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?