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Eagle Vol.10:41 (28 November 1959) pp1-2 Bellamy 1st page; Harley et al 2nd page |
INTRODUCTION
In the previous article on the first "Dan Dare" story Bellamy drew, "Terra Nova", we examined exactly what was drawn by whom. This had been Bellamy's first attempt at Science-Fiction (except for one-off illustrations in Outspan), and, not for the first time, he found himself carrying on another person's story - which he didn't like doing. Grab your copies of the stories and follow along!
This second tale "Trip to Trouble" shows Bellamy settling into a routine, despite the strange working conditions of having to oversee a team of Don Harley, Keith Watson and Gerald Palmer and also produce work himself. My friend David Jackson has written a bit about this time before (the "FB Dan Dare") - so I shan't repeat that - but make sure to read the accompanying comment on this link.
TRIP TO TROUBLE
The first 6 episodes of this story have Bellamy drawing the cover slot and signing all 6. Then for Volume 11:2 something interesting happens
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| Eagle Vol.11:2 (9 January 1960) p.1 |
The very early Thunderbird 2 shape - the Gaz tank-like vehicle - on the front cover, was not designed or drawn by Bellamy; it's by Gerald Palmer - and a very competent 'ghosting' of Bellamy's art style too! Palmer was a staff artist at Hulton (dropping in "five-bar gates in Farmer's Weekly", as he told Eagle Times - Autumn 2004) but in mid-1958 he joined the Hampson studio working in Bayford Lodge, Epsom, taking over from artist Eric Eden doing backgrounds and vehicles on the Dan Dare strip. Palmer also mentioned how hard the move back to London was (once Odhams took over and dismantled Hampson's method of working) as "the artist in charge [Bellamy] rarely visited us - even though he lived (and worked) in the London suburb of Morden". The cited article shows the above strip and captions it "Gerald's work in Bellamy-style".
Looking at Vol11:2, notice the three panels below the 'splash' panel, being by Bellamy - the colours for the sky and the figures are very Bellamy. David Jackson mentioned:
The Gaz Tank cover does indeed look superficially as though it could all have been by FB, rather than only the lower three frames being by FB (the distinctively FB style zig-zag gutter space between the top and lower three frames being a misleading indication there) but the assembled facts allegedly say otherwise: someone said that seemingly Gerry Palmer drew the main frame at home without authorisation (and as lead artist FB was supposed to be responsible for all new designs into the story); Doc Garriock in his 1970s Comicon slide show cited the weaker colour in the main frame sky indicated it wasn't by FB; no FB sig, and the main frame ink small detail does not look like FB.The following episode (Vol11:3) is left to the Hampson team and then Bellamy opens the following week (Vol11:4) with a very dynamic cover.
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| Eagle Vol. 11:4, (23 January 1960 ) p1 Original art scan thanks to owner |
The second page of Vol. 11:4 is his too, and you have to look very carefully for the signature in 5th panel.
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| Eagle Vol. 11:5, (30 January 1960 ) p2 Harley, Watson and Palmer |
The following week (Vol.11:5) on page 2 we have a great 'ghosting' of Bellamy - I suspect inspired by the above front cover! Then onto the next Bellamy cover (Vol. 11:6) with an explosion, done only as Bellamy can.
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| Eagle Vol.11:6 (6 February 1960) p.1 |
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| Eagle Vol.11:9 (27 February 1960) p.1 |
The next two week's 'Dan Dare' are by the team - I presume so Bellamy could work ahead on the next story - his last on 'Dan Dare' - which needed new spaceship designs.
Who worked on which art board?
Terry Doyle kindly replied to my query (some years ago) about which type of board was used for 'Dan Dare'
Hi Norman
Bellamy's solo DAN DARE boards (and I can only speak for the ones I've either owned or seen) were illustrated on CS10. I doubt very much that he used anything else.
The Don Harley pages were illustrated on 'Diana' Fashion Plate Board.
Then there are an assortment of DAN DARE pages that feature a mix of Harley and Bellamy art (using cut-and-paste).
Harley was an old hand at 'cut-and-paste' way of working (where frames were illustrated separately, and later pasted onto a composite board). It was frequently used throughout the Hampson era.
With these types of originals, it's probable that the composite board could be one or the other (CS10 or 'Diana' Fashion Plate). I suppose it depends who the main artist was.
Bellamy met up with Harley at least once a week, to co-ordinate the work. From what I recall Don Harley telling me, Bellamy would then go away and work on his contribution to the week's episode alone (they didn't actually work together in the same studio). Bellamy liked his CS10, but Don Harley found it a difficult board to master.
Don Harley was asked his views on Frank Bellamy (by the Society of Strip Illustrators in 1981):
FRANK BELLAMY was a man with a great sense of humour but for some strange reason this never showed in his strips or illustrations. These were full of action, adventure and grand vistas as if seen through a Cinemascope lens, in his "Thunderbirds" strip the perspective of his drawings gave one the feeling of being up there with them.
This clean look of his originals left other artists, who saw them, with a feeling of awe. He always worked on a hard super smooth board called CS10 which I have discovered is very difficult to paint upon, especially with coloured inks, as it is like painting on ivory. But it makes black line work stand out crisp and clear. The use of this board was part of his technique as it is possible to scrape out colour with a razor blade to obtain spectacular effects without damaging the surface of the board. He never used more than the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue, from which he created the superb range of colours which we see in his finished work.
There is no doubt in my mind that Frank Hampson was the better draughtsman and pictorial humourist but that Frank Bellamy shone above all others for his visual effects.
As a friend and colleague I never saw him for more than a few hours a week, even when he took charge of "Dan Dare" and the team in 1959. He would come up to Hulton House, where we had our studio on the top floor, for a few hours twice a week to make sure that our work tied up with the part of the strips that he had done.
His visits were a joy and a great moral [sic] booster. In appearance he was small with rugged looks, dapper, agile, rather nervous, wearing Italian styled clothes with a preference for khaki-green from hat to crepe soled shoes.
(P.S. Have you noticed that his name probably comes from the French "Belle ami" - beautiful friend.)
Interesting to note how memories differ - Palmer says FB visited Hulton House rarely and Harley states "or a few hours twice a week".
SUMMARY
Terry Doyle makes an interesting observation (in Eagle Times Summer 1995 -vol.8 no.2, p.42), when discussing the debate (and responses) from previous parts of the series he produced. He makes the statement that Bellamy didn't like science-fiction, and despite admiring many of Bellamy's complete pages, Terry thought "Dan Dare was more than just an action orientated strip, wasn't it?" - from which I infer the s-f element was not of so much interest to Bellamy as the action and how that's presented - which I think I agree with. As we'll see in the next story, science-fiction designs play a very large part.
So for this story of 32 pages, Bellamy drew 10 covers and 4 internal pages (plus those 3 panels mentioned) - less than half the pages again.
~ Thanks again to David Jackson and Paul Holder for looking over my thoughts and Terry Doyle for his published insights. The end result is mine - so shout at me if you disagree!
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