Original Art on Heritage - Garth x 2 People of the Abyss

Garth: People of the Abyss F280 & F281

I noticed that Heritage Auctions (who surely must be the biggest auction site for comics and comic art!)  have an auction on which includes 2 Frank Bellamy Garth strips

The auction lot (#12524) is titled: "Frank Bellamy, Tony Weare, and Jenny Butterworth Comic Strip Daily Original Art Group (1969).... (Total: 4 Original Art) in the  Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121418

The pieces are described as:

Frank Bellamy, Tony Weare, and Jenny Butterworth Comic Strip Daily Original Art Group (1969). This lot of four daily strips includes two consecutive Garth strips by Frank Bellamy (11-27 and 11-28-72), one Tiffany Jones strip by Jenny Butterworth (12-10-69), and one Matt Marriott strip (undated). Ink on Bristol board and illustration board, the image areas range from 15" x 4.25" to 20.5" x 5.5". The art is generally in Very Good condition.

This lot is in: 1 - Comics & Comic Art Session
(Lots 12001-12619) - 10:00 PM Central Time, Sunday, May 4, 2014.
(Internet bidding closes at the time listed for each session. There is no live session.)


I have never bid on Heritage items so can't guide you regarding the procedure but their help files are excellent and I have been grateful to them for years allowing us to get large scans of the world's most beautiful comic art

Just for fun, here's the other art included in this lot:

Matt Marriott by Tony Weare

There is a connection between Bellamy and Tony Weare albeit small!

Tiffany Jones by Pat Tourret & Jenny Butterworth

 And lastly if you search for Bellamy in past auctions you'll see the average price for a Garth sale (what's an average Garth?) is $199 but obviously this lot of 4 mixed pieces will muddy the water somewhat. Also there appears to be an inconsistency in how Heritage judges a piece needing "adult verification" to view! But just get an account and you can see even those ...as long as you're an adult!

SUMMARY

• WHERE?: Heritage Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121418  Lot#12524
• SELLER: Heritage 
• ESTIMATE:
• ART: Garth: People of the Abyss F280 & F281
• ENDING PRICE:$1027.70 (includes a Buyer's Premium 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $14) per lot.
• END DATE: 10 June 2014 (20.00 BST)
• No. of bids: 15

Original Art on eBay: Garth - Angels of Hell's Gap

staylor133 from Luxembourg, is selling a Garth original by Frank Bellamy. The opening bid is £110 and the auction ends 9 April 2014.

UPDATE:  £155 (11 bids) (April  2014)

J57 Angels of Hell's Gap

This comes from the story Angels of Hell's Gap (which has been reprinted in the following:

• Garth: The Angels of Hell's Gap All Devon Comic Collectors Club Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.13 [No date]
• Daily Mirror Monday 21 February 2011 to Tuesday 12 April 2011 - Two tier reprint coloured by Martin Baines

It was originally seen in the Daily Mirror (15 January 1975 - 2 May 1975 - J12-J101) and was written by Jim Edgar.

Frank Bellamy and High Command

An email on a mailing list made me have a look at my copies of High Command published by Dragon's Dream.

High Command - Art by Frank Bellamy

Dragon's Dream, the publisher, was founded by Roger Dean (the artist behind, too many to mention, album covers and many wonderfully strange landscapes - my favourites were the Greenslade covers). Dean's website contains his biography as well as some dazzling artwork. The history of Dragon's Dream is explained here:
"Dragon's Dream, a specialist publishing house devoted primarily to UK fantasy illustrators founded by Dean and his brother Martyn Dean; it also published under the Paper Tiger imprint. The brothers later sold the company, but remained involved in its productions." from SFE, the Encyclopedia of Science-Fiction

One date given for Dean's 'selling' is 1981 which coincidentally is the date this book was published. I own both a hardback with publishing credits in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht (south-east of Rotterdam) and a paperback.

Hardback

The paperback has no publisher on the title page, but mentions the Dragon's Dream Book was distributed by WHS Distributors. Could this mean W H Smith, the UK newsagent, had an arrangement with the company for a quantity which it sold in its chain of shops? This sort of co-publishing was not unusual in the 1980s when I was a bookseller. It made for a cheaper print run knowing a certain quantity of sales could be guaranteed (into Smith's bookshops). 

Paperback

I have also found a Dutch version on the Internet but don't know any more than that. the title has been half translated. I presume editing all the captions and word balloons would have been too prohibitive, but if anyone in the Netherlands can tell me if the comics in this were in English or Dutch I'd be grateful.

UPDATE (08 April 2014) John Wigmans (who helped me with the article on Bellamy and Basil Reynolds' work for Disney), has pointed out that auction sites in the Netherlands have often got copies for sale and that the interior was indeed completely re-lettered inside.

Dutch edition: Der verhalen van Sir Winston Churchill
en General Montgomery

An interior page of the Dutch version (taken from an auction site)

For your pleasure I have reproduced below some example artwork

Robert Fitzgerald's introduction

Churchill introduction (by Fitzgerald?)

Churchill

Interestingly this last episode of the original printing in the Eagle comic (seen below) was never included in the hardback reprint by Hulton in 1958 when the series ended nor here in the Dragon's Dream production.

The missing portrait

The portrait could have gone here!

Field Marshall Montgomery introduction (by Fitzgerald?)

Editors who gave Bellamy the centrespread of their comics were wise people. His complete ownership of the double page is demonstrated nowhere better in my opinion than here (well, maybe in the Heros The Spartan story!). The original series were published in Eagle:


EAGLE Vol. 8:40 - 8:52, 9:1 - 9:36. (04/10/57 -28/12/57, 3/1/58 - 6/9/58) "The Happy Warrior" by Clifford Makins
EAGLE Vol. 13:10 - 13:27 (10/03/62 -07/07/62) "Montgomery of Alamein" by Clifford Makins