John Ridgway colouring Garth

When I saw some of John Ridgway's colouring of the newspaper strip Garth, I had to catch him by email and ask permission to reproduce it.

John was kind enough to not only share the one I wanted (above) but also to send me copies of several others and agreed I could share them. I like to reciprocate and said is there anything he is working on that I can advertise for him? He hasn't actually got a web presence but DownTheTubes have kindly set up a page for him and he sent me this list:

"Currently I'm working on

• a Commando book for D.C.Thomson, 
• Colouring Age of Heroes for Strip magazine 
• Colouring some Ron Turner Space Ace stories for possible publication 
• Colouring Fudge and the Dragon and Speck's Inventions (yes that's Ken Reid's creation!) for ROK Comics 
• Working on designs for Frontiers – a space series I want to write 
• Working on scripts for two other series – Wereworld and Alternate Earth 
• Continuing to colour the Garth stories and Earthspace("I've been colouring up Earthspace by Sydney Jordan with the hope of convincing Express Newspapers to let us get it done in full colour as a graphic album")"

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

© Daily Mirror

Bellamy - Lasting influence on Doctor Who illustration

Various Doctor Who listings from Radio Times

You might have already seen the adverts around the Net for the following and I'm recommending it as I have followed Andersonic (the sister fanzine) for many years and find them both great fun.

Being your keen reporter on all things Frank Bellamy I had to try it as it cunningly has an article entitled: Frank’s Who – the lasting influence of Frank Bellamy’s Radio Times art on Doctor Who illustration - catchy huh? I confess now,  to not having a clue what the title meant but the Net proved useful and I soon educated myself. The article on Bellamy's influence on Doctor Who illustrators is really interesting. I'm not going to reproduce it here as I think you ought to support the Editor's efforts in getting out a regular print fanzine in these e-days!

The article is an intelligent overview of Bellamy's lasting influence and contains many interesting insights in just 4 pages including how Haylock appears to have swiped Bellamy and how Chris Achilleos was influenced by Bellamy. BUY ONE NOW

Plaything of Sutekh is a new Doctor Who fanzine from the people behind Andersonic.

Issue 1 is now available and it includes:

• What Did the Sixties Do For Who? 
• a look at how the Troughton era of Doctor Who reflected the changes facing Britain in the late 60s
• Frank’s Who – the lasting influence of Frank Bellamy’s Radio Times art on Doctor Who illustration. 
• Secret Who – we re-evaluate a clutch of less popular stories and find there’s more to them than meets the eye: Underworld, The Krotons and The Android Invasion. Don’t be afraid – they’re better than you think. 
• Accidental Art – while Nation and Adams were pulling in opposite directions, Ken Grieve’s innovative approach raised Destiny of the Daleks above the norm.
• A New Direction? – a look at the evolution of Doctor Who under Steven Moffat · 
• DWDVD – recent DVD releases Invasion of the Dinosaurs and The Daemons · 
• Return of the King – a look at (or a listen to) Tom Baker’s return as the Doctor in Big Finish audios … 
• and more 

The issue is 40 b/w A5 pages, fully illustrated with colour covers. To order, visit the Blog

As for the above mentioned Andersonic - Issue 13 of Andersonic is available now and is just plain fun to read and Richard farrell's charicatures are beautiful. The current issue features:

• A 9-page interview with Space: 1999 director Ray Austin in which he discusses his time on the series, including his favourite episodes, his style of direction and working with Martin Landau. 
• Jan King Interview - Jan discusses his time working on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Terrahawks, including burning hotel rooms, puppet eunochs and old Ninestein himself. 
• Specsavers TV Advert - a photo feature on the making of the recent Thunderbirds Specsavers TV advert. 
• Thunderhawks - the aborted concept that later evolved into Terrahawks with loads of photos, some even in colour. 
• Pat Silver - a short Q&A with the co-writer of Space:1999/ Full Circle. 
• The Bringers of Wonder - a review/script to screen feature of this Space:1999 two-parter. 
• Recollections of a Floor Puppeteer - John Last recalls his brief time working on Joe 90 
• Plus reviews of The Sound of Silence, Attack of the Alligators and more. For more details on ordering, click here

Facebook group for the Garth newspaper strip

I think it's about time I mentioned Ant Jones' Facebook page which follows all things Garth. At the moment he is linking daily to the Daily Mirror's reprint of Garth by Frank Bellamy, but the FB (!) page has lots of really interesting versions of Bellamy including Bellamy's Garth in Hindi! Its brief is wider than my interest as it covers the whole history of the Garth strip.

I personally have not jumped into the "Facebook waters" in any depth but skirt around the fringes, but this is one place worth lingering. I generally watch new developments on the Net and sign up an account (using Frank Bellamy's name) in order to see whether I'll do anything with it at a later date. Facebook demanded too much time so I left it there. However it's worth dipping your toes in and visiting Ant's page just to browse the images by clicking on one and then 'scrolling' through.

To wet your appetite here's a piece from the Women of Galba story, coloured by John Ridgway and used with his permission

© Daily Mirror

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Freak out to Fear

H218 Freak out to fear

The latest piece of art by Frank Bellamy to be made available for sale on eBay shows Garth throwing two thugs around which wakes the host and hostess. This comes from the story "Freak out to fear" which starts with one of my favourite panels of a boutique in swinging London named "The Scene" on King's Road! I would love to know whether the word "dangerous" in the last panel is cut in the board and replaced, as did so often happen with John Allard's lettering. He would also be quite clumsy in my opinion with 'white-out' or Tipp-ex as we called it when I was a boy and that would be the only time you'd see any on Bellamy artwork.

Being a great detective on your behalf I asked the seller whose first name is Bob about how he came by the piece. I spent an enjoyable 45 minutes on the phone with a great guy. He told me some amazing stories  - his life as a Police Officer/Detective that touch on murder plots with Bob Monkhouse and a crowd of 500 as witnesses; his helping Paul Neary with his early artwork around the time of Heroes Unlimited and the Hunter strip in Warren magazines and many other things.

But regarding Frank, he told me about how he rescued a man from a car that was in a head on collision and kept in contact with him for many years and the obviously grateful survivor asked if there was anything he'd like as a present. Bob remembering his childhood rides by bike with his dad  to the local newsagents to pick up the Eagle, thought of Bellamy's Churchill strip and how Frank was at that time illustrating Garth in the Daily Mirror. He asked for Frank Bellamy's signature! The man, whose name is forgotten, managed one better and got hold of a copy of the original art - yes, you've guessed it, the above! Bob, at a later date, spent a delightful day with the charming Nancy, who by that time was widowed and Bob was shown her favourite etchings done by Frank of her as the 'life study'!

Many thanks to Bob for sharing such interesting anecdotes

The opening bid for this art is £200 and the auction ends 28 April having previously been unsold at the same price. I always wonder if a low start price helps get to the price a seller wants and will watch this again with interest and let you know what it goes for.



UPDATE: The seller told me. he had tried three times at the same price on ebay and eventually sold it "near to the asking price", (June 2012)


I have scanned below a clearer copy of the strip for you to see more detail - click to enlarge!

Enlarge to view © Daily Mirror

Latest Garth story today in the Daily Mirror: People of the Abyss

Today (Monday 16 April 2012) the new Garth story starts and once again I have to say thank you to Martin Baines, whose colouring I'm enjoying a lot, for sending me the new coloured strip

I've been on holiday for a week so am still catching up with hundreds of emails, RSS feeds etc etc so I'll make this quick - after all you're here for Frank Bellamy artwork not my ramblings!

Martin sent this to me to let me know that the 'Cloud of Balthus' story was ending and a new story starting

© Daily Mirror

and then sent today's episode which when enlarged looks brilliant.

© Daily Mirror

For those who want to know, Frank Bellamy illustrated the Jim Edgar script "People of the Abyss" between the 7 September1972 - 23 December 1972 (Numbers F211-F303) in the Daily Mirror. The story has been reprinted before in  The Daily Mirror Book of Garth, 1976; the Titan reprint series, that was unfortunately never completed, Garth Book Two: The women of Galba, 1985 and also in the fan newspaper strip reprints Menomonee Falls Gazette #98 (29 October 1973) - #114 (18 February 1974).

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Bubble Man & Angels of Hell's Gap & The Doomsmen

Just like a London bus, you wait for  a while and then several come along at once.

I have updated the recent sales including a phenomenal amount for a Garth original. Are we seeing rising interest?

The three pieces on sale this week on eBay are care of the seller "muddyfunster2001" (also known as Chris Martin of Burgess Hill) and they look to be in very good condition. Chris let me know how he bought them:

"Rather boringly I picked them up at a local antique market from a dealer who didn't really know what he was selling. I used to read Garth (and numerous other Bellamy illustrated strips) as a schoolboy in the '70s and immediately took a fancy to them so I bought them on impulse" They are:

• The Doomsmen #J139   UPDATE: £227 - 11 bids - April 2012
• The Bubble Man # J239 UPDATE: £170 - 10 bids - April 2012
• Angels of Hell's Gap #J56 UPDATE: £180 - 15 bids - April 2012

They all start with £99 starting bid and are already attracting interest.

The Doomsmen #J139

Every time I see a woman sitting/standing like this, drawn by the master I am reminded of the lovely Nancy Bellamy, Frank's wife. She was a great model and very proud of her figure even into her 80s!

The Bubble man J239

He also knew how to make aliens look very alien. Is it a frog, a butterfly, a hybrid between the two?

Angels #J56

I won't bother repeating myself! Enjoy!

I will update this entry when the auction finishes in the same way I have for the recent ones

Frank Bellamy overseas

 I've recently done some work on my list of reprints of Bellamy's work abroad. I'm OK with French, German and Spanish (the latter not so much) but some of the work I have committed to the webpage could use some help.

Way back at the start of this blog Alberto Soares helped by providing a list of Portuguese reprints and a wonderful site helped me to provide some covers to the comics reprinted there.

I also recently received a request for some help from a Professor in Serbia of all places. Glad to help when I can, the emailer responded to the favour by supplying me with details of Bellamy's work in the former Yugoslavia which was the prompt to tidy up the overseas listing.

Shown above are a selection of foreign language (and Aussie!) pieces, take a further browse over at my overseas listing on the website

Shameless plug

Just a quick plug for Geoff West and friends at Illustration Art Gallery. They have some new Frank Bellamy artwork which you have to see to believe......

Unfortunately I still have a mortgage on the house, but some of you may like to view these for free on his website.

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Bubble Man & Manhunt

J197 The Bubble Man

'Tweedacademy' is selling a copy of one of the Bubble Man strips as well as one from the last Garth story Bellamy illustrated Manhunt 

Again they look beautifully preserved as the piece that has just finished on eBay, fetching a nice £168 does too.

The seller says of the Manhunt strip:

This is from 'The Bubble Man' (J197) published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1975 and being re-run currently in said paper. Here we have a vibrant action piece with Garth about to be kidnapped by the eponymous Bubble Man's henchbugs. 'Space Bugs!' cries our hero. I'd be a tad more salty if I were in his position! Bellamy again makes a virtue of the outlandishness of the creatures and their scale shows that even Garth would be hard pressed to take on two at a time, even with crow bar (they don't fight fair anyway). He'll get the better of them before the story is done I'll wager :)

Good example of Bellamy techniques in one panel!

UPDATE: £181 with 17 bids (March 2012) 

Tweedacademy obviously read too many Stan's Soapbox columns in the sixties Marvel Comics - where hyperbole was always under done! But looking at the close up of the last panel, it does show those famous 'Bellamy swirls', and his lovely lettering in the balloon - where usually Jim Allard lettered the other speech balloons.

K247 Manhunt

The second piece is from Manhunt. This is the last story that Bellamy illustrated and  the seller says:

I believe this is one of the last strips Bellamy did (strip number K247) before his untimely death, from the story 'Manhunt' published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1976. This particular work is, in essence, a complete panel with all the narrative complete in the transition from the aircraft in cloudscape through to the amazing work on the eyes as our protagonist (plus, of course, charming companion) dissolve to another dimension in mid flight. Remarkable stuff. A true 'Bellamy' effect and very poignant in retrospect as we know what was to come.

This is indeed a beautiful example of Bellamy's Garth work. Tweedacademy is right in saying it was "one of the last" but in fact Bellamy's last signed strip is K254 (25 Oct 1976), however the credit above the strip as printed in the paper is Martin Asbury who stepped wonderfully into Bellamy's shoes. The crude copy below is taken from the Mirror's online database, but it shows the credit above the strip.
UPDATE: £315 with 39 bids (March 2012) - a phenomenal amount for a Garth!
 

Bellamy's last Garth strip # K254

And lastly a clearer idea of how the art changed from Bellamy to Asbury can be seen in this only reprint of Manhunt, taken from Mike Higgs' compilation Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection, London: Hawk 1998. Visit Martin's site to see his work since Garth as well as the opportunity to buy original art including, yes you guessed it, Garth strips

The last 2 Garth strips by Frank Bellamy & the first 3 by Martin Asbury

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Doomsmen

J191 - The Doomsmen

UPDATE: £168 with 14 bids (24 Mar, 2012) 

'Tweedacademy' is selling another Garth original and it looks to be beautifully preserved with a lovely portrait of Garth's looking surprised. It comes from the story - yet to be reprinted in the Daily Mirror -  "The Doomsmen", where Garth tackles humanoid looking robots. It looks to be in excellent condition with the usual beautifully clear line work. The seller says:

A wonderful example of a character study of our time travelling hero Garth, from the story entitled 'The Doomsmen' published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1975. This strip (J191) is actually the last episode of the story, before we moved onto the magnificent 'The Bubble Man' (being reprinted in The Daily Mirror as we speak). It shows Garth, much to the amusement of ourselves and Professor Lumière (did David Suchet read Garth I wonder?) being taken aback by the forward nature of the young lady. I'm reminded of Bellamy's remark in the highly enlightening interview in Fantasy Advertiser International, that 'sometimes as an artist you find yourself captured looking for an expression in the mirror'. The last panel of this strip 'is' Bellamy to my mind. What do you think?

I'd agree - I can just see Bellamy, who we know, like most artists, used a mirror to get just the right expression, acting the part he drew.

The opening bid is 1p and the auction ends 24 March 2012and I'll update this page with the sale price

Below is a scan of the last three parts of the story with a beautiful Bellamy explosion, for your enjoyment.

© Daily Mirror

Garth reprints

The reason I wanted to do a blog post on Garth reprints is primarily because I noticed that someone who has been kind to me in the past and who could use a little financial help himself, is selling several of his collection that I thought I'd highlight.

If you visit eBay <http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/jumpmybones/m.html?item=320864038834&viewitem=&_trksid=p4340.l2562> you'll see some of the Daily Strips reprints of Garth which were produced by the All Devon Comic Collectors Club. They are particularly clear reproductions so worth considering purchasing. He also has the reprint in full colour of the strip Montgomery of Alamein which ran in Eagle from volume 13:10 - 13:27 (10 March 1962 -7 July 1962). This is unlikely to be reprinted any time soon due to licensing costs so head over to eBay and bid. While there grab the RSS feed at the bottom of the page and add it in your favourite way to a reader or Favorite toolbar etc so you can see what else comes up from this seller.

I don't usually highlight such sales, normally sticking to just auctions of original artwork, but felt that this needed highlighting and it gave me the opportunity to thank my friend and to mention other reprints.

For those who didn't know, Garth was beautifully reprinted in Menomonee Falls Gazette and during Bellamy's lifetime. He even wrote to the guys who produced the fan reprint

MFG 67

I noticed recently that someone in India is posting Hindi reprints of Garth - shows how far he travelled and how widely Bellamy's Garth is known. The quality of paper in India has always been of a pulp unbleached nature - thus the pink hue.

Ghost Town

People of the Abyss

And don't forget to follow the current coloured reprints in the Daily Mirror. For a listing of reprints (excluding the Hindi ones as my knowledge is very thin on this), see the website listing

Les Lilley and Frank Bellamy

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph 17th July 1990

Richard Sheaf has once again alerted me to a tiny corner of 'Bellamyland'!

He was reading a copy of Les Lilley's book "It's all there in black and white", Lilley's account of the creation and history of the Cartoonist's Club and noticed that a piece by Bellamy will have been exhibited alongside some of Prince Philip's personal collection of cartoons.

The British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent has an archive of the cartoonist's 'Giles' papers in which mention is indeed made of Prince Philip's loan of materials for the exhibition which took place on 2 August 1977 on board the "Tattershall Castle" - read on to find out more, in Lilley's account. UPDATE: The floating gallery had other exhibitions and the Ally Sloper launch took place on 1 September1976  - see Ally Sloper #2 for details

I have discovered that this book is online

The Cartoonist's Club says:

The Cartoonists' Club is the UK's oldest and largest organisation for cartoonists. Established in 1960, [...] celebrating [their] 50th anniversary in April 2010 and plans are in progress to continue and expand our primary role which is to promote friendship and interaction between cartoonists via the medium of events, meetings and social gatherings both in our original home, London, and throughout the United Kingdom. Visit our website and say hello.

They have kindly shared -in full -  this witty account online and you can read about the exhibition on pages 55 onwards in Chapter 10:

Click on image to see publication

Lilley, of course, was a popular writer of cartoon gags as well as comic strips in national newspapers. His list is too big to do justice here but amongst others, "Tiffany Jones" for the Daily Mail, and the sexy science fiction strip "Scarth" for The Sun, "The Seekers" drawn by John M. Burns in the defunct 'Daily Sketch' and Les Lilley also wrote "The Sun's Whodunnit Strip" in the 1980s with Pat Williams illustrating. The Vision On site (by Ralph Morris) has an interesting perspective on Lilley for those old enough to remember the Tony Hart programme. His obituary in the Independent is still available online.

Now, if you're thinking this is a tenuous link, read the obituary which mentions,

Later he was instrumental in the creation of the Society for Strip Illustration, formed by a small group of professional strip cartoonists including the brilliant "Garth" artist Frank Bellamy, who died before he could take the post of chairman.

Do we have any clues what the piece by Bellamy that was exhibited?  No, I'm afraid not. If anyone can help, please get in contact. The header piece above is to show that Bellamy started his first continuing public work career in cartooning!

The Cloud of Balthus starts in the Daily Mirror today

Martin Baines let me know that the next reprinted and coloured Frank Bellamy Garth strip is "The Cloud of Balthus" starting today in the Daily Mirror

Wednesday 22 February 2012 © Daily Mirror

Once again he has been really kind and sent me the original digital copy for you to see. Interestingly, I had never noticed the fact that Bellamy has almost exactly the same pose for Lee Wan, the girl on the right, in both tiers. I must be kind and point out that we would never have seen them published like this, one above the other, as they were printed one tier each day back in October 1971. And as a friend said "well, that shows his continuity was good"!

I love some particular bits of the art in this story, you'll see undersea and space scenes as well as, if you can believe this, an explosion in black and white, in the original that takes up most of the strip for that day, oh, and the usual pretty woman for Garth! Ah, how times haven't changed! I have no direct evidence that Jim Edgar, the writer knew anything about art, but the name 'Balthus' may have been inspired by the artist by the same nickname.

This story ran originally from 12 October 1971 to 27 January 1972 (Numbers E237-F23) and has been reprinted quite a few times, but you won't hear me complaining: The Daily Mirror Book of Garth, 1975; Garth Book One: The cloud of Balthus Titan Books, 1984  and in the fan publication Menomonee Falls Gazette Numbers 52 - 67

Did you catch the visual clue in yesterday's advert?

Wolfman of Ausensee ends today

Wolfman of Ausensee ends today and I have personally found the colouring has added quite a bit to an already exciting story. Martin Baines, the colourist, has added to the odd number of tiers by creating a collage from the next story. Tomorrow I'll show you what it is but play along for fun and see if you recognise the story. I see that today's newspaper actually tells you the name of the story - so Martin's suggestion below has changed.....but let's leave this as a mystery till tomorrow!

Here is the last episode and the advert - many thanks once again Martin.See you all tomorrow!

Tuesday 21 February 2012 © Daily Mirror

Original art for sale - Thunderbirds - at Comic Book Auctions

Lot #156

The latest piece of art to come up for sale by Frank Bellamy is from TV21 number 232 and comes from the story which begins in space with a faulty rocket which plummets towards San Francisco, but is finally diverted by Thunderbird 3. It heads towards into the uninhabited Manafu Atoll where it crashed and then we see the atoll blow up due to an active volcano.TB1 patrols the area and discovers the chain reaction is affecting another island where natives are living. To stop the chain reaction - which might still affect San Francisco, Brains has a plan.

The single page is for sale with an estimate of £1,500-£2,000 and the auction ends Tuesday 13 March. Comic Book Auctions' description:

Thunderbirds original artwork (1969) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy from TV21 No 232 Alan, Virgil and Gordon take off in Thunderbird 2 as Scott nears the volcanic bomb-zone in Thunderbird 4 Bright, fresh Pelikan inks on board. 19 x 15 ins £1,500-2,000

As usual I'll update with the sold price when the auction ends

UPDATE: Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £1,925 (March 2012)

Meanwhile enjoy the two pages as published in TV21 Number 232

TV21 #232 Part A

TV21 #232 Part B

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Beautiful People

J287 The Beautiful People

The latest piece of art by Frank Bellamy to be made available for sale on eBay shows Garth climbing a balcony - after leaving a party to apprehend the thugs who have gatecrashed the party. This comes from the recently reprinted story "The Beautiful People". It looks to be in excellent condition with the usual beautifully clear line work and those great Bellamy 'swirl' effects

The opening bid will be £90 and the auction ends 19 February

I have scanned below my copy of the re-coloured reprint from last year for you to see more detail when clicking!

Reprinted in the Daily Mirror 5 August 2011

UPDATE: Sold for £90.00 (February 2012) with 1 bid

New Look Mirror page

The new look Garth page

I always feel sorry or those of you who can't access the Daily Mirror newspaper and today I thought I'd mention the new look Daily Mirror online cartoon section which changed on 9 February 2012.

The Garth strip by Jim Edgar (the author is mysteriously never credited), Frank Bellamy (artist) and Martin Baines (colourist for these reprinted strips) are now available retrospectively by a few days. Previously we could only access one day at a time.  One comment made by readers is why are the online versions not sequential. I don't know anything more, other than guessing they want to sell the daily paper!

Anyway, go and enjoy a few Garths - especially if you don't live in the UK and don't have access to the daily paper - http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/cartoons/garth/

Book Palace art sale

Geoff West and pals have got a sale on and it includes some nice pieces by Frank Bellamy.

Click to see full list

Special 10^th Anniversary Art Sale
up to 50% OFF!!
Offer must end 31 March 2012

shouts the headline. Now if anyone fancies sending me a cheque for £3750, I would love to buy the Fraser of Africa - just look at the colours on that!

Am I also allowed, on a Bellamy blog, to mention he has Mike Noble's work too - another of my favourites?

Frank Bellamy competition poster

Mike Higgs (who sent me the recent  Old Bones picture) has done it again! You can imagine that I have all sorts of alerts out there on the Internet for Bellamy things. But this escaped my eagle eye, so thanks again Mike.

Special Auction Services sold a poster recently that -incredibly- we knew nothing about! The description reads:

Frank Bellamy - Southern Railway Poster Artwork, 'South for Sunshine' painted by Frank A Bellamy, for an RAAS competition, circa 1935, original artwork in poster paint on hardboard, Kettering home address to reverse, 42'' x 27''; as a competition entry, it is believed that this design was not used by the SR; Bellamy later became a legendary commercial illustrator, notably with Dan Dare for the Eagle comic in the 1950s [sic] and for Century 21 titles in the 1960s, G some minor stains and scuffing Estimate: 150-250 

It went for a hammer price of £200

It's interesting in many ways. If it is 1935 it's one of the earliest existing Bellamy pieces that I have come across. I would love to know what RAAS stands for.Also the style is unusual, but because it is an early example of his work this is likely to be the case. This certainly shows confidence in a self taught 18 year old!


UPDATE:
In the comments I received some further thoughts:
Tony Smith suggests "Royal Academy of Arts and Science" and John from the Netherlands says "Could the competition have a link to the RAS, instead of RAAS?"