Original Art: Garth on Heritage - The Man-Hunt (K240)

K240 episode of  "Garth: The Man-Hunt" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

Heriatge Auctions have another Garth strip by Frank Bellamy for auction and I suspect, as in many of Bellamy's women, the main figure might be based on his wife Nancy. This strip comes from the Garth story "The Man-Hunt", which was the last story illustrated by Bellamy before his death in 1976. The opening strip (K239) was published on 7 October 1976 and K254 (25 October 1976) was his last signed strip after which Martin Asbury took over this story (ending it 15 January 1977) and the Garth series until its demise in March 1997.


Heritage describe the piece:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip #K240 Original Art dated 8-10-76 (Daily Mirror of London, 1976). This is one of the last few Garth episodes Frank Bellamy illustrated, as he died suddenly in July of 1976. As a result, this installment appeared in print posthumously. In this episode, the science-fiction/superman feature takes a turn into the provocative concept of "synthesisation of organic matter" -- an ahead-of-its time idea, typical of classic SF. The title hero, Garth, receives a summons to meet with the scientist responsible, and is astonished to learn that she is organic, not synthetic. Bellamy lays down some finely detailed inking over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 20.5" x 5.25", it is in Excellent condition.

This auction is on Sunday August 19 2018

The Man-Hunt story has been reprinted just twice in the following places:

• Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection, Mike Higgs, London: Hawk 1998
• Daily Mirror Tuesday 4 November 2014 to Wednesday 12 November 2014 (K254). This was the coloured version (with printed credits for Martin Baines and Bellamy (but not Jim Edgar the author!). The story drawn by Martin Asbury continued until 22 December 2014

Here's the first page from Mike Higgs' Mirror Classic Cartoon book with an introduction

The Man-Hunt drawn by Frank Bellamy

AUCTION SUMMARY
WHERE?: Heritage
STARTING BID:$1
ENDING PRICE: $432 (includes Buyer's Premium) = £334.34
NO. OF BIDS: 10

END DATE: Sunday 19 August 2018