AUCTION: LOTS OF ORIGINAL ART (Peter Hansen collection)

As part of the second auction of Peter Hansen’s collection, Excalibur Auctions have some original artwork by Frank Bellamy in amongst some fascinating pieces of UK comic history! I've spent a very pleasant hour browsing the whole auction. But here are the Bellamy highlights with links to the individual lots below this article:

Eagle Vol. 9: 47 (22 November 1958)

DAVID THE SHEPHERD KING (Lot #85) 

The auctioneers have described it thus:

FRANK BELLAMY - Original comic book art for EAGLE volume 9 #47 (1956 [sic]) by FRANK BELLAMY - ‘The Shepherd King’ Episode 11
56cm x 42cm (V) 

As you can see it's VERY faded. This appeared originally in Eagle Volume 9 number 47 (22 November 1958). Here are the other images Excalibur have provided:

SOUTHERN RAILWAY POSTER

Southern Railway poster c.1935

Described as:

FRANK BELLAMY - Southern Railway Poster Artwork, 'South for Sunshine' painted by Frank A Bellamy, for an RAAS competition, c.1935, original artwork in poster paint on hardboard, 42'' x 27''; as a competition entry, it is believed that this design was not used by the Southern Rail. This is an early example of Bellamy’s work, before he became a well known comic book illustrator. This poster underwent some conservation in 2013, and all the paperwork is still include[d] which details all the work undertaken. 

I've written about this back in 2012 and David Jackson guessed that this might be Olivia de Havilland in 2016! 

Here are the other photos supplied, preserved for posterity

Bellamy's home address before marriage

 ROBIN HOOD ILLUSTRATION

Robin Hood illustration

Described by Excalibur as:

FRANK BELLAMY - A character study of Robin Hood, a story which Bellamy drew for the weekly British comic book SWIFT throughout the 1950s, pen and ink on board, 29cm x 20cm

This certainly is familiar as I wrote about it in 2013, thanks to Simon Osborne, so I guess it sold privately to Peter Hansen as it looks the same! Where Excalibur say "throughout the 1950s", that should read, for the record, Bellamy drew the comic strip  "Robin Hood and his Merry Men" + "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" from 12 May 1956 - 23 February 1957 in the Swift comic.

Here are the other images shared 

AFFINITY MAGAZINE COVER 

 

Affinity #29 (June 1950)

Now this drawing for the Gerald Swan publication is a strange one. I've got scans of two artworks which are the same image but with differing lettering and details. The one in this auction states clearly this is for June 1950 publication; the other shows "June/July 1950". Affinity had two numbering runs: [No. 1] May 1946-no. 28 (May 1950); New series. no. 1 (April 1953)-no. 16 [Oct. 1954] which shows the June or June/ July issue was never published, so I think, till proven wrong - this is an unpublished Bellamy. David Jackson once suggested "it may have been a portfolio try-out never  intended for publication just a demo of FB's range of abilities, including lettering graphics". Anyway back to the auction:

FRANK BELLAMY - Original cover art for AFFINITY (Love Stories) #29 June / July 1950, a short running UK publication by Gerald G Swan, 40cm x 26cm 

Here are the other images from the auction:

 ROBIN HOOD COMIC STRIP from SWIFT Vol.3:49 (8 December 1956)

 

Swift Vol.3:49 (8 December 1956)

The auctioneers describe this artwork as:

FRANK BELLAMY - Original comic book art for SWIFT volume 3 #49 (1956, Hulton Press) by FRANK BELLAMY - ‘Robin Hood’ Episode 31 54cm x 39cm 

The blank spaces below the comic strip are there for the libretto text so Mummys and Daddys could read to their children whilst the kids looked at the images.  

Here are the other images

 

There's a Buyer's premium of 27% on each of these if bidding directly on Excalibur's site. When I see the results I'll add them here and also to the usual spreadsheet.

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

DAVID THE SHEPHERD KING- EAGLE Vol. 9:47 (Lot 85)

WHERE?: Excalibur Auctions
Estimate: £-
ENDING PRICE: £
END DATE: 9 May 2026

SOUTHERN RAILWAY POSTER (Lot 447)

WHERE?: Excalibur Auctions
Estimate: £-
ENDING PRICE: £
END DATE: 9 May 2026

ROBIN HOOD ILLUSTRATION (Lot 448)

WHERE?: Excalibur Auctions
Estimate: £-
ENDING PRICE: £
END DATE: 9 May 2026

AFFINITY magazine cover (Lot 449)

WHERE?: Excalibur Auctions
Estimate: £-
ENDING PRICE: £
END DATE: 9 May 2026

ROBIN HOOD  Swift Vol.3:49, 8 December 1956 (Lot 450)

WHERE?: Excalibur Auctions
Estimate: £-
ENDING PRICE: £
END DATE: 9 May 2026

AUCTION: Robin Hood page from Swift 1957

Lot#48 "Robin Hood" from Swift Vol4: 7 (16 February 1957)

Compal auctions have their latest auction up at TheSaleroom and their own webpage. This time we have a Robin Hood page from Swift (this latter links shows Current Bids).

It's a lovely page (the second of two from the comic) with an action-packed Bellamy panel.  And before anyone mentions it, those white movement lines are NOT likely to be 'white-out / Tippex fluid' as Bellamy states he never used it. They are more likely to be scratches made in the artboard. Whoever wins this, please let us know!

Scan from my copy of the comic of the action panel

Malcolm of Compal describes the lot:

Robin Hood original artwork (1957)
Drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for Swift comic Vol. 4, No 7 1957 (comic included)
'Cool and steady, Robin Hood fitted an arrow to his longbow and took careful aim at the galloping Robert the Wolf…'
Indian ink and grey wash on board. 21 x 15 ins
£500-600

He doesn't mention that Bellamy lettered the piece and left space for the libretto text below each panel. For your delectation and delight (yes, the TV programme "The Goold Old Days" was watched in our house!) here are both pages from this issue of Swift scanned from my collection.

Swift Vol.4: 7 (16 February 1957) p.9

 

Swift Vol.4: 7 (16 February 1957) p.10

How have sales gone before? Well, they've been interesting:

In May 2022 "Robin Hood" in Swift Vol.3:41 (13 Oct 1956) was sold by Compal for £470.00; in August 2017 Swift 24 Nov 1956 sold for Heritage Auctions at £785.58 and in Novemeber 2011 a page from Swift Vol 4. No. 25 (dated 22 June 1957) was unsold with an estimate of £850 by Compal

As this page has such an iconic profile of the main man, I wonder how much this will sell for. The auction ends on Sunday 15 March when I'll add the end result below and add it to the spreadsheet.
 

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"ROBIN HOOD" Swift Vol.4:7 (16 Febraury 1957) (Lot 48)

WHERE?: Compal/TheSaleroom
Estimate: £500-600
Opening Bid: £450
ENDING PRICE: £450
END DATE: Sunday 15 March 2026

Original Art: Garth on Heritage - Robin Hood & Bride of Jenghiz Khan (H264)

This "Robin Hood" appeared in Swift 24 Nov 1956

The Heritage auction this week contains not only another Garth original but also more excitingly, an original from the Swift comic, Robin Hood


They describe the piece, which appeared in Swift dated 24 November 1956, in this way:

Frank Bellamy Swift Vol. 3 #47 "Robin Hood," Episode 29, Page 2 Original Art (Hulton Press, 1956). Never a better Robin Hood than the series created by Bellamy for Swift, a British publication. Each large-scale panel throbs with painterly passion, and the facial expressions, body language, and cinematic compositions are on a par with the famous Robin Hood movie of 1938. The deep horizontal gutters, or white spaces, were designed to contain printed text in the published editions. Ink and greyscale watercolors over graphite on illustration board. Image area, 12" x 15.5". Excellent condition.

To demonstrate how it looked in the finished comic, I dug around in my collection and realised I don't own the actual comic from which this art came. But the one preceding is in my collection, so please enjoy that!.

Swift 17 November 1956 Cover

Swift 17 November 1956
Robin Hood and his Merry Men
Written by Clifford Makin and drawn by Frank Bellamy

Bellamy drew the strip in Swift, a companion comic for younger children, to the famed Eagle comic, from Volume 3:19 - 3:52, 4:1 - 4:8 (12 May 1956 - 29 December 1956, 5 January 1957 - 23 February 1957) and the strip became "Robin Hood and Maid Marian" after that until Volume 4:33 (17 August 1957).

If you want to read the whole of "Robin Hood" pick up a copy of the Book Palace reprint - 134 pages of lovely artwork and commentary by Steve Holland.

H264 episode of  "Garth: Bride of Jenghiz Khan" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

The second auction piece is continuing the story of Jenghiz Khan as outlined already many times on this blog, so there I shall leave it except to quote Heritage:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip H264 Original Art (Daily Mirror, c. 1974). An insolent tongue has our hero and his bound topless maiden sidekick chained for vulture fodder on this high contrast thriller, numbered H264. Frank Bellamy is one of the celebrated titans of British comic strip art. This ink over graphite on illustration board daily has an image area of 20.5" x 5.25", and the art is in Excellent condition. From the Ethan Roberts Estate Collection.

As usual I will add the details after the auction of how much they sell for below


Robin Hood
WHERE?: Heritage Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121735
LOT #: 14005
SELLER:Heritage
STARTING BID:$
ENDING PRICE:$1,015.75 (inc. Buyer's Premium) = £785.58
No of bids:7

END DATE: 27 August 2017

H264 "Garth: Bride of Jenghiz Khan"
WHERE?: Heritage Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121735
LOT #: 14006 
SELLER:Heritage
STARTING BID:$
ENDING PRICE:$382.40 = £295.67
No of bids:7

END DATE: 27 August 2017

BIG NEWS: Robin Hood again!

Steve Holland has announced a project he has been working on for Look and Learn / Book Palace that:
"...we're also working on The Complete Frank Bellamy Robin Hood. This is a Look and Learn/Book Palace project that has been in the works for a while now (it takes time to scan and clean up that many pages!). The book will reprint the whole of Bellamy's long run of 'Robin Hood and His Merry Men' and 'Robin Hood and Maid Marian' for 15 months in 1956-57 in the pages of Swift. Not, I may add, the abridged version that later appeared in Treasure in the 1960s. This is the complete run."

The date: 2008! Start saving your sixpences as that means approximately 134 pages of art plus any additional introduction etc.!

This picture has been borrowed and will be returned soon to its rightful owner Steve Holland

Robin Hood & ROK Comics

Robin Hood art Copyright © Look and Learn Ltd

The very 21st century technology of mobile phones presents a mid 20th century version of Robin Hood!

Many thanks to John Freeman who helped me to get this to you. In the picture above you'll see two arrows on the right which allow you to browse the single mocked-up mobile screens

Mind you, the cover is not by Bellamy!

Now if we could see the complete Robin Hood and King Arthur stories from the Swift comic reprinted in one book, so an old man, like myself could read them, that would be brilliant!

ROK also produce mobile phone versions of early non-Bellamy Garth strips, but use the Bellamy Garth for their publicity

...ADDITION: Treasure

Steve Holland has padded out the data I had on the Robin Hood strips, which originally appeared in Swift. He points out that the reprints in Treasure were in fact from #197 - 261 (22/10/66 - 13/01/68). The later reprints in Storyland (new to Steve - a miracle in itself!) still need complete data.

Steve adds: "the Treasure Robin Hood reprint [...] was abridged and bowdlerised in various places. It also dropped two episodes" which explains the discrepancy with Treasure only having 65 episodes and the original running for 67 through the two titles Robin Hood and his Merry Men and then Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Thanks Steve.