Unknown Frank Bellamy #9: Comic strip

 UNKNOWN BELLAMY #9: COMIC STRIP

Used by permission of Alan Davis

Thanks to Alan Davis for permission to use the above image. as he states on his website:

I was simply one of the guys lucky enough to help Nancy Bellamy clear Frank's studio when she was moving home. AND enough of a fanboy to ask if I could keep the rubbish.
Compared to new images recorded and created in our digital age none of the source material I have is good, some is very poor but I believe it offers a unique and valuable insight to any true Frank Bellamy fan.
Thanks to Nancy Bellamy for giving me the two bags of studio debris, permission to use it here and for her time in relating anecdotes and tales of Frank's life and career. 

I have no information to provide for this unknown piece. It's done in a comic strip form, yet there is space for a libretto text beneath the first row - but as with all this material I am arguing from silence! We have to use what we have, to see if we can move this further. 

1. The story looks to open with three or four people mounted on horseback in a fenced field.
2. A farmhouse with walled garden appears to be watched from on high. 
3. Four people walk towards a helicopter
4. What appears to be the pilot (with cap and sunglasses) appears to be held at gun point
5. Two men, prone on the ground are secretly watching the horse-riding party pass by with rifles aimed at them
6. As three people head towards a rope ladder dropped from the ascending helicopter a guard stands by facing away from the copter
7. The helicopter takes off from the same farmhouse grounds
8. The last shot shows a military build-up showing helmeted soldiers with rifles, an armoured vehicle and jeep plus two jet aircraft flying over a village

I have no correspondence that fits this strip and can only guess it's from later in Bellamy's career. The structure of the panels is lovely and clear - but note they do seem to sit on top of each other with that space between the rows. Perhaps a newspaper article might have some text between them? Is this reportage of a kidnapping incident? We had the IRA bombings, Bader-Meinhof Red Army incidents in the 70s - when I think this was drawn. Could it be one of these?

Alan kindly let me scan the photos he recovered - which I'll show in later blog articles - here's a scan I have converted from TIFF to JPG - perhaps this might give another view of Alan's photo?

Used by permission of Alan Davis - version 2

Bellamy did "try-outs" for newspaper strips before landing "Garth" for the Daily Mirror. I have seen copies of "Modesty Blaise", "The Saint", "Wes Slade", and earlier, "Antony Falloway" Could this be the opening of a character's strip before the lead enters the scene? Which strips in the late 60s-early 70s were of the secret agent / political thriller type?

Let me know your thoughts!

NEXT: Unknown Bellamy # 12 - that astronaut picture