Showing posts with label Garth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garth. Show all posts

Monday 26 August 2024

ORIGINAL ART - Garth x 2 and Thunderbirds

 

Garth:  J135+J136

2 episodes of Garth: The Doomsmen story are up for auction at Anderson & Garland Ltd., Newcastle with an auctioneer's estimate of £250 - £450. The auction takes place over 3 September 2024 to the following day, and we're looking at Lot #333 in their "Comics Auction". The Garths are consecutive numbers which is nice. The auctioneer's description is:

Original artwork by artist Frank Bellamy for the Daily Mirror newspaper comic strip Garth, two episodes from a continuing story published June the 11th, June the 12st [sic] 1975, ink on boards, signed, 18 x 55cms, unframed, (a pair).

The average price paid over the last 12 years for one strip has been £326 so I'd expect these two nice examples of Bellamy's work to reach the upper estimate or more. Let's see how well my Cassandra powers are working. 

I happen to have a better photo of those two:

Garth:  J135+J136
For those interested there are also some Martin Asbury "Garth" too: Lot #334, Lot #335, Lot #336 and #337.  

"Thunderbirds" from TV21 #80

"Thunderbirds" from TV21 #80

"Thunderbirds" from TV21 #80

Secondly an eBayer has placed an episode of Thunderbirds which he has been trying to raise interest in via Facebook. It's a wonderful example of Thunderbirds  and thankfully not very faded, if at all - but that's hard to tell as this is mounted behind glass. It sold at auction in America two years ago - see my blog entry here - at £9000 which I considered a very high price - and if this has been 'posted' to the UK, the cost for that piece alone is high, but I suspect the buyer bought the other piece(s?) too! Is he now trying to recoup some of that outlay? norman

norman I deliberately kept a spreadsheet of sales on this blog after so many people asked me how much their Bellamy was worth. Please remember you can say anything with statistics.

Taking that sales data - excluding non-sales - and ONLY looking at double-page spreads (not 2 single pages of the same story) I think - including 5 faded boards which sold AND including the two sales mentioned on Heritage (which are outliers in my opinion) the average is £3,961. If we include those outliers and say we must exclude the faded boards, we get an average of £5,393.  If we only count all non-faded and exclude the outliers, we get £4,174 over  aperiod of 15 years!

The highest price paid for a double-page Thunderbirds prior to that Heritage sale was £8,300 so make of that data what you will! At the end of the day, if someone is willing to pay, that's how much a piece is worth! And don't forget on Sunday 1 September that Dan Dare page auction ends!

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Garth: The Doomsmen (J135 + J136)
WHERE?: Thesaleroom
STARTING BID: £
ENDING PRICE: £380
END DATE: Tuesday 3 September - Wednesday 4 September 2024

"Thunderbirds" TV21 #80
WHERE?: eBay seller: d.g100
STARTING BID: £8,000
ENDING PRICE: £UNSOLD - re-listed and immediately taken down
END DATE: Sunday 1 September 2024

 


Monday 15 January 2024

When is a title not a title? When it has no date!

Undated cover
Richard Sheaf, a good friend of the blog, runs his own blog collecting together all sorts of ephemeral comics and comic art materials in one handy-dandy place, "Boy's Adventure Comics". I'm surprised how obsessive he can be - but love the fact he is!

Recently he noted that some annuals - which look to be published in Britain for the non-UK market - had no date on their covers (or spines, I might add).

So here's where Frank Bellamy comes in. For years I called the  "Daily Mirror Book of Garth" just that. That is until, to my surprise, I saw the 1975 (portrait) book was dated 1975! That sent me to correct the checklist!

For your collectors among you, here are the two covers sans date plus an unusual advert for this book showing the date.


Dated

Top Secret Picture Library #11-p.68

Undated

Undated spine - thus the gap at the end!

Undated - first page
No prizes for guessing what's missing from the end part of the scroll

Dated

And just for good measure here's the original art for the later 1976 book  which sold in May 2008 for £1089. If anyone knows who has the art for 1975 do let me know!

Original Art
If anyone has a non-dated 1975 book, could they send me a copy of the spine and also the first page - where the scroll device was again used? Thanks

Monday 3 April 2023

Frank Bellamy and Garth numbering and dates

 

I was recently alerted to the fact I have never stated anywhere what the hand-written numbering and dates on Garth original art mean. It's flattering when people think I know everything to do with Frank Bellamy and his run on the Daily Mirror's Garth strip from 1971 to 1976.

So let's have a go at presenting my thoughts and see whether anyone can add anything.

Here's an example of the printed page (scanned very poorly) which shows one episode of the strip "Garth" (H118) published on page 24 of the Daily Mirror 21 May 1974 from the story "The Beast of Ultor". 

For those who haven't seen how these strips first appeared in print, this gives you some idea. However over the 6 years Bellamy drew "Garth" there might be more strips on this page. "The Perishers" strip appeared later in the run on this same page, as did "Andy Capp" and "Little Joe" - and that page may appear in different places day-by-day. I remember a kind friend of my Dad's cutting the page out for me, so I got to know the recently departed Bill Tidy's work too.

Daily Mirror Tuesday 21 May 1974 p.24
Garth: The Beast of Ultor (H118)

I have a scan of the following day's original artwork and the original shows, around the border, two things usually in pencil: two days and a date and secondly a single letter from A-F.

Daily Mirror 22 May 1974.
Garth: The Beast of Ultor (H119)

On this artwork we can see the pencilled "Tues-Wed 22 May 1974" and the letter "F". But notice the "Mon-Tues 21-5-74" is crossed out. I think this is where there was a jump in days and date because the Daily Mirror dated Wednesday 8 May was not actually published according to the Newspaper Archive. I infer that the "double day" notation plus date had to be moved as a result until the art editor had caught up, usually three weeks later - why 3 weeks? - see below.


Hand notations

But why write two days and then publish the strip on the second day - H119  was published on Wednesday 22 May 1974 - I double checked. it seems likely that the first day is the 'preparation' day and the second the publication day. This seems the most likely. I did wonder if this had anything to do with Northern editions or Scottish editions (remember my matching strip numbers in the Daily Record?) but it's not, that I can see.

 Here's a second example:

Daily Mirror 2 September 1972, p.18

You can just about see an episode from "The Wolfman of Ausensee" - episode F207. This page comes from the Daily Mirror Saturday 2 September 1972 and here is the original art with the corresponding numeration

Handwritten notations

This shows the "Fri-Sat" note plus date which matches publication. Also we have the letter "B" which to my mind is Bellamy's notation to the Art Editor that this is the second one of the 6 strips he delivered every week. 

We have never seen any other letters besides A, B, C, D. E and F and the Daily  Mirror was not published on a Sunday and the sequence rotates -A-F.

A friend and I lined up several originals and saw all of them are different sizes from top to bottom where Bellamy cut single boards from a bigger CS10 board. 

Here's another example:

F206 with notes and stamp

Daily Mirror 1 September 1972 p.20
Here we see "Thur-Fri 1 Sept"  (not shown on this image but the letter "A" appears on the original board) but also a red sticker - which is seen infrequently on the boards - with "1972 VIII 8 13:57" which logically tells us the date the piece arrived at the Daily Mirror offices. If this is correct it also gives a clue as to the lead time for Bellamy to produce the strips and them being published - from and including: Tuesday, 8 August 1972 to and including: Friday, 1 September 1972 = 25 days. This is not always the case as one would expect. Do the "received" stamps/stickers only appear on the "A" boards?

There are also anomalies where we see dates crossed out and alternatives given in these pencil notations, as mentioned above.Checking some of the published Daily Mirrors there were strikes -two messages included in two papers:

  • Daily Mirror 22 March 1973: "Southern editions of the Mirror didn't appear yesterday because of industrial action. Here's a double ration of strips"
  • Daily Mirror Tuesday 6 November 1973: "Here's a double ration of your favourite strips" 

No explanation is given for the latter but presumably industrial action again! And notice the differentiation between Northern and Southern editions.   

The problem putting this article together is that anyone who frames the strips is likely to hide/cut off the notations. Also some people who have originals may rub out the pencil notations. So thank you Paul Holder for his assistance in analysing these obscure ephemera!

So to conclude:

  • The two days are 1) 'prep' day and 2) publication day
  • The date is the publication date
  • The letter (from A-F) indicate the order of any one strip in the 6 delivered each week
  • The date and time stamp show date of receipt

One other notation is to the internal production team that a strip should be reproduced at a certain size. J154 has "Wed-Thu  3-7-75"; a receipt date and time of "1975  VI 11 16:19" and a note to say "197mm" - the width of the published image -one episode is approximately 21.5 inches by 8 inches as drawn by Bellamy

 

Any questions, or observations?

Wednesday 3 August 2022

Frank Bellamy and lettering Garth comic strips

Garth: The Beast of Ultor (#H56)

I want to write something about lettering in relation to Frank Bellamy's work. In the Skinn and Gibbons' interview Bellamy answered the guys' question:

I should imagine your experience in making movie billboards stood you in good stead for the “splash” frames in your “Churchill” strip……
FB:  Yes. I did my own display lettering. I like to do my own lettering wherever possible. I always try to give a completely finished piece of artwork, on clean white board, camera-ready. The right size, bleed marked, something that an editor can send straight off to the engraver. This is getting on to technique, but I’ve seen artwork which goes so close to the edge of the board that there’s not even enough room to fit the reduction indication anywhere. I like to give a client a piece of board with a working area, where he can put any notes down the side – “Urgent”, “Infra-red” or whatever.

David Jackson commented to me: The graphics aspect - ruler-straight lines and title deign lettering and all large-scale compound curve lines (which many, particularly ‘fine’ artists would run a mile from - is the single aspect which FB had nailed first.

Bellamy began in a advertising studio in Kettering, his home town. It was here he learned the craft that he would follow for the rest of his life. When it came to comic strips in comics in the 1950s there would be an author who wrote the script; the artist who laid out, pencilled, inked, and maybe coloured his artwork. In later years the letterer would add text into balloons which might have been left empty by the artist or he (mostly 'he') might actually add balloons and then letter. I have read that some of the Eagle balloons were on adhesive film which was lettered and then added to the artwork. 

All three would have to understand each other. If the author produces reams of text, the artist knows it can't work in a panel. If the artist places a balloon such that the letterer has no room to create complete words - but hyphenated ones only, the letterer knows it won't work. And so on. A collaboration.

In an interview with Barry Askew for BBC TV (the film is lost but we have an audio recording) he was asked again about his method of working.   

BA: Tell me how one sets about drawing a Garth strip. Can you show me?
FB: Well, yes. In this way; there is a piece of board exactly the same way I would use for the Garth strip. Set it out in pencil in this manner and once again you’ll notice I break up the frames. I’ll show you on this one here. For the start, of course, there’s the balloon and stuff to go in, it’s about the most important piece of all.
BA: Does the scripting give you a problem? How do you relate the script to your er..to your work?
FB: I keep in general to the script. Occasionally you get little things that on a typewritten script don’t work visually. Then it’s up to me to er.. re-draw, or re-think, or present it in a different manner.
BA: How long would it take you in fact to do a complete Garth strip?
FB: Ah, that’s a difficult one. All I can say is that I have a complete bank of six a week and come what may, a deadline is a deadline, it’s a religion to me. And they have to have one every week.

From the outset, a lot of the strips Bellamy drew he lettered the boards himself. For "Thunderbirds" which was syndicated abroad, he left the boards with space for captions and balloons.

Bellamy poses with his completed artwork
for the "Thunderbirds" episode from TV21 #74

Thanks to Alan Davis rescuing many Polaroids of the original artwork from Bellamy's studio after his death, we can see the completed 'clean' artwork just waiting for captions and balloons.  

Garth was drawn to an established scale to accommodate the word-balloon lettering. The strip which ran in the Daily Mirror from July 1943, was created by Steve Dowling and Gordon Bushell. Bushell moved on to concentrate on his work as a producer for the BBC and therefore Dowling took an assistant, the 15 year old John Allard, who Dowling in a later interview said "I have my assistant John Allard to help me now and he supplies all the backgrounds and lettering". The word 'now' is interesting as Allard was there from the start - in Allard's own words: “I started work there as an assistant to Steve Dowling a few months before the creation of Garth in July 1943." Allard is certainly a great influence on this long-running strip.  

Dowling and Allard formulated a method of working whereby Allard would sketch out the strips which Dowling would then correct, inking in the main figures, leaving Allard to complete the inking of the backgrounds and do the lettering, a system which continued essentially the same for 25 years, with a break between 1946 to 1948 when Allard was called up for his national service in the R.A.F. and the task of inking fell to Dowling’s other occasional assistant, Dick Hailstone.

Allard remained Dowling’s assistant until 1969, when Dowling retired to run a farm and riding school [...] Allard took over the strip full-time, working with writer Jim Edgar until 1971, when Frank Bellamy was invited to take over the strip and Allard found himself relegated to drawing backgrounds for some months before Bellamy took over the strip full-time.

From Steve Holland's blog

In 1971 John Allard began the story "Sundance" and after 12 episodes, Bellamy came on board as the main artist, possibly in competition with the sophisticated decorative linework of the new rival 'Scarth' in the revamped Sun newspaper. However, here is where it gets hard to describe who did what (although we have attempted to distinguish things a bit in a series "Garth strips analysed").  But it seems clear that Bellamy left the lettering to John Allard from the start although there appear to have been some clashes here.

On Alan Davis' site he shows two examples of how Bellamy took Polaroids of what Allard suggested as a layout with balloons completed and how Bellamy wanted to see the layout - thanks to Alan for permission to use these images. Now I have to say I cannot prove this, but it seems the most likely explanation to me as to why Bellamy took the photos. He wanted to communicate this to a third party, is my theory.

Bellamy and Allard layouts for Garth: The Mask of Atacama (#G165)

The published version of G165

"The Mask of Atacama" story is significant in that it's the first of the seven stories Bellamy had drawn to date where he added his very recognisable signature. So it does not seem unreasonable to assume that he might have been presented.with the image above - Allard's drawn layout with completed balloons. Bellamy has drawn his version of the opening strip with pencilled balloon lettering to show the Cartoon Editor how he sees the script being interpreted. I suspect this is where they settled the confusion over Allard's part in "Garth" and Bellamy was left to complete the strip without fully lettering it.

I prefer Bellamy's layout here, as we have the intro panel first, followed by Garth's comment, whilst holding the mask, we see Professor Lumière and then the speaker of the second balloon - reading left to right. I find Allard's layout OK, but clumsy, as we have to read 'around' Garth's back to see who's talking.

Bellamy and Allard layouts for Garth: The Wreckers (#G279)

The published version of G279
In this second example I wonder why Allard laid out the completed balloons as it would appear to have already been settled who did the artwork (proof being FB signed the previous story as well as this one). But the choices Bellamy makes - in breaking up the dialogue - are illustrative of his design sense. There was too much talk in one balloon and the shorter "Next month!" aids the flow, in my opinion.

There are a few other things I'd like to mention regarding the lettering and corrections in the Bellamy version of "Garth". In The Beast of Ultor (#H56) - shown at the top of this article - there are firstly the pencilled words in the second panel visible under the inked version and secondly overlays of inked text stuck on, saying "Professor Lumière activated". What's underneath isn't easy to see, but I'd love to know.

Also in the example owned by and used with permission of Jonathan Wilson, H3, we can see a few overlaid pieces of text. In the first panel it looks like Allard might have misspelled 'instructions' and in the third panel 'beneficial'. Bellamy was proud of the fact he never used process white, 'white-out' or correction fluid, but in many original boards and balloons we can see Allard has resorted to this. Even perhaps unnecessarily,over tiny overlap lines which would have in any case been unnoticeable when reduced in reproduction.

Garth: The Wreckers (#H3)

In an email with me in 2015, Ant Jones had just interviewed John Allard and asked him something for me.

"In the strips department there was a guy called Ken White who did the lettering but sometimes he could be unreliable, so John would end up doing the lettering. John Allard does the lettering on F194 (and all the other strips in that story that aren't Ken). When John started on Garth, Stephen Dowling's main priority was to train John to develop his lettering so it could be used in Garth."

Garth: The Wolfman of Ausensee (#F194)

Garth: The Wolfman of Ausensee (#F193)

I wonder if John meant F193 was John's work and F194 was NOT - but that of Ken White - compare the two and see what you think. 

Lastly Dez Skinn presented a strip (G274) which again shows completed lettered balloons and Bellamy's version in his book Sez Dez (p78), following the same lines as we have discussed above. 

Garth: The Wreckers (#G274)

Just for completeness sake, I should say that, if anyone is wondering, John Allard did not do the lettering on the "Perishers" strip that also ran in the Daily Mirror, as Maurice Dodd explained that Dennis Collins, the earlier artist, did it - The Perishers Omnibus No.3 - Thanks to David Jackson for reminding me!

I have yet to say anything about the markings and dates on the original artwork borders but that's for another time.

Wednesday 1 June 2022

Frank Bellamy and John Tornado

 JOHN TORNADO: der Mann mit den tausend Masken [The man with a thousand masks]

 

John Tornado #1 cover by ErtuÄŸrul Edirne
An old friend of the blog, Bill Storie asked about German reprints of Garth. I list all known international instances of Frank Bellamy and his artwork so you'll see that "John Tornado" is what Garth was called in Germany when he appeared between 1979-1981. There were only 20 issues of the 50 page comic published fortnightly by Bastei Verlag, which included a second strip "Stargo", more on that later. The last 4 issues were illustrated by Martin Asbury so fall outside the scope of this blog, but I've listed them below for completists.

Firstly, notice the sub-title "The man with a thousand masks", which I presume is how the German Editor (named as Manfred Soder) at Bastei Publishing explained the English time-traveller who goes to all points of the compass and travels through time!

There are 24 pages of Bellamy strips in each issue but - and here's the interesting thing - the strips are coloured red (with the black and white left as is - mostly!) and cut up, shrunk and enlarged and also 'foreign' panels added by another artist. The single colour is not unusual in UK comics (even the 1970s Marvel comics first appeared like that in the UK). 

John Tornado #1 p.1
My translation of the paragraph above - which appeared in each issue (with a new introduction on the relevant story):

A balloon floats out of the steel-blue sky over Tibet and lands on the roof of the world. A young man lies unconscious in the gondola. Where does he comes from? From a European country? Maybe even from the starry world? The man remembers nothing. They give him the name JOHN TORNADO. Soon he has to realize that the laws of space and time do not apply to him... The man who came out of nowhere experiences breathtaking adventures in the past, present and future. Are his fights dream or reality? John doesn't know himself! Perhaps the beautiful goddess from the world of stars knows the secret of the man who has to face ever new dangers in a thousand masks. She always encounters John when he is in grave danger. But in human form she cannot intervene. The moments of reunion are only short, then she has to go back... to where, maybe, JOHN TORNADO came from...?

The following is the opening page of the strip in issue 1 which you'll no doubt have identified as "The Women of Galba". There is only a piece of Bellamy's original drawn title - obviously because the original is in English. Then note the top 'banner' which fills space. There are four of these collage images which rotate through the 24 pages. Also of interest is that nudity is covered by bikinis and other underwear! It was a children's comic after all, but surprising as I remember the 70s magazine displays in Germany as showing a LOT more than Bellamy's drawings portrayed!

John Tornado #1 p.2
Here are the first three episodes of the original publication in the Daily Mirror  to make your own comparison



Later in the story we see other panels enlarged, I assume to justify the first page's enlargements.

John Tornado #1 p.12

For those who are keeping track, I looked at Issue 10 (The Wreckers) in case the Daily Mirror sent Germany the Daily Record strip and the answer is no! Ditto for issue 8 (People of the Abyss).

Here are some more assorted pages, note particularly the large panel in issue #6 :

John Tornado #2 p.16

John Tornado #4 p.9

John Tornado #5 p.25

John Tornado #3 p.27

John Tornado #6 p.7

Here are some more pages by, I suspect, the cover artist  ErtuÄŸrul Edirne which are interesting as they show the Garth characters

John Tornado #2 p.28

John Tornado #11 p.1


John Tornado #2 p.35 pin up of Stargo

STARGO

To read details of who did what on the strip, you can't do better than RalfH. I also wrote to Peter Mennigen on Facebook - an author of an extraordinary amount of German comics including the excellent "Malcolm Max" which ironically, being a Victorian demon-hunter in London, is not available in English...yet! 

Hi Norman, the original title of "Stargo" is "Tenax". But Frank Bellamy has nothing to do with it, his series "John Tornado" appeared first in "Stargo" before he got his own 15-issue series. The author of "Stargo" is Pedro Muñoz. The artwork is by José María Ortiz Tafalla (who also drew many of my "Phantom", "Ghost Stories" and some "Vanessa" Comics.) The cover artist of the "Bastei" books is Ertugrul Edirne. More information may be found in a " Bastei Freunde" magazine, which deals with the topic "Stargo" in detail. Unfortunately, I don't have the magazine here, so I don't know how helpful it could be. - Kind regards and have a nice weekend - Peter

Lastly I should mention the indicia state that copyright is held by Bulls, Frankfurt am Main and Syndication International, London. ("Stargo" is copyright Imperia/Graphlit)

Back page of John Tornado #1
Translation of the "breathtaking" adventurer's next episode in 14 days!:

Nobody knows the secret of the fighter with a thousand masks. As a lone wanderer
he is chased through space and time by powerful opponents. JOHN TORNADO has to face incredible dangers in the past, present and future.
In the next adventure, JOHN TORNADO stays in a ghost town of the Wild West. The wind howls eerily through the shattered windows of the Star Saloon... A swinging door creaks... Suddenly the ghost town awakens to new life. And JOHN TORNADO wears a new mask: As the sheriff of Silver City, he hunts down a ruthless gang...
And as a bonus, just for Bill, here's the pin-up from the centre pages of issue #1 where we can see some of Bellamy's art and the rest, I suspect is by ErtuÄŸrul Edirne.

John Tornado #1 centrespread

STORY LISTING

John Tornado #1-20
Covers by ErtuÄŸrul Edirne
LISTING OF GARTH STORIES
 

  1. Die Gefangene des Gladiators [The Gladiator's Prisoner] = The Women of Galba
  2. Duell in der Geisterstadt [Duel in the Ghost Town] = Ghost Town
  3. Der Dämon in der Zauberkugel [The Demon the Magic Bubble] = The Bubble Man
  4. Im Hinterhalt der wilden Horde [Ambushed by the wild horde] = The Bride of Jenghiz Khan
  5. Die Schreckensreiter von Montana [The Horror Riders of Montana] = The Angels of Hell's Gap
  6. Aufstand der Galeerensklaven [The Galley Slaves Uprising] = The Orb of Trimandias
  7. Die Verräter von Soho [The Traitiors of Soho] = Freak Out to Fear
  8. Die Ungeheuer von Azlan [The Monsters of Azlan] = People of the Abyss
  9. Die Meuterei der Roboter [The Robot Mutiny] = The Doomsmen
  10. Fluß ohne Wiederkehr [River of no return] = The Wreckers
  11. Der Fluch von Atacama [The Curse of Atatcama] = The Mask of Atacama
  12. In der Arena des Tyrannen [In the Arena of the Tyrants] = The Beast of Ultor
  13. Das Rudel der grauen Wölfe [The Grey Wolfpack] = The Wolfman of Ausensee
  14. Die Verschollenen des Alls [The Lost Ones of the Universe] = The Cloud of Balthus
  15. Die Menschenjäger von Ikonos [The Manhunters of Iconos]The Beautiful People
  16. Die Galeone des Teufels [The Devil's Galleon] = The Spanish Lady
  17.  Der Hexer von Darkville = The Long Sleep
  18. Die Sendboten des Unheils = Sapphire
  19. Die Wächter des vergessenen Sterns =  Finality Factor
  20. Die Garde des Teufels = Power game

Thanks to Sammlerforen.net's John Tornado thread here's the chronological reading order for Garth in German:
14, 6, 13, 8, 1-2, 11, 10, 12, 7, 4-5, 9, 3, 15-16, 18-20, 17 but of course you are missing Sundance (Bellamy's first Garth story and "The Man-Hunt" his last.

I'm grateful to the German Comic Guide and http://ralf-h-comics.de/comics-jt/001.html for their information.

Friday 11 February 2022

ORIGINAL ART: Heros and a lot of Garth

'Heros the Spartan' Eagle Vol.16:24 (12 June 1965)

That lovely piece of art is in the latest auction from Compal. It's going for an opening bid £4,050 with an auctioneer's estimate of £4,500 - £5,000!

Let's get the basics out the way. as usual I've listed these below and will update the prices here and on my spreadsheet. The listings are at both Compalcomics and TheSaleroom

HEROS THE SPARTAN (Eagle Vol. 16:24)

This episode comes from the last story that Bellamy drew of Heros the Spartan, in the comic, "The Slave Army". As Malcolm Philips states on the auction page, the block printing has been added - presumably because some was falling off with age and the collector wanted to show it complete:

Heros the Spartan original double-page artwork (1965) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy. From The Eagle Vol. 16, No 24 centre spread, 1965. Matoumin rescues Heros from his prison to help plot revenge on El Raschid but they are caught in El Raschid's trap, Matoumin is stabbed to death and Heros condemned to die in the arena at the hands of his own men... Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 20 ins. The Heros the Spartan title lettering and square text boxes are laser colour editions to complete the look of the artwork and may be removed if required

A scan from the comic
It's lovely to be able to see the original with those expressive faces Bellamy drew. The more I look at Heros, the more it grows on me, especially after realising how dark the comic reproductions were.

GARTH: The Wolfman of Ausensee - F150 and F190

Garth: The Wolfman of Ausensee

These two wonderful episodes from my - I suspect - favourite of Bellamy's Garths have a starting bid of opening bid £400 and an auctioneer's estimate of £450-£550

Garth's 'Wolfman of Ausensee' two original artworks (1972) by Frank Bellamy for The D. Mirror 24.6.'72 and 14.8.'72. Indian ink on board. 21 x 7 ins (2)

I don't think the photo is as clear as it could be as it makes the whole thing look faded but that it very unlikely.  usually the boards behind the ink 'brown' with age before the blacks go. Anyway, if any millionaires out there fancy rewarding me for all my hard work....!

GARTH: The Wreckers - H15 and H35

Garth: The Wreckers

The opening bid £450 seems reasonable to me for two originals - the auctioneer's estimate
is £500-£600 - and which include Garth's disappearing / reappearing girlfriend Andromeda

Garth: 'The Wreckers'. Two original artworks (1974) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for The D. Mirror 18.1.'74 and 11.2.'74. Indian ink on board. 21 x 7 ins (2)

GARTH:  The Doomsmen - J131

Garth: The Doomsmen

I always have a look at each image to see what they're like and the design here is lovely. We have Bellamy cross-hatching and 'vignettes' to highlight the action.

Bidding starts at £230 and the lot is described:

Garth: 'Doomsmen'. Original artwork (1975) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for the D. Mirror 6.6.'75. Indian ink on board. 21 x 7 ins

GARTH: The Bubble Man - J269

Garth: The Bubble Man

Lastly we have another Garth strip, this time from the Bubble Man story. Bellamy was always good at devising aliens and these moth/ant like creatures are great. Bidding starts at £230 and has already started. It's described thus:

Garth: 'Bubble Man'. Original artwork (1975) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for the D. Mirror 14.11.'76. Indian ink on board. 21 x 7 ins




AUCTION SUMMARY
HEROS THE SPARTAN
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £4,050
ENDING PRICE: £4,150
END DATE: Sunday 27 February 2022

GARTH: The Wolfman of Ausensee - F150 and F190
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £450
ENDING PRICE: £700
END DATE: Sunday 27 February 2022

GARTH: The Wreckers H15 and H35
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £450
ENDING PRICE: £540
END DATE: Sunday 27 February 2022

GARTH:  The Doomsmen - J131
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £230
ENDING PRICE: £310
END DATE: Sunday 27 February 2022

GARTH: The Bubble Man - J269
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom
STARTING BID: £230
ENDING PRICE: £390
END DATE: Sunday 27 February 2022