Original Art: Heros the Spartan

There is now another chance to own a Heros the Spartan doublepage spread. On eBay right now. Mind you, you will need some money to buy it! It's always awkward when I know who owns the piece to keep the seller's anonymity without sounding too cold, but this person is very trustworthy and a nice person too!

Episode 12 from the "Eagle of the Fifth" story by Tom Tully comes from Eagle 25 May 1963 (Volume 16:11).

Eagle 25 May 1963 - the comic

I have taken the pictures below from the Ebay auction and you can see how pure the colours are after all these years - 53 years! Someone smart has not stored it on a wall in sunlight!

It was this piece when I saw it in the original, that convinced me that poor Bellamy must have been very frustrated by the later run of Eagle comics which really muddied his colours. Just compare, say "Happy Warrior" to "Montgomery of Alamein" to "Heros the Spartan"


As a child - and I've told this story before - I read the Eagle after my older brothers and found Heros a muddy multi-coloured mess. It was only reading Dez Skinn raving about it that made me think again, but this piece convinced me that what Geoff West and Peter Richardson did in reprinting the run, was a Godsend!

The seller has this description on ebay, which includes something about me - no commission or money has exchanged hands ;-)


It doesn't get much better than this! (That is, until we show you a little something else which will be coming up soon).
As an example of Bellamy's mastery of layout and use of colour these Heros double page spreads for Eagle in the 1960's take some beating. Included in our pictures with this listing is the scan from our original that was reproduced in the fantastic book collection of these strips 'Heros the Spartan', from Book Palace books. Cut and paste the link below to see an article on this book at the unbeatable Bellamy Blog resource run by Norman Boyd (also involved in the production of this outstanding collection.. follow the link :)
http://frankbellamy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/heros-spartan-is-here.html
This has been conservation framed and is in amazing condition for a 50 year old work. It has some lovely details, including the famous 'wolf's head' that has been much imitated.
Postage will obviously more than the £7.50 that this platform allows me to specify? Let's talk :)

The original art

Just look at the rich colour

And I suppose I should mention the reprinted Heros the Spartan books are still available from Book Palace. The last I heard from Geoff the numbers were certainly going down so do not hesitate!

If the piece sells and the seller is knd enough to share, I'll complete the listing below

SUMMARY

WHERE?: eBay
SELLER: Tweedacademy
BUY IT NOW: £6,000
MAKE AN OFFER: - BEST OFFER ACCEPTED
END DATE: 22 February 2016