Frank Bellamy in latest Peter Hansen auction (Part Two)

"Fantasy Figure"

It's unusual for me to split an auction over two articles but this one justifies it. The first part of this auction I wrote about was here So let's cover the second part of the Peter Hansen Collection of British Comics and Comic Art taking place on 24 October 2026, starting at  10:00 at Excalibur Auctions. All links are at the bottom of this article.

"FANTASY FIGURE" 

 The interesting fantasy figure (named by me!) has an interesting proven history. 

"Frank Bellamy was so chuffed to be the guest of honour at Comicon 71 that he produced five new colour visuals for us to auction off. 

The photo shows a bearded young Dez Skinn (who gave me permission to use this from his webiosite) holding one of them - this is mentioned as "Fantasy figure"in the 'Unpublished' part of the Frank Bellamy checklist and to our knowledge has never been published. Of course being me, I asked Dez about the five pieces and he quite rightly pointed out to me this was 55 years ago!

 Excalibur describe it thus: "FRANK BELLAMY Original Art - An original piece of fantasy concept art by the legendary British comic book artist Frank Bellamy created at Comicon 1971, London signed to the bottom underneath the character. (V)" It will be interesting to see what it sells for. 

Unpublished King Solomon's Mines Part 3

KING SOLOMON'S MINES Part3

 I've written about this strip previously (and Parts 1 and 2) and would have loved to have seen more by Bellamy as he does a double page spread in colour for the first time (before "Montgomery of Alamein" and "Heros The Spartan" in Eagle) and covers the area of his special interest: Africa!

The auction states:

FRANK BELLAMY - 'King Solomons Mines' Episode 3, an unpublished story for the British comic book EAGLE. Three 'Episodes' were produced and illustrated in colour by the British comic artist Frank Bellamy, but it was then abandoned in favour of another strip. (V)

It's wonderful that Terry Doyle and Peter Hansen have preserved this strip so well. If you win this auction PLEASE get a copy made to display and keep the original out of the sun! 

"Heros" Eagle Vol.15:39 (26 September 1964) 

"HEROS THE SPARTAN" EAGLE (Vol. 15:39) 

"FRANK BELLAMY - Original comic art for EAGLE volume 15 #39 (1964) 'Heros The Spartan' Episode 17, "The Axe of Arguth" storyline. Heros The Spartan was one of Frank Bellamy's most acclaimed works, set in Ancient Rome and was most likely inspired by the 1960 movie Spartacus. Ink on board, signed by the artist. (V)" - well, I'd say most of the strip occurs in the wider Roman Empire myself, but let's not be pedantic! I was talking about preservation and this example shows some fading. The blues are the first thing to go, but I'm not blaming anyone as how could we know! It has some iconic Bellamy touches - the hand pointing out of the picture, the Heros portrait, the weird monster. Wonderful fantasy which he said he much preferred drawing to other people's works or science-fiction. 

"Heros" Eagle Vol.16:20 (15 May 1965)

"HEROS THE SPARTAN" EAGLE (Vol. 16:20) 

 "FRANK BELLAMY - Original comic book artwork for EAGLE volume 16 / 20 (1965) Heros the Spartan - The Slave Army storyline Episode 12. Heros The Spartan was one of Frank Bellamy's most acclaimed works, set in Ancient Rome and was most likely inspired by the 1960 movie Spartacus. Ink on board, signed by the artist. (V)"

I've said about fading and the story so I'll stop here. But just look at dagger ornamentation at the top-left! This helpful site tells you a lot about the Jile Dagger whose hallmark is the T-shaped pommel at the end. Another instance of Bellamy's love of producing interesting art - not just the dagger but how he has placed it where it is, balancing the visual interest of the page!

Well, that's me done. I'll update the spreadsheet and this page as usual as soon as I know the hammer prices. 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"FANTASY FIGURE" (Lot #447)

WHERE?: Excalibur
ENDING PRICE: £550
END DATE: Saturday 24 October 2026

KING SOLOMON'S MINES (Lot #448)

WHERE?: Excalibur
ENDING PRICE: £2,200
END DATE: Saturday 24 October 2026

"HEROS THE SPARTAN" EAGLE (Vol. 15:39)  (Lot #449)

WHERE?: Excalibur
ENDING PRICE: £1,100
END DATE: Saturday 24 October 2026

"HEROS THE SPARTAN" EAGLE (Vol. 16:20) (Lot #450) 

WHERE?: Excalibur
ENDING PRICE: £1,300
END DATE: Saturday 24 October 2026

Frank Bellamy and the Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse

I was looking for a copy of the Bob Monkhouse 'wall' of art and realised I have never blogged about it beyond mentioning it in passing back in 2011. So let me correct that straight away.

A screenshot from "Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse" BBC4

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse was first broadcast on 3 January 2011  and ran for 90 minutes. The blurb for the show was:

The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.

The anonymous writer who contributed to IMDB said it better:

When Bob Monkhouse's widow died and his house was being prepared for market, the amazing extent of his private collection of video and audio recordings was realized. Among them were many treasures which had previously been believed to be lost to the nation. This films delves into just some of the highlights of that trove, and reveals the multi-layered man behind the glossy TV persona.

It's not currently available on the BBC iPlayer or on YouTube (there are many Monkhouse videos on YouTube) but is repeated from time to time.

So what's the significance to Frank Bellamy? You'll know, if you follow this blog, that many Bellamy originals have now come on the market from Bob Monkhouse's extensive collection.

A quick tour of one corridor in Bob Monkhouse's art collection

 As the camera pans down the corridor we can clearly see some Bellamy - the three Garth "Sundance" strips (see below) plus what looks like "Heros the Spartan" below them and the fantasy piece you've previously seen here. 3 Garth "Sundance" story strips (E206, E212 and E223) came to auction previously from Bob Monkhouse's archive so we are yet to see these three and of course, the family may decide to keep them.

Garth: Sundance E180

Garth: Sundance E182

Garth: Sundance E191

I think Alan Burrows saved me a lot of work when he showed us some of the Heros strips that Bob Monkhouse owned. Episode #21 of the Heros story "The Slave Army" (published in Eagle Vol 16:29  17 July 1965)

Eagle Vol 16:29  17 July 1965

and also from correspondence with Bob, Alan showed us this 'fantasy illustration'.

Fantasy illustration

I know for a fact that this is not all Bob owned (especially as some have come up for auction in the last few years) but several fans remember this documentary and the fact so many Bellamy pieces were identifiable. There! I've now blogged about that too!

Frank Bellamy and Bob Monkhouse

Matador

I apologise for the delay in posting recently (I missed my once-a-month target last month) this is due to re-plastering and the need to put everything into self-storage to protect it from the dust.  I have identified what I can below but not exact numbers, if you need to know let me know and on un-packing I shall pin the issues down.

Alan Burrows kindly forwarded these pictures he received from the late Bob Monkhouse from his extensive Frank Bellamy collection. He forwarded them to my FB Facebook page and I thought maybe some people here may not be on Facebook, so here for your pleasure is Mr Frank Bellamy.

Bob appeared to be a really amiable guy - just look at the drawing on the envelope he sent Alan. People forget he started out as a comic artist, because his later career as a comedian and quiz show host was so successful.

Bob Monkhouse cartoon for Alan Burrows

Fantasy piece by Frank Bellamy

On the websitelisting I labelled this "Fantasy piece" and put it under Unpublished material . Does anyone know any different? Was it published? I love the skull mountain and the usual Bellamy device of a man pointing out of the frame!

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Life study by Frank Bellamy

Lord of the Dragons - published in Once upon a time

 This was published in Bellamy's lifetime in a book called Once upon a time (along with and the book is available via the usual channels and not too rare or expensive. I listed it in my Articles on Frank Bellamy section

Thunderbirds from TV21 #138

From the Thunderbirds story "Space Mirror" which ran in TV Century 21#137 - 140

 It's well known that Bellamy, before taking on a strip, would provide the editors of comics with a sheet of designs. These would show his vision of the characters he would be drawing. However two have lawys puzzled me as they seem very specific

Below we see Dan Dare, Fraser of Africa and Thunderbirds and bear in mind these are photocopies of negatives, or older photocopies so this is all we have as a record, until someone scans the artwork.

Dan Dare operational uniform

Dan Dare Space Fleet  uniform

Fraser of Africa

I have seen the next two before but not the inscription which explains why we have these pieces. In TV21 issues 93-98 Don Harley took over my favourite story from Bellamy while he took a break to produce the Avengers TV series episode "The Winged Avenger". So it looks as if Bellamy drew a character sheet for Alan Tracy and Brains in their spacesuits which Harley could follow. He could have just done a photo but we have to remember that this sort of reproduction process took longer than we do now, where phones, scanners and iPads are available to take instant photos for sharing!

"Frank Bellamy 'visual' given to Don Harley for Thunderbirds

Alan Tracy and Brains from Thunderbirds

I'll save the others for another day as I'd like to do some research in my comics but that will have to wait for my unpacking. Many thanks to the very generous Alan Burrows for sharing this wonderful collection of reference material