Tuesday 27 March 2018

Frank Bellamy and Boy's World Annual 1966

Paul Green and I were corresponding recently and he asked if I'd like some scans of Bellamy's work for Boy's World Annual 1966. I had the annual and hadn't got round to scanning it, so with much gratitude here are the scans Paul sent.

Boy's World Annual 1966 pages 4-5
The uncredited story that Bellamy illustrates is the tale (and I can't find any evidence of an "Operation Horseshoe" beyond a later dated ethnic cleansing in the Balkans) about a raid to destroy 20 invasion barges in the harbour of Portard, between Calais and Dunkirk. The thrust of the story is about the battle between two commanding officers Lieutenant-Colonel March and Major Hart and their disagreements in how to handle the men and also whether to retreat or attack during the battle. It's a simple tale but made more exciting in my opinion by Bellamy's vivid red drawings. The perspective of the charge on the gun placement, the brooding clouds hanging over the landing craft are brilliant.


Boy's World Annual 1966 page 6
"The landing craft were already nearing the coast."

Boy's World Annual 1966 page 7
"Hart had his revolver in his hand."

The story appears in Boy's World Annual 1966 and like a lot of publications that use a single colour throughout, this might explain why this unusual piece was created in such a vivid way. Having said that there are several full colour articles and stories and black and white pages too. But I suspect that if I were to work out how these pages came off the press before being cut I'd be right!

The cover showing a Saturn V launch
Whilst looking at this I checked Steve Holland's excellent index of Boy's World and he hasn't got a credit for the author either.

Paul also scanned the images by themselves so I'm sharing those too - many thanks Paul




ADDITION
I thanked PAUL GREEN for his kindness and he corrected my stupidity  he is PAUL not Peter! Sorry Paul.

He also kindly added this:

Regarding the colouring, having worked as an artist on many annuals for World Distributors there were pages that were "duotone" due to budget constraints. We applied them with photopaque on acetate film overlaying the illustrations. Clearly Bellamy has applied his colour with inks as there is some tone within the red. Duotone always produces a flat colour. So I'd say this was a purposeful effect by Bellamy. Much like his Fraser of Africa strip where sepia tone was applied to indicate Africa. Red here signifies the blood of war.

ADDITION (11 April 2018)
David Jackson asked to see the final page so here it is with a bonus...Ron Embleton!


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