributed to that comic too, drawing fill-ins on "The Guinea Pig", a long run on "Mann of Battle", and even a spoof strip "Blunderbirds" in 1966!

Lion 3 November 1962 -
scan of original comic

Eagle Vol.11:2 (9 January 1960)

A note to the unwary that only the lower row (in the above image) is by Bellamy as the main frame had been drawn up on the fly by Gerry Palmer without Frank's knowledge or consent..! [Thanks for the reminder from David Jackson]

Of course I started to see other influences - even what I thought might be based on Frazetta's cover to Famous Funnies #214 on page 94! At that point I thought I'd better stop. There's a Facebook group if you'd like to see more of Brian's work, and I uploaded some rare images of his work in "All about science" - a part work from the 70s - to Flickr.

Let me finish by quoting John Freeman from his review of the new collection:

The team at Hibernia have again done a cracking restoration job on the pages featured in this 120-page collection, treating us to three three enjoyable SF-inspired romps, "The Push Button Planet", "Slave Hunters from Outer Space" and "The Unseen Invaders".

Frank Bellamy in Action comic

Eagle 21 April 1962

This is a quick blog article which shows one "Montgomery of Alamein" from Eagle Vol. 13 No. 16 - dated 21 April 1962 as reprinted in Action, an infamous comic published in the UK beginning 14 February 1976 (until 12 November 1977, with annuals continuing until Action Annual 1985!). It was Richard Sheaf and Paul Trimble who alerted me to this, for which I thank them. As Richard stated "you'll see that the images has been 'squashed' slightly for the Action cover. The tank wheels in both images are identical and the explosion is very much in the Bellamy style. In fact it was the explosion style tipped me off that this was Bellamy more than the tank wheels! Once I knew it was Bellamy that helped me narrow it down".

If you want to see all the (idetified so far) reprinted Bellamy artwork in Action and its later incarnation Battle Action, read my previous article

Don Harley (1927-2021)

Eagle Vol:10:28 (29 August 1959)

The news of Don Harley's death arrived the other day and it spurred me on to sharing a letter he sent to Richard Farrell (the creator and publisher of Andersonic and all round brilliant caricaturist). Richard used some of the letter in quotations in his article "Frank, Don, Dan and the Tracys" (way back in Andersonic Episode 4 Dateline (Autumn 2007) pp.4-8) and has given me permission to use whatever information I find useful from his letters from Harley and Keith Watson here for the first time. The topics covered by both artists are Frank Bellamy and the changeover at Hulton during a massive upheaval - the subject of an earlier article by David Jackson and here too. I also shared the drawing, with permission, of Bellamy by Don Harley way back in 2009 and another article in 2010

In Don Harley's letter (from 9 March 1991) Richard is given advice by Don on drawing and Don goes on:

"Both Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy were skilled draughtsmen. Frank Hampson learned his skills at Southport art school and through working in a commercial art studio, but Frank Bellamy was self-taught, as was Keith Watson also, although the last two were self-taught, they aimed for perfection in their work. Frank Hampson's style of drawing was much more subtle and sensitive than Frank Bellamy's he paid much more attention to detail even small objects were drawn with great care. Frank Bellamy on the other hand relied much more on design and contrasting tones, he also aimed for great movement and impact achieved through the heavy use of black. 

Kieth (sic) Watson and I never saw Frank Bellamy at work as he worked at home and at this time, 1959, Kieth (sic) and I with other members of the Dan Dare team were working in Hulton House, Fleet Street. Frank would deliver his part of the work and we tied it in with what we were doing and as the two styles were so different it looked like two different strips. 

Frank Bellamy was secretive about his methods of working although he did reveal to us that he did not mix colours on the palette but applied washes of diluted ink using primary colours only, red, yellow and blue therefore he made green by putting a wash of yellow on top of blue to make a darker green he would add more blue and a touch of red to prevent the green from becoming too acidic the colours were pelican (sic) inks he rarely used watercolour. The board he used was CS10 which is normally extremely difficult to paint upon, it had a surface like scraperboard    he was able to obtain trick effects by scraping out colours with a razor blade and then flowing other colours over the scraped out bit."

Richard also had a reply from Keith Watson who drew Dan Dare solo from Eagle volume 13:10 to 18:1! An incredible run.

"I remember Frank Hampson telling me that Frank Bellamy's work "stood head and shoulders above that of other Eagle artists" and he had advised Marcus Morris to engage Bellamy as chief Dan Dare artist following his (Hampson's) departure. However many people, including Bellamy himself , were not entirely happy with the new Dan Dare. In my view Hampson's super clean crisp style fitted the futuristic world of Dan Dare like a glove but was not so suited to historical subjects like the "Road of Courage" [the life of Jesus].

The reverse was true of Frank Bellamy. In my opinion it was a case of the right men doing the wrong jobs. Hampson's hardware was the product of much time spent studying the latest in spacecraft or aircraft engineering and then trying to push it forward a generation. It looked functional and convincing. It looked as if it could work. Bellamy's designs were a quick flash of artistic imagination and looked like it.

It is all subjective of course but I'm glad to say that the Eagle editor received a flood of mail welcoming back the Hampson-type Dan Dare"

He went on...

"Bellamy used to tell me he didn’t approve of Hampson’s methods, too much use of references, photos, models, etc. But the truth is that when the cake is so good there can’t be much wrong with the recipe".

 

I must thank Richard for sharing his letters, and  I added a scan of the first Bellamy-illustrated "Dan Dare" story above as the first shot of Dan Dare's head is the one Don Harley was asked to re-draw. I am quite sure this is the ONLY one he re-drew. 

As a child I loved Don Harley's work as it mirrored my favourite artist Mike Noble as it was straight 'representational' art. In fact I loved the time Bellamy took a break to do The Avengers TV series from illustrating Thunderbirds in TV21. So here's the last episode of a very long story before Bellamy took the break followed by Don Harley's continuation. Harley drew 6 issues before Bellamy returned to draw Thunderbirds.

TV21 #92
Thunderbirds - drawn by Frank Bellamy

TV21 #93
Thunderbirds - drawn by Don Harley

Other thoughts on Don Harley

• The Eagle Society
  
• DownTheTubes
  
• Project SWORD Toys Blog

Frank Bellamy and Leopards

When I found a single illustration in Eagle of a rhinoceros by Frank Bellamy it looked odd in a page of photos and text. - considering he did strips from 1957-1965. 

But now I've found another which rather excitingly has not been recorded before! It's a rarity to find a 'new' work by Bellamy - I call it the diminishing law of returns and I can see why it's been overlooked before!

Eagle Vol.11:17 (23 April 1960), p.4

Bellamy loved all things African with a focus on Kenya and the Masai people. His work for an South African magazine Outspan included such things as leopards too

OUTSPAN (10 February 1956) contains the story "Fear is a spotted cat" by Elaine Mans the first page of which I've shown before
 On pages 20-21 we see a leopard poised to spring with the caption - "Lifting her heavy limbs for a final effort, she fell against the rock, lying upright against its coolness"

Please forgive the image - which is a scan of a photocopy of the magazine! If anyone wants to supply a better copy, I'm more than happy to receive it! The magazine was very similar to Everybody's Weekly in size

Outspan 10 February 1956 pp20-21

Happy Birthday EAGLE!

On this day (before I was born) the comic called Eagle (not 'the Eagle'!) was born from the visionary zeal of Marcus Morris and Frank Hampson - yes! the 'other' Frank!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EAGLE

My birthday present to all the world is some of Frank Bellamy's artwork which appeared in this superlative comic. Rather like that meme/chain letter on Facebook. 'No comment just pictures' ... and don't look for too many patterns in what I've chosen!

 

 

 

And lastly, thanks to the past, present and future members of the Eagle Society for keeping Eagle's memory alive via their magazine Eagle Times