Friday, 23 May 2025

Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World book

 

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Deluxe hardback edition

IT'S ARRIVED! 

Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World

For the first time Frank Bellamy's complete "Ghost World " story from Boys' World has been commercially reprinted! Full praise must go to Geoff West (the Book Palace boss!) and  Stuart Williams (design & production) and John Symonds for the scans. Book Palace does a great job reprinting comic strips and this one must have been their hardest - see below.

There are two versions available and they are incredible. I received the Super Deluxe Collectors' Edition clamshell case version - or "fantastic" version as I called it - because I contributed the introduction to "The Ghost World" section.

I have been sent the 'clamshell' very spectacular version (am I gushing too much?) which you can see me unboxing in the above video. You can also turn on the sound to hear what a quiet place I live in - with the addition of a Robin singing! Many thanks to my wife Nicola for her superb work - all in one take!

THE CONTENT

The Boys' World comic ran from 26 January 1963 - 3 October 1964 (just 89 issues) before being subsumed into Eagle- with the name still being used on the Annual until1972! It was very much a comic like Eagle and created for and aimed at the 60s generation. If you want to read more about the comic and see a full listing of the contents with a great background essay on the creators plus lots of pictures send Steve Holland your money.

The Book Palace books have reprinted "the complete Wrath of the Gods by Ron Embleton and John M Burns and the complete Frank Bellamy's The Ghost World in one huge volume."

Paul Duncan - whose book credits are a fanboy's dream - wrote the introduction to "Wrath of the Gods" and I wrote the introduction to "The Ghost World"

THE BOOKS

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Deluxe hardback edition

The first is the Deluxe Collectors' Limited Edition of 450 copies. "All the Embleton and Burns double-page spreads are printed as deluxe fold-outs (see my video above) in this monster full colour volume. A glorious 124 pages including 60 double fold out pages."

DETAILS

  • Authors: Willie Patterson, Harry Harrison
  • Artists: Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, John M Burns
  • Publisher: Book Palace Books, May 2025
  • Number of pages: 124
  • Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
  • Size: 13" x 10" (324mm x 253mm)
  • ISBN: 9781913548599
  • Price: £75.00
  • [Introductions to both strips by Paul Duncan and Norman Boyd (yours truly)]
  • ORDER HERE or if in America, try Bud's Art Books

Wrath of the Gods & The Ghost World
The Super Deluxe hardback edition in 'clamshell' box

The second book is the 'clamshell' shown in the video above. It's called the Super Deluxe Collectors' Edition "Limited to just 50 copies worldwide, enclosed in a glorious hardcover clamshell case.
This Super Deluxe Edition includes:

  1. The complete Wrath of the Gods and The Ghost World book
  2. 16-page book reprinting the final Wrath Quests from Boys' World Annuals
  3. Two prints scanned from Frank Bellamy's Ghost World original art
  4. Two John M Burns prints scanned from unpublished artwork
  5. Plus a print of an original pencil sketch by John M Burns.

DETAILS

  • Authors: Willie Patterson, Harry Harrison
  • Artists: Frank Bellamy, Ron Embleton, John M Burns
  • Publisher: Book Palace Books, May 2025
  • Number of pages: 124
  • Format: Hard Cover; Full Colour illustrations
  • Size: 13" x 10" (324mm x 253mm)
  • ISBN: 9781913548605
  • Price: £130.00
  • [Introductions to both strips by Paul Duncan and Norman Boyd (yours truly)]
  • ORDER HERE

Wednesday, 21 May 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

Frank Bellamy NEW DISCOVERY- Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail

Something different for you this time. It's the anniversary of Frank Bellamy’s birth today - 21 May 1917 and I've kept this back as I was over the moon to discover this image - admittedly not so much because of Bellamy's quality but more because I live near the area mentioned! The Fens and the Wash are very familiar places so I've enjoyed researching this one for you more than I suspect anyone will want to read. But I'm a completist when it comes to listing Bellamy's output so what better day than today to introduce you to....a man-made estuary for the River Nene!

The following image comes from Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail dated Friday 24 September 1948 and perhaps some of you might need a bit of background to what's being discussed. 

Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail Friday 24 September 1948

The Rivers Nene, Welland, and the Great Ouse flow into the Wash. Floods were constant threats to Northampton and Wellingborough much further up the River Nene - where I recently learned the River is pronounced the "NENN" - whereas in Peterborough and the Fens, it's the "NEEN".  

A sluice was needed north of Whittlesey, just east of Peterborough to maintain water levels in the City and stopped the tidal flows on that part of the River Nene and that was placed at the Dog-in-a-Doublet - which was named after the (in this century) award winning pub that stood there but is now boarded up since 2023.  Why any pubs in England are called this is a controversy I'll leave you to investigate, but I favour the phrase being a form of ridcule - someone looking out of place dressing up beyond their position! But this link will show you the lock and also provide some background to the draining of the Fens.

 I checked as I thought all waterways were nationalised after the war, but apparently there were exceptions.  The Nene Catchment Board was not disbanded with the nationalisation of the waterways in 1947; instead it continued until about 1951 when responsibility for the Nene passed to the Welland and Nene River Authority. 

The  Northamptonshire and Evening Telegraph (dated Saturday 20 February 1939) has a front page with images of Councillor H. Turland's bungalow "by the sea" and the Wicksteed Park aviary - where "the waterfowl were in their element but the peacocks pocketed their pride and took to the rigging"! This was all due to the tributaries feeding the Nene having dumped their water and flooding the Nene Valley between Ringstead and Oundle.

Anyway the above is another example of  Bellamy making a diagram to show readers very clearly where some information - in this case the new channel was to end in the Wash. When searching the Northamptonshire and Evening Telegraph around Bellamy’s time working at the Blamire Studio, I often saw examples of such artwork but have not listed them as I can't be sure they are Bellamy.  But here, on his birthday, one paper gave him the credit he deserved.

Thursday, 27 March 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


Wednesday, 26 March 2025

NEW FINDS - Frank Bellamy the Daily Record again!

New Garth? Read on!

There were many printing strikes in the 1970s. I remember it well when my regular weekly comic didn't turn up! This article will make you think I'm obsessive but bear with me and I'll show you some newly discovered Frank Bellamy artwork! And for fans of 'Garth' the daily newspaper strip, stick around! And if you were a Scottish reader of the Daily Record, well, you'll learn a few things too. And if you're not interested in industrial relations in the 1970s, well....

REVIEW of what's gone before

Firstly I have written about the numbering system on the Jim Edgar authored, Frank Bellamy drawn and John Allard lettered 'Garth' strip before.  It was in 2019 I discovered a previously undiscovered Bellamy 'Garth' strip in the Scottish Daily Record. I then did further research and listed all the Christmas Daily Record differences to what was published in the Daily Mirror in England. 

Well, I was just checking facts on when the 'Garth' strips were published in England and had so many days where printing strikes and public holidays occurred, it made me dig deeper. I've added all the data to the main page listing all Bellamy's 'Garth' strips but discovered, in comparing Daily Record strips with these gaps, that Bellamy drew some more 'Garth' strips not seen by me - and I suspect a lot of you, before!

Let's take each story by story and add notes

GARTH STRIP ANOMALIES

SUNDANCE

E221 was published in England and Scotland on Saturday 18 September 1971 and then from Monday 20 - Thursday 23 September there was no Daily Mirror printed in England and because of this, none of the usual 'imported' strips appeared in Scotland's Daily Record. A notice appeared under the Scottish strip "Angus Og" by Ewen Bain on 20 September:

Due to the industrial dispute in Fleet Street, we are unable to bring you the adventures of Garth and The Perishers. Both strips will be continued as soon as possible.

Variations of this appeared each day until the 23 September when it was announced Garth would "return tomorrow" - and it did, continuing the numbering with no gaps.

CLOUD OF BALTHUS

Over Christmas and New Year things deviated, but caught up, with Scotland, there was a fill-in strip but drawn by John Allard - see this post - and as it's not numbered I called it  "E300.5". And the Scots saw F301 before England - published on 27 December - Boxing day in England! 

THE ORB OF TRIMANDIAS

Nothing was published on Good Friday (31 March 1972) in England....BUT... and I really need a drum roll....there was a Garth strip illustrated by Bellamy in the Daily Record!

**NEW** 'Garth' DR. GF. 72 or  F77.5
If you are following the English numbering it should be placed after F77 and before F78. The Scots named it DRGF72 = Daily Record Good Friday 1972. Imagine my excitement! Now it's shared.

THE WOLFMAN of AUSENSEE

Between Tuesday 25 July - Thursday  27 July 1972 there were no Daily Mirror published in England and the Daily Record stated on 27 July:

SORRY
As most readers know, production of the Daily Record was stopped on Monday and Tuesday nights by industrial action in support of the dockers. Sorry you missed your favourite paper. It's nice to be back.

This doesn't explain the lack of Wednesday's Scottish paper and I couldn't find a reason! On 29 July Garth was missing from the Daily Record with an announcement that he would return next week, thus allowing the Scots to catch up and in the Mirror of Friday 28 July, F175 was reprinted together with the new episode F176 with the explanation

"As southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear last Monday, two editions of the strip cartoons appear today."

PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS

**NEW** F303.5 or DR.CH.72

There were no discrepancies in this story's run. However, in Scotland, as stated previously on this blog, we see an extra episode - "F303.5" which I suppose should be called DR.CH.72 but it is not numbered in any way and just rounds off the story before the Scots began the next story on 26 December 1972. 

On the 19 December 1972, there were two of all the cartoon strips printed:

"As southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday double helping of your favourite strip cartoons is printed today."

WOMEN OF GALBA

So Scotland saw the start of this story on 26 December when England was not publishing on Boxing Day and after a week, caught up and was back in sync. There were no other discrepancies except on Thursday 22 March 1973, two strips were printed G70 (+G69) - the latter being a reprint with the following:

"Southern editions of the Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday because of industrial action. Here's a double ration of strips."

GHOST TOWN

Good Friday fell on 20 April in 1973 so there was no Garth strip as the Mirror didn't used to publish on that key Christian date. But....here 's the next drum roll....the Daily Record was published and had a single panel Garth strip

**NEW** Garth: Ghost Town G94a
Helpfully someone at the Record used the same numbering sequence and called this (instead of my 94.5) 94a. A brand new Garth to most of Britain! And of course there is no interruption to the story as Garth merely stares out at the town!
A strike predicted on 26 April took place on May Day which meant neither the Record or the Mirror were published on 1 May 1973 so Garth merely carried on the next day in both papers.

The MASK OF ATACAMA

There were no discrepancies in this story's run. 

THE WRECKERS

I have no idea why on Tuesday 6 November 1973 an announcement was made at the top of the day's cartoon strips "Here's a double ration of your favourite strips" - no explanation why, as there was no industrial action!   Monday 5 November 1973 had the Garth strip G263 and on Tuesday 6 November 1973 G263 with G264 appeared (along with "The Fosdyke Saga" and "The Larks" doubled up)! 

But more excitedly and as previously mentioned on this blog, the fact the Scots published a Daily Record on 26 December 1973, meant they got a new Bellamy Garth which I've shown before, but to make sure we are clear I've included it here as 'new'.

Garth: The Wreckers - G305.5 or DR.CH.73

Neither the Mirror nor the Record published on New Year's Day 1974

 THE BEAST OF ULTOR

I'm not sure you can contain your excitement...but here's the drum roll again....on Friday 12 April 1974, Good Friday, the Daily Mirror did not publish. But the Daily Record did!
 

**NEW** Garth: The Beast of Ultor H86.5 or DR.GF.74

We have another new Garth which inserted in the arena scene fits perfectly. But the story doesn't need it! Clever. Finally Wednesday 8 May 1974 there was no Daily Mirror but there was a Daily Record and they merely moved an episode ahead of England.

The other interesting thing  is that H120 (23 May 1974) has a caption printed above the Garth strip which says "What kind of music relaxes Garth when he's not whizzing around Space? See this week's Disc, on sale now!" which I've written about before.

FREAK OUT TO FEAR!

Interestingly this story was completely omitted in the Daily Record - perhaps as it deals with drugs? - and John Burns 'Danielle' strip (from the Evening News) was used instead. 

In the Daily Mirror, H144 appeared twice - once on the scheduled date Thursday 20 June 1974, and as Friday wasn't published at all, the Saturday edition reprinted H144 before the Monday resuming normal service.

THE BRIDE OF JENGHIZ KHAN

The Daily Record carried on using John Burns 'Danielle' rather than Frank Bellamy's 'Garth' and after that ended, there was no replacement strip for a long time- leaving 'Angus Og' alone to carry the torch for cartoon strips.. The following public holidays in England meant the Daily Mirror wasn't published - Wednesday 25 December 1974 and the next day, plus New Year's Day 1975 - and obviously there was no Garth in the Daily Record. Interestingly a caption appeared above the episode of 3 December 1974 (H284) stating "Garth has discovered a well of pitch, and has had pitch spread over the courtyard". Effectively the first time I've seen an introduction to an episode (and there's one for 'The Fosdyke Saga' too!). This does happen again - see below ("Angels of Hell's Gap")

ANGELS OF HELL'S GAP

J12 and J13 were published as usual. But here's where I'm having difficulties. The British Newspaper Archive does not have issues of the Daily Mirror for Friday 17 January 1975, or Saturday 18 or Monday    20 January and episode J15 appears on Tuesday 21 January 1975. So I can't tell when J14 was published. The paper of the Thursday 16 mentions that there's a possibility of strike action closing down all national newspapers on Friday 17, and there's no resumé on Tuesday, so I wondered if J14 was published on the Monday. But an article on Monday 20th in the Daily Record states: "The Daily Mirror was again not published last night" - obviously meaning the early hours of Monday. So it looks as if J14 was never published. So in case it's missing from your collection here it is - but then again, Scotland, this might be your first glimpse of any later 'Garth' strips!

Garth: Angels of Hell's Gap J14

The 28 March 1975 was Good Friday - but the Scottish paper was still running 'Danielle' so no Garths to be found there. Interestingly the issue of the Daily Mirror 5 April, under a headline of "It's great to be back" mentions that DM "did not appear" for last 10 days in the Midlands and the South. Thankfully the Archive has copies of all but one of these. I presume this means the plant in Manchester did go ahead with publication but distribution elsewhere was a problem?

That introductory caption (see above "The Bride of Jenghiz Khan") occurs again in 21 January 1975 paper: "Garth, temporary film extra, has donned the uniform of a Confederate Army major."  In J78 (5 April 1975) we get another: "Loomis with most of his men captured is on the run from Garth and the miners" Were the editors thinking with all the disruption, a resumé of the story was worthwhile?

THE DOOMSMEN

From May to August 1975, there are no discrepancies in the publication of Garth except on 4 July 1975 when 2 strips were published (J154 + J155)! The reason appears to be explained earlier in the paper:

The Daily Mirror regrets that readers in some areas of England and Wales were unable to obtain copies of the newspaper yesterday. This was due to a dispute with journalists. The Daily Mirror apologises for this inconvenience to readers, wholesale newsagents, retailers and advertisers.

THE BUBBLE MAN

"The Daily Mirror did not appear yesterday, in common with other national newspapers"  is the statement on Saturday 15 November 1975. So in case you need this episode J269 to complete the story, here it is.

Garth: The Bubble Man J269
Also another introductory caption appears on J270 (15 November 1975): "Garth learns from a Nomad of sabotage by Ledra"

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE

On 8 December 1975, the Mirror brought all its strips together on one page - meaning Andy Capp was no longer on a 2 x 2 grid but a single strip like Garth. The Daily Mirror didn't publish on the holiday dates of 25 and 26 December 1975 or 1 January 1976 and there are no other surprises here.

THE SPANISH LADY

Good Friday fell on 16 April in 1976 and there were no gaps as a result of the non-publication of the Daily Mirror (and the Record had only the 'Angus Og' strip).

GHOST TOWN - REPRINTED
Unfortunately Frank Bellamy passed away on 5 July 1976 when the third-to-last episode of 'The Spanish Lady' appeared as K158 on Monday 5 July 1976. The Mirror ran the last two episodes and began on Thursday 8 July to re-run 'Ghost Town' with the original numbering on the artwork. So while 'Andy Capp', 'The Perishers', 'The Fosdyke Saga', 'The Larks' and 'Little Joe' were numbered K161, 'Ghost Town retained the number G87. Notice the header above the strip.

Garth: Ghost Town - reprinted
What would have been nice, would be to see G94a from the Daily Record included, but that didn't happen. 

The publication of these 78 episodes gave the Mirror time to try-out and appoint a successor and that was Martin Asbury, as we know. However Bellamy had drawn 16 more episodes of Garth.

THE MANHUNT 

The first episode (K239) was published Thursday 7 October 1976 and the last credited episode was K253. However K254 (published Monday 25 October 1976) despite being credited to Martin Asbury is signed and clearly drawn by Frank Bellamy

 

Garth: The Manhunt K254 drawn by FB
And in case anyone is wondering, the Daily Record of the same date had Angus Og and  was now also publishing 'Lance McLane' by the brilliant Sydney Jordan (M148).

SUMMARY

I've studied all episodes of Garth drawn by Bellamy and noted published dates in a spreadsheet with discrepancies due to strikes, and public holidays. I've looked at the Daily Record for these dates and around them a bit and justified why things were different. This led to the discovery of these new strips. Anyone reprinting Garth would do all collectors a favour by including them.

I hope you enjoyed seeing them and if you followed the text too, go and grab a cup of tea or something stronger! You deserve it.

Norman

Friday, 21 February 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

 




Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Time for a Bellamy Break

 

Radio Times 2-8 January 1971, p.42

I've been thinking for a while of taking a break from blogging about Frank Bellamy. So the end of another year seems a good place to start a new hobby.  Let me first put to rest any rumours of my demise or health situation. I'm fine, thank you and have only used the current artwork as David Slinn kindly scanned and sent it to me. This made me realise I've not tackled Radio Times artwork much beyond Star Trek. The reason is, I suspect, the artwork is seen all over the place - especially the Doctor Who artwork and therefore I forget to blog about the other wonderful stuff. There are bloggers who do far more than me, but I'm proud of what I've achieved so far and over 18 years (!) have added 464  articles here as well as the checklist.

Radio Times 2-8 January 1971, p.42

 I've decided to take a break from this blog - I'm still blogging on Raymond Sheppard and also my Visual Rants blog - but will be watching developments on the web and following up any alerts I get from web services about Frank Bellamy. I promised myself to blog about Frank Bellamy at least once a month and have more or less done that. There's still loads to share but I feel I'd like to do other things in my retirement. I recently picked up a dip pen and ink for the first time in 50 years(!) and was very pleased with the result - and I'm my own worst critic , so I want to do more. I've enjoyed building a book nook kit - you know those things you see advertised on Facebook and that was fun. Also I was recently in touch with someone who, like me was curious when the "Uncle Mac's Children's Hour Story Books were published and that sent me down a very enjoyable rabbit hole.

Radio Times 2-8 January 1971, p.48

Radio Times 2-8 January 1971, p.60

Anyway, you have the checklist available. It's often easier to use this syntax in any search engine/browser, substituting your search term for my suggested "Bell and Howell":

site:frankbellamy.co.uk "Bell and Howell"

You also have the Illustrators Special on Frank Bellamy - which was a lot of work for me (and others!) and you have another reprint - Ghost World -  coming up which I'll announce here when it arrives on my doorstep - see, I'm not giving up!

And you can find my email on this blog fairly easily - I'm not spelling it out here for fear of more hacks and spam! 

Lastly let me wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year