Frank Bellamy and ... a rhino!

I'm tidying up in anticipation for a completely different way of working - let's hope I can pull it off - so I need you to see an article from Eagle which was published in Vol. 12:34 (26 August 1961). It's a real hotch-potch of an article. Derek Lord, Assistant Editor of Eagle at the time describes his journey to Zululand (now South Africa). Hluhluwe is still a game reserve and covers 96,00 hectares in the KwaZulu Natal Regine Of South Africa. 

Eagle Vol. 12:34 (26 August 1961)

Take a look at this double page and you'll see what I mean. We have a cartoon, of Mr. Lord and a talking gorilla (by 'Blake')! A photo of a white rhino (but unfortunately in black and white so ironically not very effective), photos of Cape Buffalo and impala and then a shot of cars arriving on safari in a village. On the next page we see a Zulu wedding and lastly a bull buffalo

The Bellamy drawing is captioned "Rhino crushing his way through the undergrowth and Wellington creating blue murder behind him" - a B&W illustration showing a rhinoceros. What was interesting to me was that Bellamy had just finished "Fraser of Africa" (12 August 1961) and it wasn't until 18 November 1961 that we see his work again in Eagle with  a third of the front cover - "Men of Action No.5: Sir Edmund Hillary".

Then after that we get - one of my favourites - "Montgomery of Alamein" by Clifford Makins, Bellamy's first double-page spread in the middle of the comic, running from 10 March 1962 - 7 July 1962.

But what was Bellamy doing  during the summer/autumn of 1961? There are two things I can think of.

Firstly, creating the new "King Solomon's Mine" spreads (all unpublished). Secondly I can tell you that the 1961 catalogue of the Society of Graphic Artists shows that the 34th exhibition of the S.G.A took place at the Royal Institute Galleries, Piccadilly from the 10th to 29th of July at which Bellamy showed four pieces:

• Tiger (Carbon pencil & wash)
• Studies for life (Crayon)
• Ngoma (Pastel)
• Masai (Pen & ink)

Dame Laura Knight and (Cecil) Stuart Tresilian exhibited various pieces. Then the “Summer Salon” 18th Annual Exhibition at the Royal Institute Galleries ran a month from 12th to the 30th August and Bellamy showed the same pieces (without the Masai piece).

But other than the above I have no clue what work he did between the bulk of August 1961 through to March 1962 - except for Wide World just once and that Swift cover. That doesn't prove he didn't have work but if he did, it's not yet been clearly identified.

ORIGINAL ART: Heros, 3 Garth Sundance and 3 sketches

Eagle 24 August 1963 Vol 14:34

The second auction this month to feature multiple Frank Bellamy originals is from Compalcomics. As usual Malcolm Philips offers a listing at both his Compalcomics and TheSaleroom

HEROS THE SPARTAN: Eagle 24 August 1963 (Vol. 14:34)

The image at the top of this article shows the 25th episode of the story "The Eagle of the Fifth". There is a slight error in the listing, if you're trying to match this to the comic. It should say 1963 not 1962. This is the first time I've seen this original art and it looks pretty good - especially as Heros is so scarce! The auctioneer's estimate is £4,000- £4,500 and the last one sold at auction went for over £7000.

It is described as:

Heros The Spartan double-page original artwork (1962) [sic 1963] painted and signed by Frank Bellamy from The Eagle Vol. 14, No 34, 1962. [sic 1963]The Men of the Jackal's screaming warriors attack Heros, Berbrix and their small band as the traitor, Guthrac, strikes… Bright Pelikan inks on board. 27 x 18 ins

GARTH: Sundance - 3 episodes

Garth: Sundance Episodes E180, E182 and E191

These three strips are all from the first that Bellamy drew in the Daily Mirror newspaper. Bellamy took over from John Allard on 12 July 1971 (#E162) and this first story ran to 11 October 1971 (#E226). Episodes from this story are certainly rarer than most and are one of my favourite in the Garth run.

The auction is estimated to reach £700-£900 but that is way under what I think will happen - especially as at the time of writing it's reached £1,120! Malcolm described them like this:

Garth: 3 original artworks (1971) by Frank Bellamy from the Daily Mirror 2nd/4th/14th August 1971. From the Bob Monkhouse Archive. General George Armstrong Custer leads the U.S. Seventh Cavalry with Garth as his Chief Scout in search of Sitting Bull. Indian ink on board. 20 x 18 ins (x 3)

BELLAMY SKETCH: To be or not to be

"To be or not to be"

This sketch, thankfully, has provenance as it comes from the Bob Monkhouse collection. The auction is described thus:

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 Sgt's Mess!). From the Bob Monkhouse archive. Indian ink and wash on card. 14 x 10 ins

The Sergeant has written "Menu for tomorrow" and "How to cut up margarine into portions to look like butter"  and I love some of the descriptions on the cans - "Kippers - Depth-Charge Brand" or "Salmon - Fresh from Hong Kong". We know Bellamy ran drawing classes before the war and we also know he is seen in some photos drawing whilst in his uniform, but where or if this ever appeared in print, I have no idea! I don't think the title is very clear "To be or not to be" or it's his best cartoon work - which were very good when he drew for the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph. The auctioneer's estimate is £60-£80 with an opening bid of £55 but so far no-one has bid

BELLAMY SKETCH: 2 Portraits

2 charcoal portraits

 Finally this interesting early work, I say early because the lips on the woman are very crude and nothing like the Bellamy we see in the 1930s newspaper work or later. This might possibly be his earliest work that still exists!

They are described as:

Frank Bellamy (1940s). Two original charcoal pencil sketches, both signed in capitals 'Frank A. Bellamy', probably of his parents. 9 x 13 ins, 10 x 14 ins (2)

 I think Malcolm is being ambitious with his estimate of £250-£350 but I've been wrong before! And whether they might be Bellamy's parents I have no idea. I've forward the idea to Tess Bellamy to see if she could comment, but the image of the man looks to be of someone in uniform.  As Horace Bellamy was born in 1885 he would have been 45 years of age in 1930, for example, so I wonder. But let's see what turns up


AUCTION SUMMARY

HEROS THE SPARTAN
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £3600
ENDING PRICE: £5,700
END DATE: Sunday 24 November 2019

GARTH: Sundance 3 episodes
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £640
ENDING PRICE: £1,180
END DATE: Sunday 24 November 2019

BELLAMY SKETCH: To be or not to be
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £55
ENDING PRICE: £125
END DATE: Sunday 24 November 2019

BELLAMY SKETCHES 2 Portraits
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £230
ENDING PRICE: "Passed"
END DATE: Sunday 24 November 2019

Frank Bellamy and Al Williamson Part Two

Eagle 9 March 1963 Vol.14:10

My friend David Jackson is today's guest blogger and we have both looked extensively at the subject of Al Williamson 'recycling' Frank Bellamy's work. Before I hand over to him I have to say we both love Williamson's work, his fine line and his figure work are sublime. And as we'll see every artist has to use reference taken from somewhere, so please don't think this is critical of Williamson.

Norman has written here previously about Barry Smith, Al Williamson and Wally Wood on occasion borrowing some of their references from the published work of Frank Bellamy - (from "Heros the Spartan", "Montgomery" and "Dan Dare", respectively).

Now Norman has turned up online a fanzine discussion of the issue in Alter Ego #155 (November 2018), which focussed on the artistic borrowings of Dan Adkins, but also by chance had identified the same found references from "Heros the Spartan" used by Al Williamson which also separately came to light again recently.

Early professional comic art studio experiences, directed towards meeting deadlines and just 'getting the job done', served to lend themselves to a cavalier attitude towards such adaptations as, and when, needs must and also produced the quickest best results. Artists had learned 'This was how it was done!'.

Al Williamson drawing Flash Gordon in the mid-60s for
Flash Gordon #5 "Terror of the Blue Death" story
Thanks to Doug Pratt for the image

Wally Wood once set out a famous and often quoted credo:

"Never draw what you can copy; never copy what you can trace; and never trace what you can cut out and paste in!" 

Wally Wood's own work was itself used by Frank Frazetta as a Buck Rogers interior rocketship background for Famous Funnies #213, as Frazetta freely related in a 1995 interview and quoted by Heritage Auctions.


According to Frazetta, in a later Doc Dave interview "Frazetta and Photography and Life":

Wally (Wood), Al (Williamson) and Roy (Krenkel) had filing cabinets with swipe files of everything. Krenkel always quoted Picasso to Frazetta: “Picasso said to steal from the best if you want to get better.”

Such genius talents, whether up against a deadline or not, have sufficient abilities themselves never to need to take a lend of other artist's work. That they have sometimes done so obviously is likely to be an in-joke reference to those in the know, as from any realistic supposed necessity.

The question of influences was raised in the Fantasy Advertiser Frank Bellamy interview.

FB: "I've often been asked if people have influenced me. I find it difficult to sort out the difference between people who influence me or impress me with their work. One person who did impress me was Fortunino Matania, an artist who specialized in highly detailed work on Greece, Ancient Egypt and World War One. I have a great admiration for him."

The first Garth story, "Sundance", makes use of a design idea of figures which stand in front of, as distinct from within, a panoramic landscape frame background, in a 'tip-of-the-hat' (whilst still being original to FB - not in that sense copied from) to a motif of classic illustrator Fortunino Matania.

Garth: Sundance #E190 - see middle panel

"Ridicule, the Great Castigator" (1933) by Fortunino Matania

Alter Ego #155 credits both Frank Bellamy and Fortunino Matania among the then more obscure - as seen from American viewpoint - reference sources used in comic book art and illustration.

Sometimes it is simply a case of seeing a certain image or stylistic technique which so appeals to a particular artist that they feel they have to create their own version, possibly to somehow 'exorcise' it.

There is an understandable conflict for developing artists who have for so many years found their overriding inspiration in one particular artist. Neal Adams has acknowledged a number of influences, such as Stan Drake, and joked of his own stylistic influence on others, saying: "I don't know what I did to that guy."

There are variations on the theme discussed on the web, and 'found reference', copying, plagiarism, rip-off, or swiping is still a lively subject of back and forth debate.

Below is a further example in the Warren publishing black and white magazine Creepy #6  with a six page comic strip, set in an Ancient Rome arena, "Thumbs Down!" drawn by Al Williamson, with several identifiable similarities to episodes of "Heros the Spartan" in Eagle.

However - as disclosed in the previous post reference a story for Blazing Combat - despite Al Williamson's self-acknowledged indebtedness to Frank Bellamy in that instance, in the above case with "Heros the Spartan", it is also the rendering of that character by Luis Bermejo which provided references...


Let's take each Creepy page in turn and see if we can find the details borrowed by Al Williamson. Anne T. Murphy wrote the script for Williamson to draw and the issue of Creepy went on sale on 17 September 1965 in the States.


CREEPY #6 PAGE 13

Creepy #6 p.13 (All page numbers are from the original Creepy magazine
- these scans are from the Dark Horse e-reprint)

Let's start with the helmet which is used as a title/introduction area decoration on page 13 of the Creepy story. This is an instance of Bermejo's art being used. It appears in Eagle (24th October 1964 Vol.15 No.43)

Eagle 24 Oct 1964 Vol.15:43 Art by Luis Bermejo
Is the Caesar's head on the right
(2nd frame from bottom of double spread)
the inspiration for Caesar in Creepy p. 13?

Now if we look at the second episode of Heros (in the story "Eagle of the Fifth"), drawn by Frank Bellamy  (Eagle 16 March 1963 Vol.14:11) we see the last panel contains a familiar head shot.

Eagle 16 March 1963 Vol.14:11

CREEPY #6 PAGE 14
 
Moving on to page 14 of the Creepy story we find some more Bellamy artwork. But before that you might spot that the cityscape in the top tier of Bermejo's Heros frames at left (Eagle 24 Oct 1964 Vol.15:43) are re-used in Creepy p14 below.

Creepy #6 p.14
The muscular figure at bottom left looks very like a Gray Morrow figure

Eagle 30 March 1963 Vol.14:13

The top tier of Heros shows a very close likeness to the guy in the middle of Creepy page 14 (as seen below)

Cassius' portrait from Creepy p.14 above (in the middle tier, right hand side) comes from a later episode in the Heros story (Eagle 5 October 1963 Vol.14:40)

Berbrix from Eagle 5 October 1963 Vol.14:40

The 30 March 1963 issue of Eagle certainly helped Williamson a lot as we'll see.

CREEPY #6 PAGE 15

Creepy #6 p.15

The background stonework arches in second tier, used in Creepy p.15 appear in the first Bermejo strip above (Eagle 24 Oct 1964 Vol.15:43) and the scene showing the prison bars are very similar to Frank Bellamy's in Eagle 9 March 1963 Vol.14:10 (at the top of this article). The most glaring example of a swipe is the head at the bottom of this page - taken from Eagle shown above (Eagle 16 March 1963 Vol.14:11)

Eagle 16 March 1963 Vol.14:11

Bracchus' head facing right, in the middle tier, looks as if it could be adapted from many Bellamy drawings, but we can't exactly match it, but imagine the head in the second panel in Eagle 30 March 1963 Vol.14:13 (- shown above) mirrored or flipped as below

Unlikely match as Williamson seems to have not mirrored anything...but see below

CREEPY #6 PAGE 16

Creepy #6 p.16

Eagle 23 March 1963 Vol.14:12

In Eagle Vol.14:12 the figure at the top right is reversed for Creepy p.16 top left frame. And the most noticeable head is of Bracchus in the bottom right of Creepy p.16 which is also from the above Eagle.  But interestingly the head is adapted successively by both Luis Bermejo (for a later Heros story) and Al Williamson for the last frames of Eagle Vol.14:46 (see image below) and Creepy p.16.

Eagle 16 November 1963 Vol.14:46 Art by Luis Bermejo

 CREEPY #6 PAGE 17

Creepy #6 p.17

See below for Eagle 30 March 1963 Vol.14:13 for the two heads at the bottom of Creepy p.17.

Eagle 30 March 1963 Vol.14:13

CREEPY #6 PAGE 18
We couldn't match any of this to Bellamy

 

Creepy #6 p.18

Frank Bellamy, by contrast, interestingly and invariably, produced finished art which only superficially derived from his source references, even those which could have been supplied for the purpose by clients commissioning the work. Providing the client with an original work seems to have been a boundary FB set for himself.

David Bellamy says in his Commentary for Timeview, (the engaging book of collected "Doctor Who" illustrations for Radio Times), that the photographic references sent to his father were not then traced but rather the essential elements of a photograph were envisioned in the resulting illustration. "Bridge On The River Kwai" for Radio Times is similarly an example of this.

Radio Times (21/12/1974 - 03/01/1975) Bridge on the River Kwai p.46

Even the uncompleted first version of The Sunday Times Magazine inside horse racing spread, originally titled "Devious Ways to Win", was not reused by Frank Bellamy when for some reason it became necessary, part way through, to re-draw it. It might be expected that any artist would trace-off and re-use his own work but FB did not do so. Instead, surprisingly and seemingly as easily, the work was started again from scratch and entirely re-envisioned and redrawn..!

Many thanks David.

The inspiration for this article was Twomorrows' excellent magazine Alter Ego : -
Alter Ego (2018) #155 “Dan Adkins And The Incredible Tracing Machine!” Revisited (Part 3) by Michael T. Gilbert. November 2018, pp 63-69.


Dan Adkins himself (quoted from a "circa 1969-70 letter to Modern Collectors Review’s editor, John McLaughlin") states:

I don’t have any Eagles, [..] a great British comic. [...] Al Williamson’s gladiator story in Creepy #6 was taken almost entirely from Frank Bellamy’s art from Eagle

That’s what I mean by the whole thing being silly. I know that some of the best artists around swipe. I see it. They tell me! But you don’t have the old stuff or the British stuff to catch them and I don’t have it to play the games. Not that I could play as well as Al anyway. I could play the same, but he’s a better artist.

I remember when I was a kid, Rich Buckler coming under similar fire, but as he recently said in a Comic Book Creator article his work at Marvel was seen as cloning Kirby and at DC cloning Neal Adams!
The interesting thing for me has been looking more closely for 'borrowed' images and wondering where did Bellamy get such confidence in his portraits? I look at a lot of images all over the Internet and hardly ever see anything similar to Williamson's borrowing when it comes to Bellamy and as David has said above with Alec Guinness' image (and previously regarding Olivia de Havilland) he uses photos but adjusts them.

I hope this is the last review of Williamson and Bellamy I do, but does anyone want to join in and identify any of Bellamy's work in others' work?

ORIGINAL ART: Montgomery of Alamein on CAF and Battle Action

UPDATED September 2021
 

Action 4 September 1976
showing a reprint from Eagle

Eagle 21 April 1962

Original Art from Eagle 19 May 1962
(Thanks for Terry for permission to use this)

In a previous article I mentioned I think my favourite Bellamy strip is "Montgomery of Alamein" which appeared in Eagle from Volume 13:10 - 13:27 (10 March 1962 -7 July 1962).If you would all like to donate to my "Buy Norman a lovely bit of Bellamy" fund, Terry Doyle is selling a piece I would love.
Terry has an extensive gallery on ComicArtFans and the reason for writing about this to 1) make sure you're aware of CAF (where you can also see all the Bellamys that people have uploaded) and also 2) that Terry is selling one of his prize collection for £7,000. This also gave me an excuse to write about something I recently discovered. This would make this piece the most expensive Bellamy artwork sold to date (to my knowledge!) and before you react like a modern social media troll, this is a prime example kept in great condition and unfaded. To contact Terry, login to CAF and click on this link to his sale.

Battle Picture Weekly had a long history of changes, being a UK comic that existed in the time when UK comics' sales on newsstands were declining and mergers were all the rage. You can read more about it on Wikipedia. Why do I mention it? I found that some of the war stories Bellamy illustrated were 'borrowed' for this comic.

10 February 1979

Eagle Volume 13:14 7 April 1962

Look at the grey coloured panel on the left and compare it to the bottom image on Battle Action! The image of Rommel above the headline "Kill Rommel!" is a famous photograph of the German. And before we leave the above Eagle image, the soldier and the clock-face in the Eagle comic are about to make an appearance!

Battle Action 5 May 1979

The next one shows the outline of the word WAR. Bellamy used this in the first episode of "Montgomery"as you can see below. The artist on Battle Action seems to have taken inspiration from Bellamy even if the font and images inside it are not the same.

Battle Action 28 October 1978

There are several other covers scattered through the run that appear to be taken from photographic reference but that's all I could find that directly related to Bellamy. If you think you know better, please share with us!

Lastly as we are on the subject of the comic that brought us "Charley's War" and "Johnny Red" amongst others, the annual from 1976 contained a few shots taken from Look and Learn - and yes! it's Bellamy again! The images are taken from Battle Picture Weekly Annual 1976.

Art: Unknown

Battle Picture Weekly Annual 1976, p73

And here's the Look and Learn pages - crudely scanned and joined by me!

Look and Learn #452 15 September 1970

Battle Picture Weekly Annual 1976, p74

Battle Picture Weekly Annual 1976, p76

The two above come from Look and learn

Frank Bellamy and Barry Windsor-Smith

Heros the Spartan from Eagle Vol. 16 No. 27
Photographed from Book Palace reprint - few copies still available

David Jackson has sent me on a quest, this time it concerns BWS, or Barry Smith or Barry Windsor-Smith, yes, he of Conan, Valiant Comics, etc etc fame!

My first contact with BWS was in the Power Comics of the mid to late 1960s, although at that time I didn't know he did the pin-ups of Marvel superheroes in Fantastic and Terrific . Kid Robson has shown some of Thor and others. I was aware of his work on Conan the Barbarian being praised by many at the time, but Britain's importing of Marvel comics was sporadic at best so I didn't see it until later! However I did see his Gorblimey Press work advertised and actually paid for some of them. I now proudly own Pandora's Box (with a specially-made octagonal frame!). You cans see lots of Barry's work on his site.

In an interview for Comic Book Artist (Vol1, No.2) Jon B. Cooke did with BWS he mentioned his connection with Bellamy:

CBA: Any favorite British cartoonists, such as Frank Bellamy?
Barry: I was quite awestruck by Bellamy, his "Heros the Spartan" was simply magnificent. I was never particularly influenced by him, however. Britain had a clutch of exceptionally gifted comics artists during the '50s and '60s but the subject matter of the strips often disinterested me. I liked "Dan Dare" and Heros, I think that's all. I named the lead male character in my "Young Gods" series Heros in homage to Bellamy.

The first notion I personally had was when I bought a book called Masters of Comic Book Art, (a brilliant review is on the Comics Journal site). Written by 'Doc' P. R. Garriock, - who I would love to talk to should anyone have his email or phone number - it featured long pieces on:

• Will Eisner (Creator of The Spirit)
• Harvey Kurtzman (Mad magazine etc.)
• Frank Bellamy
• Richard Corben (Warren Magazines etc.)
• Barry Windsor-Smith
• Jean Giraud (AKA Moebius)
• Phillipe Druillet (Creator of Loane Sloane)
• Wally Wood
• Robert Crumb
• Victor Moscoso (Zap Comix)

A fantastic mix of people from various countries - and BWS and FB were included. Again Bellamy and Windsor-Smith not only have features in Twomorrows' True Brit, but the introduction, by George Khoury states:

Here in America, very little is known of the British creators prior to Barry Windsor-Smith. Artists like Frank Bellamy, Leo Baxendale, and Sydney Jordan are far from household names; a tragedy, really, because when you see their art, it will seduce you.

To understand how popular BWS' (and of course Roy Thomas') Conan was, in the same year of FB's award - see below - the 1971 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards ("for material published in 1971; awarded in 1972") had:

Best Continuing Feature  Conan the Barbarian (Marvel)
Best Individual Story 

• "Devil Wings over Shadizar," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #6 (Marvel) 
• "Tower of the Elephant," by Roy Thomas & Barry Smith, from Conan the Barbarian #4 (Marvel)

 I don't often quote myself, but this is from my Star Trek article...

I understand that the single colour page [of Star Trek] was part of the reason Frank Bellamy got the "Foreign Comics Award" from the Academy of Comic Book Arts in 1972 - for work published in 1971 he was awarded "Best Foreign Artist Frank Bellamy (Star Trek)". I'm sure Barry Windsor-Smith had a hand in recommending him for this and I know Archie Goodwin was in contact with him. Bellamy told Goodwin that Chris Lowder had informed him the Academy had seen a sample of his "Heros the Spartan" work and judged him more than worthy of the award. therefore his actual comic work for 1971 was concocted for the purposes of giving him the award.

So what, you ask?

The Avengers and Savage Sword of Conan #100 Splash page (UK publication)

 Take a look at this from the Marvel British reprint (The Avengers and Savage Sword of Conan #100) of Conan The Barbarian #21. Strangely the story title has been changed  to "The Menace of the Monoliths" but when it was published it was the "Monster of the Monoliths"! Does it look familiar? It should, you saw it at the top of this article! On the Grand Comics Database website, there are some interesting notes as to how BWS appears not to have drawn much of this particular issue.

Detail from Eagle Vol16. No. 27 (Frank Bellamy)

Now, with Dan Adkins (who often 'borrowed' from others), P. Craig Russell and Val Mayerick involved, we can't be sure, who 'borrowed' Bellamy. UPDATE: See comments below where we know it's Adkins

However it's not that simple. Because of the nature of multiple stories from various comics being split to fill one UK reprint, we have another anomaly. The comic itself contains Conan, The Avengers (Smith too!) and Master of Kung Fu in 36 pages (with a letters page too!).

The Avengers and the Savage Sword of Conan #100
Week ending August 16 1975

The Conan story in TAATSSOC #100 starts with the above splash page of horse riders. However, the original published in the American Marvel Conan #21 has 10 pages before the second page of the UK reprint, excluding this splash page....which I don't think is Smith, Adkins, Craig Russell or Mayerick!

Often the early Marvel UK reprints would blow up and extend a panel from the story concerned, in order show some continuity between stories that had been split across weekly issues, but I can't find any of the component parts in any Conan upto #25! I own the Essential Conan - a Marvel black and white reprint of the first  25 issues of the comic in America. It contains the whole of the above story and I can't see anywhere where it appears - even if it was a compilation from various shots by BWS! Conan hardly rides a horse until the last page of #8! In #14 and #15 he starts to (in these 'Elric' issues) and going all the way through to #25 there are hardly any shots of the rear end of horses as drawn here!

So not only do we not know who 'adapted' Bellamy's "Heros" panel but we don't know who did the other two riders (including that trademark BWS shot of Conan's medallion flying away from him!). I know many of the youngsters of the Bronze Age did work on the UK reprints, including Ron Wilson, Jim Starlin, Keith Pollard, John Romita Jr. etc. So I'd be tempted to name someone like that, but that's still odd that they used FB here!

UPDATE: See comments below where we know it's Adkins

Can anyone help? I couldn't find any index of the USA artists' original art in UK Marvel reprints, but remembering being amazed by this 'newcomer' Jim Starlin, whose 'compressed' figures were easy to spot!

Frank Bellamy and How to be a Barrister

My regular correspondent David Slinn wrote to me about the Eagle comic series in which Frank Bellamy did one episode. I realised I had never mentioned it, so for your delight...!


Eagle Vol. 9:52, (27 December 1958) has a page in colour on the inside back page (the top half having the adventures of Mr. Therm, the British Gas symbol) and on the lower half, " He wants to be a... Barrister". I don't have all the Eagles published but looking quickly I can see this was a sporadic series. 

Eagle Vol. 9:52, (27 December 1958)

In Volume 9:45 "He wants to be a motor mechanic" was followed in Volume 9:46 by "He wants to be a laundry worker" illustrated by an unknown artist. As it was now getting towards Christmas 1958, I suspect the editor decided that space should go to advertisers and the number of pages was bigger too. This was until Bellamy's episode in Volume 9:52, then there are no more. However the Eagle adverts featuring many titles with the Eagle imprint show a title called I want to be...: an Eagle Book of Careers (3/6d). Ian & Sharon Hartas' excellent site show a cover of this as well as listing the contents.

And just for Anthony W. here's the cover and also the equivalent solicitor section ("Barrister" is in the index pointing here)  from this booklet

So the original 47 Eagle comic versions were so different, I felt I'd list them, here so if you have a mind to collect them all...!

1. Carpenter - Vol.7:4, 27 January 1956
2. Policeman - Vol.7:5, 3 February 1956
3. Architect - Vol.7:6, 10 February 1956
4. Engine Driver - Vol.7:7, 17 February 1956
5. Chemist - Vol.7:8, 24 February 1956
6. Forester - Vol.7:9, 2 March 1956
7. Solicitor - Vol.7:10, 9 March 1956
8. Merchant Seaman (1) - Vol.7:12, 23 March 1956
9. Merchant Seaman (2) - Vol.7:13, 30 March 1956
10. Commercial Artist - Vol.7:14, 6 April 1956
11. Tile-Fixer - Vol.7:15, 13 April 1956
12. Compositor - Vol.7:16, 20 April 1956
13. Plasterer - Vol.7:17, 27 April 1956
14. Book-binder - Vol.7:18, 4 May 1956
15. Bricklayer - Vol.7:19, 11 May 1956
16. Doctor - Vol.7:20, 18 May 1956
17. Plumber - Vol.7:21, 25 May 1956
18. Miner - Vol.7:22, 1 June 1956
19. Civil Engineer - Vol.7:23, 8 June 1956
20. Mechanical Engineer - Vol.7:24, 15 June 1956
21. Electrical Engineer - Vol.7:25, 22 June 1956
22. Fireman - Vol.7:26, 29 June 1956
23. Farm Worker - Vol.7:29, 20 July 1956
24. Accountant - Vol.7:32, 10 August 1956
25. Dentist - Vol.7:38, 21 September 1956
26. Surveyor - Vol.7:40, 5 October 1956
27. Chef - Vol.7:44, 2 November 1956
28. Veterinary Surgeon - Vol.7:46, 16 November 1956
29. Blacksmith - Vol.7:47, 23 November 1956
30. Civil Pilot - Vol.7:49, 7 December 1956
31. Radio and T.V. Service Engineer - Vol.7:50, 14 December 1956
32. Poultry Keeper - Vol.7:51, 21 December 1956
33. Postman - Vol.7:52, 28 December 1956
34. Foundry Worker - Vol.8:1, 4 January 1957
35. Archaeologist - Vol.8:5, 1 February 1957
36. Missionary - Vol.8:6, 8 February 1957
37. Jockey - Vol.8:12, 22 March 1957
38. Astronomer - Vol.8:13, 29 March 1957
39. Games Master - Vol.8:16, 19 April 1957
40. Air Steward - Vol.8:17, 26 April 1957
41. Display Man - Vol.9:5, 31 January 1958
42. Atomic Energy Engineer - Vol.9:8, 21 February 1958
43. Motor Mechanic - Vol.9:45, 8 November 1958
44. Laundry Worker - Vol.9:46, 15 November 1958
45. Barrister - Vol.9:52, 27 December 1958 - see above
46. Trawlerman - Vol.10:9, 28 February 1959
47. Stockbroker - Vol.10:16, 18 April 1959