Ghost Town reprinted .....again!

Thanks to Ant Jones (of the Garth-Comic Strip Facebook page), I am now aware that Frank Bellamy's art is back in the Daily Mirror newspaper available nationally as of today.

I haven't bought the paper since the last reprint of Bellamy's work, which was "The Manhunt" story completed by Martin Asbury back in the 70s when Bellamy died and reprinted in the Daily Mirror last year. If it's reprinted on the usual Monday to Saturday routine, "Ghost Town" should end around Monday 9th November, (mirroring - sorry! - its original reprinting in the paper between 24 September 2011 and 8 November 2011).

It's interesting that the Mirror has decided to reprint a story so soon - especially as we haven't yet seen "Freak out to fear" reprinted at all in the Daily Mirror

I have scanned the whole page of strips below (hoping the Mirror won't sue me) as I was very impressed with the look of them now. They appeared to me to be nicely coloured and well reproduced (and I'm not saying this to avoid a lawsuit!). However.....

Daily Mirror 2015 September 25 p.38

However, I looked at the credits for the strip and realised that someone has, er, um, got something wrong. I don't know if I should be so rude to point it out as it's great the author of the tale is getting a credit as well as Bellamy and Martin Baines, the colourist. If Jim Edgar were still with us, I don't know if he'd laugh or get angry, but I thought it sad no-one checked his forename and his surname.

In the previous reprint of this story only Martin and Frank got credits, so well done Daily Mirror. The fact that John Allard doesn't get credited is not surprising as even Bellamy was confused what his role on the strip was at this time!

I recently found a 24 May 1961 copy of the Daily Mirror under some underlay. Take a look

Frank Bellamy and Bob Monkhouse

Matador

I apologise for the delay in posting recently (I missed my once-a-month target last month) this is due to re-plastering and the need to put everything into self-storage to protect it from the dust.  I have identified what I can below but not exact numbers, if you need to know let me know and on un-packing I shall pin the issues down.

Alan Burrows kindly forwarded these pictures he received from the late Bob Monkhouse from his extensive Frank Bellamy collection. He forwarded them to my FB Facebook page and I thought maybe some people here may not be on Facebook, so here for your pleasure is Mr Frank Bellamy.

Bob appeared to be a really amiable guy - just look at the drawing on the envelope he sent Alan. People forget he started out as a comic artist, because his later career as a comedian and quiz show host was so successful.

Bob Monkhouse cartoon for Alan Burrows

Fantasy piece by Frank Bellamy

On the websitelisting I labelled this "Fantasy piece" and put it under Unpublished material . Does anyone know any different? Was it published? I love the skull mountain and the usual Bellamy device of a man pointing out of the frame!

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Heros the Spartan from Eagle

Life study by Frank Bellamy

Lord of the Dragons - published in Once upon a time

 This was published in Bellamy's lifetime in a book called Once upon a time (along with and the book is available via the usual channels and not too rare or expensive. I listed it in my Articles on Frank Bellamy section

Thunderbirds from TV21 #138

From the Thunderbirds story "Space Mirror" which ran in TV Century 21#137 - 140

 It's well known that Bellamy, before taking on a strip, would provide the editors of comics with a sheet of designs. These would show his vision of the characters he would be drawing. However two have lawys puzzled me as they seem very specific

Below we see Dan Dare, Fraser of Africa and Thunderbirds and bear in mind these are photocopies of negatives, or older photocopies so this is all we have as a record, until someone scans the artwork.

Dan Dare operational uniform

Dan Dare Space Fleet  uniform

Fraser of Africa

I have seen the next two before but not the inscription which explains why we have these pieces. In TV21 issues 93-98 Don Harley took over my favourite story from Bellamy while he took a break to produce the Avengers TV series episode "The Winged Avenger". So it looks as if Bellamy drew a character sheet for Alan Tracy and Brains in their spacesuits which Harley could follow. He could have just done a photo but we have to remember that this sort of reproduction process took longer than we do now, where phones, scanners and iPads are available to take instant photos for sharing!

"Frank Bellamy 'visual' given to Don Harley for Thunderbirds

Alan Tracy and Brains from Thunderbirds

I'll save the others for another day as I'd like to do some research in my comics but that will have to wait for my unpacking. Many thanks to the very generous Alan Burrows for sharing this wonderful collection of reference material