Al Williamson and Frank Bellamy recycled

Bellamy's art on "Dan Dare"
Eagle 7 Nov 1959 Vol.10 No38

****UPDATED: February 2023****See also Part Two

I recently saw a story drawn by Al Williamson, a great artist, on 'Groovy's' brilliant blog and remembered previously writing something on Williamson's 'borrowing' of others' work.Unfortunately none of my wonderful storage methods have enabled me to recover this work, so here goes again!

Referring to the first King Comics, (a short-lived comic book imprint of King Features Syndicate), "Flash Gordon" comic, the author (Mark Schultz, no mean artists himself) states:

"Produced under an intimidating deadline, the leadoff story in particular not only borrows from a Raymond but also features panels lifted cold from instalments of Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy's Dan Dare, a British science fiction comic.  Williamson has been open about his "swipes" of the work of others, a not-uncommon practice in the comics field and one attributable to the constant deadline pressure.  He has always willingly given credit to his sources." (p.20) - Al Williamson's Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, (2009), Flesk Publications. ISBN-13: 978-1933865126

 Indeed he did say such things, I'd previously noted in James Van Hise book "The Art of Al Williamson", that he learned about drawing using photographs from assisting John Prentice (read more here about that work) and after this kept a 'morgue file' as artists call their clippings before the Internet made it so much easier.

I should acknowledge that until today I was not aware of Eric Mackenzie's interesting article in Spaceship Away #3 - another strange coincidence whilst researching this topic. I did see the article on BritishComicArt blog and it was then that I thought 'Crow', the blog author, 'borrowed' from my article (which I suspect was in an old Facebook profile and lost now!) but as you can read in the comments, it was a coincidence! I also remember long ago in the 1970s reading (was it in Fantasy Advertiser Dez Skinn?) an article on the same subject, but that's long gone! However I think I have remembered something of this - see below.

So let's get started.

Firstly I quote Frank Bellamy's letter to Mike Tiefenbacher and Jerome Sinkovec of Menomonee Falls Gazette
Thank you for the complimentary remarks about my work. You are very kind. It means a lot to me to find acceptance in the United States. I was very interested to read about Al Williamson. As I am a great admirer of his work it gives me great pleasure to know that he is familiar with at least some of my work. Taken from Bellamy's letter to Menomonee Falls Gazette  Published in no.81, July 2nd, 1973.

Oh he certainly was Frank! The page above contains the following panel which we will see was a definite favourite of Williamson's!

Bellamy foliage from Eagle 7 Nov 1959 Vol.10 No38

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon #1, 1966 p.4
Note the shape of the foliage

Williamson à la Bellamy

UPDATE: I thought that was it until Bill Storie mentioned he'd see Bellamy's explosion appear in another Williamson work and he's sent it to me!

Al Williamson Star Wars

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon #5, 1967 p.28
Below an enlarged panel

Hmm, that foliage looks familiar

The most frequently spotted of Williamson's 'recycled' Bellamy pieces is the spaceship "Nimbus 2" Bellamy created in the "Dan Dare" story "Project Nimbus". Frank Hampson (Don Harley, Gerald Palmer, Keith Watson inter alia) created "Dan Dare" over a 10 year period before Bellamy, Harley and others took over. Bellamy, unfairly I think, gets a lot of criticism by those who were reading "Dan Dare" at that time because he was asked to upgrade things. Fortunately he agreed from the start to do it for one year and that's what his contract stated.

Bellamy's art on "Dan Dare"
Eagle 16 April 1960 Vol.11 No16

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon #1, 1966 p.1

...and Bellamy's Nimbus 2!

Williamson loved the craft so much he used another panel

Bellamy's art on "Dan Dare"
Eagle 7 May 1960 Vol.11 No19

Enlarged panel by Bellamy

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon #1, 1966 p.15 - see below for full page

An interview mentioned in Gopherville Argus (a short-lived fanzine on Bellamy, put out by Bill Storie and Terry Doyle) quotes an interview with Williamson (original source unknown)

From Gopherville Argus #3

Off I went...tanks?...Tanks...Ah, TANKS! Take a look at the tank on the right in the first panel and then....

The well renowned Blazing Combat (1965) #2

take a look at the tank on the right above Monty's profile - to the right of the page!

Eagle 21 April 1962

While I was researching this article, I found something very interesting. Remember I said I thought there was an article in Fantasy Advertiser, Dez Skinn's fanzine of the 70s, well my memory says it included this page by Bellamy but you know what memory is like - especially after 40 years!

Bellamy's art on "Dan Dare"
Eagle 9 April 1960 Vol.11 No15

Here's the panel in question I wish to highlight

Bellamy's unique hardware

Well whilst re-reading Flash Gordon comics I tripped over this page by the wonderful Wally Wood

The Phantom #18, 1966
"Flash Gordon and the Space Pirates"

One moment what's that hardware there? It looks familiar! So Wally Wood copied Bellamy, or did Williamson sketch for Wood to ink his work. Personally I don't think this looks like a Wood original despite the excellent Grand Comics Database entry. The figure of Gordon does not look 'Wood-y' enough for my liking.

Wally Wood copies Bellamy

 And before we round off Williamson's recycling of Bellamy art, I should point you to Bellamy's art above which shows the launch of the Nimbus 2. The first panel of that page looks very similar to this one:

The Phantom #18, 1966
"Flash Gordon and the Space Pirates"

The figure here certainly looks like Wally Wood's work but the spacecraft? I don't think it was his original idea!

UPDATE (17 May 2022): Lastly "HarryDobermann Esq" pointed out a later image I missed completely in the same Wood story! Look closely at the bottom right hand panel! Thunderbird One is go!

The Phantom #18, 1966
"Flash Gordon and the Space Pirates"

TV21 #77 has the following image which I'm guessing formed the basis for Woody's image. But who knows? TB1 launches with wings 'in', maybe that's why this copy doesn't look too true to the original. 

TV21 #77 cropped

Bear with me as I round off this article with two more examples of Williamson's use of the Eagle comic, although I must emphasize this is not Frank Bellamy artwork. the first is one of my favourite comic covers of all time by the UK's other Frank...Hampson.

Frank Hampson's art for Eagle 28 March 1959 Vol.10 No13
"The Galactic Galleon"

Take note of the rounded base of the craft. Williamson used the bottom of this craft as positioned in the above image, below!

Frank Hampson and Don Harley's art for Eagle 12 March 1960 Vol.11 No11

Al Williamson's Flash Gordon #1, 1966 p.15 -
see above for enlarged panel by Bellamy
and Hampson's gorgeous ship
Notice these three panes are all 'recycled'!

The craft, "Tempus Frangit" is so iconic in later "Dan Dare" stories as drawn by Keith Watson, I thought it worth showing this recycling by Williamson too. Take a look at the following - my post . Some of this is also mentioned here

Eagle Vol 14:41 12 Oct 1963
Keith Watson artwork

Creepy #112
Al Williamson art

Thanks to Eric Mackenzie's article in Spaceship Away #3 I also see now I have a copy, that Willimason borrowed from Don Harley and Bruce Cornwell

Eagle Vol 11 #52

One of a few adverts which Williamson
drew for various magazines for Union carbide

If you can add anything, let me know! And I must emphasise that I love a lot of Williamson's work and am in no way criticising his practice. Even Bellamy used reference photographs...more on that another day.

 

READ THIS FAR AND WANT MORE? Part Two is here

Frank Bellamy and High Command

An email on a mailing list made me have a look at my copies of High Command published by Dragon's Dream.

High Command - Art by Frank Bellamy

Dragon's Dream, the publisher, was founded by Roger Dean (the artist behind, too many to mention, album covers and many wonderfully strange landscapes - my favourites were the Greenslade covers). Dean's website contains his biography as well as some dazzling artwork. The history of Dragon's Dream is explained here:
"Dragon's Dream, a specialist publishing house devoted primarily to UK fantasy illustrators founded by Dean and his brother Martyn Dean; it also published under the Paper Tiger imprint. The brothers later sold the company, but remained involved in its productions." from SFE, the Encyclopedia of Science-Fiction

One date given for Dean's 'selling' is 1981 which coincidentally is the date this book was published. I own both a hardback with publishing credits in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht (south-east of Rotterdam) and a paperback.

Hardback

The paperback has no publisher on the title page, but mentions the Dragon's Dream Book was distributed by WHS Distributors. Could this mean W H Smith, the UK newsagent, had an arrangement with the company for a quantity which it sold in its chain of shops? This sort of co-publishing was not unusual in the 1980s when I was a bookseller. It made for a cheaper print run knowing a certain quantity of sales could be guaranteed (into Smith's bookshops). 

Paperback

I have also found a Dutch version on the Internet but don't know any more than that. the title has been half translated. I presume editing all the captions and word balloons would have been too prohibitive, but if anyone in the Netherlands can tell me if the comics in this were in English or Dutch I'd be grateful.

UPDATE (08 April 2014) John Wigmans (who helped me with the article on Bellamy and Basil Reynolds' work for Disney), has pointed out that auction sites in the Netherlands have often got copies for sale and that the interior was indeed completely re-lettered inside.

Dutch edition: Der verhalen van Sir Winston Churchill
en General Montgomery

An interior page of the Dutch version (taken from an auction site)

For your pleasure I have reproduced below some example artwork

Robert Fitzgerald's introduction

Churchill introduction (by Fitzgerald?)

Churchill

Interestingly this last episode of the original printing in the Eagle comic (seen below) was never included in the hardback reprint by Hulton in 1958 when the series ended nor here in the Dragon's Dream production.

The missing portrait

The portrait could have gone here!

Field Marshall Montgomery introduction (by Fitzgerald?)

Editors who gave Bellamy the centrespread of their comics were wise people. His complete ownership of the double page is demonstrated nowhere better in my opinion than here (well, maybe in the Heros The Spartan story!). The original series were published in Eagle:


EAGLE Vol. 8:40 - 8:52, 9:1 - 9:36. (04/10/57 -28/12/57, 3/1/58 - 6/9/58) "The Happy Warrior" by Clifford Makins
EAGLE Vol. 13:10 - 13:27 (10/03/62 -07/07/62) "Montgomery of Alamein" by Clifford Makins

More original artwork for sale

UPDATE
I have added the prices that these two pieces sold for. I'm amazed at how much they raised for the relevant party and pleased to see Bellamy at last become a major contender - to quote Marlon Brando!


Just wanted to alert you to the fact that right now there are two pieces of artwork by Frank Bellamy on Comic Book Postal Auctions. Look at lots #99 and 100.

The first is a double-page spread of the "Montgomery of Alamein" from - to quote the site"Eagle Vol 17 No 13 1967". Now that's the first time I've heard of this appearing so late in Eagle and as this looks like the original (note the lack of pasted title top-left) I can't imagine how they got the information. I believe it is an original of Volume 13:17 (28/04/1962). Mind you the entry does say "Gouache on board" and Bellamy always used inks for these comic pieces! And I'm not so pedantic to mention the spelling mistake in the title! Whatever the information, the estimate is a bargain in my opinion: £550-650 Let's see what it goes for as it looks in great condition. I'll add the result when it's finished

Auction ended December, 2009 at £2,849! In a recession as well! That's the highest amount paid for a Bellamy to my knowledge

Edited on 28 December 2009

---

The second comes from "Heros The Spartan" and appears somewhat faded, but nice. The information for this one is right: Eagle Volume 16 No 11 1966. It's episode number 3 from the story called The Slave Army. Bellamy used inks again not gouache and the estimate is £500-550


Auction ended December, 2009 at £2,262!

Edited on 28 December 2009

---