E-Thunderbirds Are Go!

Egmont have announced the launch of Thunderbirds e-comics! The recent publication of their hardback collection converted to e-format. There are two stories per download and the quality is very good - see below. The stories are not 'published' in chronological order.

For the moment you can download them from iTunes only - Android version to follow shortly. They have also thought of my international cousins in the United States

 

I have added all the details to my 'reprint' list of Bellamy's work in comics, starting with TV21 #141 where the first single page stories appeared

The individual issues of the books cost just £1.99 in the UK  and $2.99 in the US

Now to ensure they work on my iPad I have downloaded the first one for you to see. The fuzzy nature of the photos is due to my not cleaning the lens - not the e-books!

Zoom in on my iPad

Zoom in on my iPad

Last page to tempt you further

Original Art on Comic Book Auctions: Captain Scarlet

Lot#93 TV21 192 cover

John Freeman kindly alerted me to the fact that Comic Book Auctions are selling the original art of Frank Bellamy's cover to TV21 #192. It's Lot # 93 and priced with an estimate of £550-£650. Here's the description:


Captain Scarlet original front cover artwork (1968) by Frank Bellamy from TV 21 No 192 with original comic
Bright Pelikan inks on board. 15 x 12 ins
£550-650

UPDATE: Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £786 (January 2014) 


The picture above shows an issue of TV21 the comic plus the artwork and indicates, in my opinion, that the original has lost none of its vibrancy. And for those who are lucky enough to see Bellamy originals you can immediately see that the published work did him no favours - brilliant though it was!

Bellamy drew 5 covers to the TV21 comic which featured Captain Scarlet stories and to this little boy's eyes, strangely did not do the full stories. Later I understood why. He obviously had his work on Thunderbirds at the same time (and that work alone took about a week to do - two colour pages for this weekly comic!) so perhaps I'm being harsh. Don Harley completed the story in #185 and #186. We have seen Harley and Bellamy in the same area before - with Thunderbrids and Dan Dare. Jim Watson (see some of his Battle Picture Weekly art) completes the other stories listed below.

Just for the fun of it here are the other covers that Bellamy drew for the Captain Scarlet cover stories

TV21 185 (3 August 2068)

I love this design but worry about the plane carrying such flammable material!

TV21 186 (10 August 2068)

A headlonmg crash reminiscent of the Dan Dare one (below)

Eagle Vol 11:4

TV 21 & TV TORNADO 192 (21 September 2068)

Can you feel the crisp cold air on the ice? I always wondered whether boys (girls went to Lady Penelope, didn't they?) were interested in footballers and Gerry Anderson shows. I wasn't - except for one year in Secondary School!

TV 21 & TV TORNADO 193 (28 September 2068)

Bellamy was constrained by the giant advert for the Corgi Toy coupon but still thrills us with that storm

TV 21 & TV TORNADO 210 (25 January 2069)

Lastly I know that this cover is one loved by Rian Hughes and as stated on Gerry Anderson: Complete Comic History looks nothing like the more Anderson-type version inside the comic. But who's complaining?

I'll update the winning price after the auction closes on 26 November 2013

HEROS THE SPARTAN IS HERE!

My Eagle has landed!

Remember how Google Scholar used to have "resting on the shoulder's of giants" as their strapline? By pure accident I'm sitting on the same bench with them!! I'm in a published book with John Byrne, Dave Gibbons, Walt Simonson, Ken Steacy, John Watkiss and it's designed by Peter Richardson! Published by Geoff West at Book Palace Books. How did that happen?

Exciting endpapers

In July 2011, Peter was working on "a new magazine called Illustrators. We are going to be focussing on UK and European illustrators of the last century along with some contemporary ones, with access to a lot of amazing original artwork - so all in all it's very exciting but a 
lot of work!" He asked me about my interest in Raymond Sheppard, and that led to an article in Issue 2 which went very well.

In early 2012, the Denis McLoughlin book was more or less completed, and by then he has persuaded me that an introduction to the latest Bellamy reprint from Geoff West's brigade   would be a great thing. I sent the finished draft article on Heros the Spartan  on, of all days, 1st April 2012. And in a subsequent email I stated to Peter "My wife said it used quotations very well and she was actually gripped by it....and she is usually just supportive!". Geoff and Peter came back enthusiastic...and together with my wife that made three people who liked it!

A great spread by Bellamy

He subsequently wrote:

I spoke with Geoff about it yesterday and he was equally excited. The way you have sourced the information and constructed the piece sheds a lot of light on Bellamy's involvement with Heros and greatly helps the reader contextualise this fabulous strip in terms of both the Eagle as well as Bellamy's own career.

Black Sails and Dark Tales

Then Peter surprised me by naming my piece  "Black Sails and Dark Tales: an introduction to Frank Bellamy's graphic novel masterpiece" which I think is inspired!

2 pages of the introduction

 Shortly afterwards Geoff and Peter got permission to include the famous interview that Dez Skinn and Dave Gibbons ran with Frank Bellamy only three years before his early death. It is not the only interview but is certainly the most comprehensive and interesting. And Peter has added all sorts of art in full colour that wasn't present in the original interview and some of which I have never seen before. Peter was worried that I had used lots of quotes from it already, but actually I agree with his assessment that my piece actually says something different.

Page 28-29 showing various Bellamy artworks

So that's all I'm saying about my part in this venture. So what's in the book that I've been raving about for months and months?


Firstly there are two versions:

Authors: Tom Tully, Frank Bellamy, edited and designed by Peter Richardson
Artist: Frank Bellamy
Title: Frank Bellamy's Heros the Spartan
Publisher: Book Palace Books, October 2013
Number of pages: 296
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 11" x 14" (270mm x 360mm)
ISBN: 9781907081200

Price: £265.00

Only 120 have been published of this version
This version is a leather-bound numbered edition limited to 120 copies with embossed slipcase. It comes with an additional 24 pages of meticulously scanned reproductions of original Bellamy Heros artwork never before seen in public.

and

Authors: Tom Tully, Frank Bellamy, edited and designed by Peter Richardson
Artist: Frank Bellamy
Title: Frank Bellamy's Heros the Spartan Publisher: Book Palace Books, October 2013
Number of pages: 272
Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 11" x 14" (270mm x 360mm)
ISBN: 9781907081194
Price: £95.00
Only 600 copies have been published

Animated view of the editions

CONTENTS
1) Foreword by

• John Byrne (p8)
• Dave Gibbons (p.10)
• Walt Simonson (p.12)
• Ken Steacy (p.14)
• John Watkiss (p.15)

2) Black Sails and Dark Tales: an introduction to Frank Bellamy's graphic novel masterpiece by Norman Boyd (p.16)

3) Lighting the darkness: an insight into the life and work of Frank Bellamy (p.24)

4) The Voyages of Heros the Spartan (p.61)
***Book 1: Island of Darkness (p.62)
***Book 2: Eagle of the Fifth (p.102)
***Book 4: Axe of Arguth (p.172)
***Book 6: Slave Army (p.214)
***Book 7: Cormog and the Wolfman (p.262)

 [Books 3,5 and 8 are by Luis bermejo and not in this volume]

5) Acknowledgements (p.272)

Lastly I need to tell you that many pieces of high quality scans have been used throughout the book that are hard to show here in jpeg format, but are beautiful to see


Isn't it time we nominated these guys for an award for services to 'comickind'? Let me know how and I am happy to provide a testimonial. But let me say a big thanks to Geoff, Peter and all at Book Palace Books. Now what's next?

Frank Bellamy and THUNDERBIRDS The Comic Collection

Some stories are reprinted over and over. Some stories are not often reprinted in any form!Some get skipped in the run!

Egmont's Thunderbirds the comic collection

Although the news of this publication came out of the blue a few months ago, it was a pleasure to finally see a copy. I have updated the website with the listing of these reprints from TV21. While I was doing it I noticed how the run of reprinted stories skips some stories.

• TV CENTURY 21 141 - 146 "The Earthquake Maker"
• TV CENTURY 21 147 - 154 "Visitor from space"
• TV CENTURY 21 155 - 161 "The Antarctic menace"
• TV CENTURY 21 162 - 169 "Brains is Dead"
• TV CENTURY 21 170 - 172 "Space cannon"
• TV CENTURY 21 173 - 178 "The Olympic plot"
• TV CENTURY 21 179 - 183 "The Barracuda awaits"
• TV CENTURY 21 184 - 187 "Devil's crag"
• TV CENTURY 21 188 - 191 "Eiffel Tower demolition"
• TV CENTURY 21 192 - 196 "Nuclear threat"
• TV CENTURY 21 197 - 202 "Hawaiian lobster menace"
• TV CENTURY 21 203 - 208 "The Time machine"
• TV CENTURY 21 209 - 217 "Zoo Ship"
• TV CENTURY 21 218 - 226 "City of doom"
• TV CENTURY 21 227 - 234 "Chain reaction"
• TV CENTURY 21 235 - 238 The Amazon Fire Pit
• TV CENTURY 21 239 - 242 Subsmash Rescue
• TV 21 & Joe 90 1-4 Volcano Oil Search

First of all we start with a reprint from TV21 #141 and I suspect this is because this was the first issue in which Bellamy no longer had the double page spread (because some guy called Ron Embleton started illustrating something called "Captain Scarlet"!) and therefore these strips are easier to reprint being two single pages - no problem with the gutter between pages.

The Zoo Ship

After this first story, we follow the published order from TV21, until issue 178's ending of the story "The Olympic Plot". We skip #179-183 (a story variously known as "The Jupiter Revolt", or in Thunderbirds Holiday Special [1993] as "Mission to Moonbase"  or "The Barracuda awaits"  in  Century 21: Classic Comic Strips from the Worlds of Gerry Anderson: Menace from Space by Chris Bentley (2012)) and go onto "The Devil's Crag from issues 184-187. We then carry on from #188-202.

It's then that we carry on into un-reprinted territory...well, sort of....

Devil's Crag

In issue 203 (7 Dec 2068) we get "The Time Machine" which has only been reprinted (to my knowledge - and please correct me) in the reprint title of the 1990s Thunderbirds (issues #27-32 [Parts 1 in # 27, 2 in #28, 3 in #29, 4 in #30, 5 in #31, 6 in #32]) to be far too exact. "The Time Machine" ran in TV21 until  #208 (11 Jan 2069) and this volume from Egmont carries on into unreprinted territory (except in that 90s comic Thunderbirds!). We see issues 209 through to 226 of TV21 and then we move onto John Cooper's artwork from the second series TV21 & Joe 90 with two stories "The Big Bang" and "The Mini-Moon" before reprinting the excellent Lady Penelope. As a 8 year old I loved these stories drawn by Eric Eden - especially the one about the Isle of Arran riddle.


The one mistake I have found in this reprint is that Bellamy is wrongly credited on the contents page with illustrating "The Isle of Arran" which is drawn by Eric Eden (pp250 - 267). But this is a minor criticism

For Dan Dare fans I should mention Frank Hampson's outing with Lady P is reprinted here too. The art is not as crisply reprinted as I'd like, but the whole book looks to be taken from reprinted material and not original scans that's not too surprising. Before I close this long ramble of factual material I should also give credit to Graham Bleathman's cutaway art of the Thunderbirds as well as Tracy Island, FAB1, Creighton-Ward stately home. All in all a fantastic book to own especially if, like me, you're always grabbing the Ravette paperbacks or Bentley and Marcus Hearn's series of reprints and getting frustrated that you have to jump around the volumes so much. This book will be in easy reach so when I search for stories I can find them quickly.

The funky wallpaper, sorry endpapers

Oh and I think I ought to mention the beautiful endpapers which would have made an 8 year old Norman some fine wallpaper back in the day!

Brains is dead

Christmas is coming so get this on your wishlist, the ISBN for Thunderbirds Comic Collection is 9781405268363

Where to now Egmont? Well they have also released some interesting boxes of postcards, follow the links for more information.I enjoyed seeing the Thunderbirds: 100 F.A.B. Postcards (Classic Comics Postcard Collection) full of photos and screen grabs. The others in this series are 70s Girls Comics: 100 Postcards (Classic Comics Postcard Collection) and Battle: 100 Postcards (Classic Comics Postcard Collection)

Other's opinions
Lew Stringer review
Win Wiacek review
John Freeman's review on Downthetubes
Steve Holland's review
Forbidden Planet's review 

Frank Bellamy and Boy's World

Brett Million & The Ghost World Part 1

Think of a UK comic in photogravure that ran in the 1960s for just 89 issues before you saw that terrible notice "Your Editor announces exciting news for you!" This usually translated in this little boy's mind as "Goodbye" as another great comic died by merging a few strips into an existing comic, normally with some pedigree. In this case we are talking about Boy's World which on 3 October 1964 disappeared into Eagle.

Steve Holland's cover for Boy's World: ticket to adventure

Steve Holland (with help from many others  has produced another invaluable comics bibliography: Boy's World: ticket to adventure. I have always loved the way Steve writes his checklists by providing a long introduction covering many details about authors and artists as well as editors and those who have connections to the comic in question. The book is lavishly illustrated and as before I found I had  to get my post-it notes and mark where the introduction finishes and the sections ended. Steve chooses here to outline the Picture Stories; Text Stories; Cartoon Strips; Features; Supplements; and the Annuals - I presume we never saw a Summer Special or we'd see it listed here. And there was a Fishing Annual in the series - who knew?

The comic was a great influence on many writers and artists who draw today and no wonder. It had writers such as Harry Harrison (Bill, the Galactic Hero) and Michael Moorcock (Elric of Melniboné) as well as Willie Patterson (Jeff Hawke) and Tom Tully (author of too many UK comic stories to mention!). The artists roster is no less impressive: John M. Burns, Ron and his brother Gerry Embleton, Gerald Haylock, Frank Langford, Brian Lewis Harry Bishop ('Gun Law' in the Daily Express for 21 years) and fellow to Frank Bellamy 'Heros the Spartan' artist for the Eagle, Luis Bermejo.

But this blog is about Frank Bellamy who in March 1963 drew a black and white illustration for a war story in Boy’s World, “Desert Duel” which shows a German tank meeting a ‘desert rat’.

Ghost World -  Episode 15
Art by Frank Bellamy
from Boy's World

Shortly after that he took on the latest incarnation of a strip called “The Angry Planet” – a story about a character called Brett Million, who attends a training survival school on the planet Pyrrus. The planet has nasty creatures and poisonous plants everywhere. In December 1963 the double page feature was on the back cover page (“Wrath of the Gods” taking back its centre pages). In the 7th December issue Bellamy started his next regular weekly assignment with “Brett Million and the Ghost World”. The story has our hero going to the planet Eisen, a mining planet, where people and things are disappearing. Needless to say, it is not ghostly activity, but Million discovers the planet’s natives are moving faster than humans can. The story ends after 21 episodes in which Bellamy shows even with one page he can create dynamic panels. Many trademark Bellamy devices are here from space shots to futuristic hardware similar to his Dan Dare creations.

There aren't many UK series of comics I have but Boy's World is one. I don't have a complete run of Bellamy's work but the issues I do have are great. However even if you own none of them, Steve's book is worth buying as his histories of UK comics are not available anywhere else. Many thanks to Steve for the artwork scan for episode 15 above and also the cover of his book!

Original art for Part 3

Original Art on eBay: Red Devil Dean and Radio Times

Just a quick note to let anyone who doesn't already know that the owner of the recently reviewed original art "Red Devil Dean" has put it up for sale at £1,900 or Best Offer on eBay

Here are the accompanying pictures:

Cover

Complete artwork (without tracing paper addition)

Tracing paper addition

He also has for sale (offered at £450 or best offer) another piece of artwork by Frank Bellamy, which originally appeared in the Radio Times magazine for 22 July 1972 - 28 July 1972) as part of the "Grand strategy" series. This one (#3 appearing on page 34) shows Frank bellamy's interpretation of the attack on Pearl Harbour. It was these graphic dispalys in the radio Times that got me hooked on Bellamy. They were so inventive and exciting - even when reproduced on that ghastly cheap pulp paper.