AUCTION: Heros the Spartan Original art

 

Eagle 25 May 1963 (Vol.14:21), pp10-11

Phil-Comics, the nicest and award-winning eBayer (with 100% positive Seller Feedback of 25,335) has a piece of Frank Bellamy original art in his most recent sale - so be quick if you decide to bid as the auction ends Monday 15 December at 22:04. It's the first time I've seen this at auction or for sale.

He has put a starting price of £3,749.99 and here's his description:

Heros the Spartan Original Artwork by Frank Bellamy for Eagle comic Vol 14 #21 May 25 1963 Rare

A wonderful page of rarely seen original artwork drawn and painted by Frank Bellamy, one of the most highly regarded and talented British comic artists. The page was published in Eagle comic Vol 14 #21, dated May 25 1963, as episode 12 from the "Eagle of the Fifth" story. This was featured in "The Art of Frank Bellamy". 

A collector friend has kindly provided an image of the published page in the above Eagle comic and we have included this as the final picture above - please note this is only for reference purposes and the comic is not included here. We did notice a copy for sale on eBay at the time of writing, but in any case they are not difficult to track down.

The page measures approximately 27.25 x 17.75 inches (79 x 45 cm) and is on thick, rigid art board. The detail is very crisp indeed and the colours vibrant. Frank Bellamy's signature is seen in the lower right quarter. Small loss to the lower left corner and a bump to the other corners. Some staining to the lower right corner and lower left edge.

A beautiful page of artwork highly sought-after by collectors.

This came to us in a black wooden frame with glass but we aren't able to post it as past experience tells us the glass will break, plus the frame makes it very difficult to pack. So whilst we're not including the frame as part of this listing, if you were to be successful and collected the artwork from us, you are welcome to the frame free of charge.

Will pack flat between multiple sheets of very thick cardboard and it should be rendered "bomb proof" once we've finished.

UK postage by Special Delivery - £9.50. 

In the years I've been capturing sales data on Bellamy's original art, "Heros" has sold on average for £3,388.40 with the outliers being a very faded piece for £130 and then at the other end of the scale £7,300. Without them, the average is £3,342 and the median over 7 years is £3,300. 

Phil has shared loads of images so I've captured them here for you, showing some dinging on the corners but the clarity of the colours is still pretty good. At the bottom I've shown the printed page - which as usual is pretty dark! The reproduction wasn't great in my opinion at that time at the Eagle so enjoy seeing what Bellamy's art can look like!

 The published page looks like this:

Eagle 25 May 1963 (Vol.14:21), pp10-11 

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Heros The Spartan" Eagle Vol. 14:21 (25 May 1963)
WHERE?: eBay (Phil-comics)
STARTING BID: £3,749.99
ENDING PRICE: £UNSOLD
END DATE: Monday 15 December 2025

AUCTION: Heros the Spartan and Thunderbirds at Compal

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 13:44 (2 November 1962) (Original art)

Over the last years "Heros The Spartan" original artwork has popped up - some faded, some not. The prices for just those from Volume 13 of the Eagle are as follows:

• 14 August 2022 "Heros the Spartan" in Eagle 17 November 1962 Vol.13 No45 £3,800.00 Comic Book Auctions Ltd
• 12 May 2022 "Heros the Spartan" in Eagle 10 November 1962 Vol.13 No45 £4,350.00 Comic Book Auctions Ltd
• 7 Nov 2019 "Heros the Spartan", in Eagle 1 December 1962 Vol 13 No48 £5,000.00 Excalibur
• 27 Mar 2017 "Heros the Spartan", in Eagle 1 December 1962 Vol 13 No48 £4,332.01 Heritage

The highest price, so far reached for any "Heros" original was in 2019 (Eagle 17 July 1965 Vol.16 No29) which sold for £7,300.00

The latest offering from Compal Auctions is the above piece from Eagle Volume 13 (number 44) published in 1962. It looks to be in great condition and if you compare it to the published page you'll see that the printing at the time was nowhere near enough to do Frank Bellamy's art justice. I suspect it is this 'darkness' that stopped me bothering to read it back in the day. Having now seen some of the original artworks, I can honestly say besides the art department's choice to colour each caption differently, it's a brilliant series.

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 13:44 (2 November 1962) (Published version)

The auction is described like this:

Heros the Spartan double page original artwork (1962) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 13. No 44 1962. 'Caesar had promoted the young Spartan to a higher rank, and to test Heros's worthiness, Caesar ordered him to take 100 men and conquer the mysterious Island of Darkness...' Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 19 ins. The 'Heros' title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork

If I ever owned such a piece I would not have added the title lettering or captions, wanting to see as much of the original as I could. But each to their own. Incidentally a copy of the complete reprint of the "Heros" strip is also at auction. 

The second piece on offer this time round by Compal is a "Thunderbirds" page we have seen up for auction before. It sold for £9010 by Heritage Auction in November 2022, and I noticed that the Thunderbirds logo has since been added (see my comment on the original blog post).

The latest photo of "Thunderbirds" in TV21 #88

Anyway it's described thus:

Thunderbirds original double-page artwork (1966) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 88, 1966. 'The World President has given the order to hand over the bomb so International Rescue can destroy a piece of the Sun which threatens to destroy the Earth - Project Sunburst precariously moves into action...' Bright, fresh Pelikan inks on board. 26 x 17 ins. 

In this year of the 60th anniversary of "Thunderbirds" who can say what this will go for?

Good luck to anyone bidding. I'll add the final price here (and on the spreadsheet)  when the auction finishes

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Heros The Spartan" Eagle Vol. 13:44 (2 November 1962)
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 82
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800)
ENDING PRICE: £4250
END DATE: Sunday 31 August 2025

"Thunderbirds" TV21 #88
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 146
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800)
ENDING PRICE: £6300
END DATE: Sunday 31 August 2025 

AUCTION: Heros the Spartan at Compal

 It's Frank Bellamy’s birthday. This morning I've helped friends to clear their house they've been living in for 30 years and suddenly I get a message that Compal Auctions has a piece of Frank Bellamy original art, which I thought I'd highlight today as it's Frank's anniversary.

 

"Heros The Spartan", Eagle Vol 16:28 (10 July 1965)

The auction is described as:

 Heros the Spartan original double page artwork (1965) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 16 No 28 1965. 'Heros and his band of escaped slaves fought their way out of the desert stronghold of El Raschid. Swelled by the Moorish army of Abdullah the Cruel, El Raschid's savage band streamed in hot pursuit...! Bright Pelikan inks on board. 28 x 19 ins. The 'Heros' title lettering and rectangular text boxes are laser copy additions to complete the look of the artwork

 This comes from the fourth story drawn by Bellamy "The Slave Army" and the fact that whoever added captions back in, did it so accurately they've also added the 'smudged' blue caption in the third row second panel - here's my printed version!

Compare print copy here to the original above!

 Still this looks lovely and the blues are still there. Good luck to anyone bidding. I'll add the final price here when the auction finishes

 

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Heros The Spartan Eagle Vol. 16:28 (10 July 1965)
WHERE?: Thesaleroom / Compal Lot 61
STARTING BID: £2550 (Estimate: £2,800-£3,200)
ENDING PRICE: £3300
END DATE: Sunday 1 June 2025

Heritage auctioning an episode of Garth: H84

 

Garth: The Beast of Ultor H84

This is a quick note to record that Heritage are auctioning this original artwork between the 2 April and to 9 April. Their description:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip #H84 Original Art dated 9-4-74 (Daily Mirror of London, 1974). In this episode, the title hero, Garth, is faced with having to battle three women... to the death! A moody daily by the celebrated British comic strip artist created in ink over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 20.5" x 5.25". Slight toning, staple holes in the corners, abrasions in the top left and bottom right corners, whiteout touch-up, with light staining and handling wear. In Very Good condition.

I should add that Bellamy was very proud of never using whiteout. The whiteout referred to here is on the borders and most likely done by John Allard who lettered this and all other Garth artwork during Bellamy’s time on the strip.  The image above is small as this is a preview. If Heritage add a higher-resolution, I'll replace the above.

Heritage have sold this before in 2006 when it went for $134.55. I expect it to reach c. £200 this time, but let's see.

AUCTION SUMMARY

Garth: The Beast of Ultor (G84)
WHERE?: Heritage Auctions
ENDING PRICE: £509.52 ($660 inc BP)
END DATE: Wednesday 9 April 2025

Frank Bellamy and 3 auction pieces

 

Eagle Vol.9 No.50 13 December 1958

I've come out of retirment- so to speak - to highlight this piece of original art that was for auction yesterday on Catawiki. The end price was £1,650 with 50 bids in total- from Germany and Great Britain, the latter being the winner.

 

No-one has added any caption boxes to the original and the photos show that the colour has not faded - always look at the blues - but the board itself has seen better days.  But that said, this is a unique opportunity for someone, as the last "David, The Shepherd King" to sell at auction was quite a substantial amount of money.

Whilst I've been taking a rest two other pieces were for sale on eBay both of them 'life studies' which sold for around £225 each -I don't know the actual sold prices but you're more interested in the artwork than me chatting! For other life stuuies by Frank Bellamy, search the blog

 

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

 

ORIGINAL ART ON EBAY: Dan Dare in Eagle- again!

Eagle  Vol10:33 (3 October 1959)

The latest Compal Auctions  (Lot #27) has another episode of the "Terra Nova" story - the first Bellamy Dan Dare story he drew. It's described as: 

Dan Dare/Eagle original cover artwork (1959) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 10 No 33. With original comic. 'Flamer is seized by the claws of a giant Nagreb and Lex gets a shot at the man-eating ant just in time. Flamer's still in one piece but ...' Bright Pelikan inks on board. 15 x 13 ins

The opening bid is £1,260 (someone has already bid!) with an auctioneer's estimate of £1,400- £1,800. In the last year we have seen a few pieces fetch good prices and the average for "Dan Dare" pages since 2019 has been £2,453.33 - the benefit of keeping a spreadsheet! 

Mind you that doesn't include what is special to a collector. I hung a spare Eagle comic cover up at home and I didn't realise my kids wanted to know what happened next until they mentioned how frustrating it was, years later! We each have our reasons for liking something.

So in the spirit of not wanting to frustrate you here is the next page of that week's story - and why wouldn't I share that Bellamy artwork!

Eagle  Vol10:33 (3 October 1959) page 2

For those who collect "Dan Dare" artworks I'm sure you will have seen in the same auction the cover by Harold Johns and Greta Tomlinson

I'll add the final sale price onto the spreadsheet, as usual.

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Dan Dare", Eagle Vol10:33 (3 October 1959)
WHERE?: Compal /Thesaleroom)
STARTING BID: £1,260
ENDING PRICE: £1,400
END DATE: Sunday 1 September 2024

ORIGINAL ART ON EBAY: Dan Dare in Eagle

Eagle Vol10:40 (21 November 1959)

Two beautifully preserved examples of Frank Bellamy's artwork on "Dan Dare" have come to auction.

The first (Lot #64) comes from the very last episode of the "Terra Nova" story - the first Bellamy Dan Dare story he drew. It's described as: 

Dan Dare/Eagle original artwork (1959) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 10 No 40. Dan and Digby had set off in Anastasia to wipe out the dreaded 'Nagreb' man-eating ant colony with a high explosive missile. Their mission accomplished, they land Anastasia outside Pax...' Bright Pelikan inks on board. 15 x 13 ins

The opening bid is £1,260 with an auctioneer's estimate of £1,400- £1,800. I love the composition and how Bellamy shows the dome on the spaceship Anastasia. Notice that the caption "Later..." is attached below the artwork and the Eagle logo and details have been added to the artwork. As the pencil inscription shows, Bemrose the printer will have added the panel but not to the artwork. So that's an addition to the best of my knowledge. Bellamy signed the pages he drew and left the Harley/Watson/Palmer page for them.  I am drafting an article on who did what in each of the episodes - watch this space. Just for your delight, here is the second page of this story (and therefore the final page) by said Harley, Watson and Palmer, so you can see how jarring the change of styles are from one page to another. No wonder a lot of the original readers still do not like Bellamy's "Dan Dare"! It wasn't his choice to do it in this way, inheriting some of Hamspon's studio team when the shake-ups took place.

Eagle Vol10:40 (21 November 1959), p.2

Back to Bellamy.

Eagle Vol10:41 (28 November 1959)

Lot #62 is the next consecutive episode, the beginning of the "Dan Dare" story "Trip to Trouble" and features some lovely portraits of Dan Dare and Galileo McHoo (who first appeared in Eagle Vol:10:10 in 7 March 1959). The opening bid is £1,260 with an auctioneer's estimate of £1,400- £1,800:

Dan Dare/Eagle original artwork (1959) painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for The Eagle Vol. 10 No 41. 'On Terra Nova - a new world - Dan Dare is trying to find his father who landed many years before and disappeared without trace. Dan has a sudden flash of inspiration... Bright Pelikan inks on board. 15 x 13 ins

Again the strip at the top and the Eagle logo have been added in my opinion. But enlarge the image and you'll see some gorgeous Bellamy techniques.

These two episodes follow on from the recently auctioned page which sold fro £1,700.

I'll add the final sales onto the spreadsheet, as usual.

AUCTION SUMMARY

"Dan Dare", Eagle Vol10:40 (21 November 1959)
WHERE?: Compal /Thesaleroom)
STARTING BID: £1,260
ENDING PRICE: £4,150
END DATE: Sunday 2 June 2024

"Dan Dare", Eagle Vol10:41 (28 November 1959)
WHERE?: Compal /Thesaleroom)
STARTING BID: £1,260
ENDING PRICE: £2,650
END DATE: Sunday 2 June 2024