"A unique British trailblazer"
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| The Art of Frank Bellamy (Illustrators Special #11) Front Cover |
In March 2020, I got a phone call while walking in my local town. I ducked down an alleyway to be able to hear Geoff West of Book Palace, (I'm not as young as I used to be and that background noise of traffic is hard work!). He asked me if I fancied writing an Illustrators Special on ......Frank Bellamy! Some of you may know I've been part of the Illustrators team in a minor way since about issue 3. Now issue 34 of this quarterly 'bookazine' has just been published as well as, along the way, eleven Special issues focussing on a topic or artist! (you can see a full listing here).
But the focus today is on the Frank Bellamy Special
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| "Robin Hood" from Swift Vol. 3:25 (23 June 1956) |
The work includes a page introduction by Oliver Frey, who I have quoted at the head of this article, who also explains how Bellamy was truly British, with no influence from America or Europe (which I liked and suspect Bellamy would too!).
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| "Thunderbirds" from TV21 #115 |
Then you get an overview of Bellamy's life and career from the start to the end, written from scratch by yours truly. I decided this would be a great opportunity to discipline myself into focussing on essential information only - not everyone cares that Frank and Nancy were great lovers of all things Spanish and took a trip there in May 1959, taking in the southern region of Andalucía! I double-checked all my facts - as this is likely to be the longest biography of Frank Bellamy for a while, depending on who takes up the baton! Experience taught me that many errors slip into narratives about the artist over time, so I was extra careful!
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| "The Winged Avenger" from "The Avengers" TV series |
We managed to get a load of scans of original artwork - and here I have to say a HUGE thank you to Paul Holder and many others too numerous to repeat here, but who are listed in the book. If they hadn't come forward, the work would be full of work scanned by me from my collection of books and magazines, tears, thumbed pages and all! I've sampled some work here, but the print versions are at a higher resolution which you can't appreciate until you see it! You will see loads of things not seen before- even on this blog - which illustrate how Bellamy was so talented, flexible, imaginative and inspirational.
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| "The Doomsmen" - Garth J161 |
Lastly I re-wrote this website's listing of Frank's work so you can have a bibliography of his works which fits legibly on three pages due to the brilliant designer who put this all together, Diego Cordoba - thanks Diego for being so amenable to design suggestions.
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| Portakabin (4 sided 2 page colour advertising brochure) |
And finally here's the back cover. Any other variants you've seen only exist electronically as early drafts! Yes, including the one with my name in a speech bubble!
Here's the true back cover:
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| The Art of Frank Bellamy (Illustrators Special #11) Back Cover |
"My first exposure to this exciting world of adventure was in late 1956 when, as a boy of eight, just arrived from Switzerland and with no grasp of English, I leafed through a copy of Eagle. It was a turning point in my life, and Frank Bellamy’s work proved seminal to my own career in illustration".
The reference to "1956" implies that FB was seen in Eagle when he actually started in October 1957. Prior to that, he was drawing in Swift [DJ]
August 2021: Page 28 Caption:
"This is early Bellamy, before he started using stippling, but was still the work of an accomplished artist"
In fact he used stippling in the first frame of the first episode of "Monty Carstairs" and further developing practically in weekly episodes from then on. [DJ]
August 2021: Page 96:
Other opportunities were presenting themselves and one such commission enabled Bellamy to contribute an unusual villain to the TV series The Avengers. The episode in question was titled, ‘The Masked Avenger’ and revolved around Emma Peel and John Steed investigating a series of ruthless murders of businessmen who, unusually, are killed by a comic character come to life—the Winged Avenger
Of course this should read 'was titled 'The Winged Avenger' [DJ]
August 2021: Page 142: Bibliography:
The Thunderbirds listing starts part way through, not from the series beginning [DJ]. It should read:
‘Heros the Spartan: The Slave Army’ Eagle (27 February 1965- 24 July 1965)
- ‘Thunderbirds: Forest Inferno’ TV Century 21 (15 January 1966 - 26 February 1966)
- ‘Thunderbirds: White Rhino Rescue’ TV Century 21 (5 March 1966 - 16 April 1966)
- ‘Thunderbirds: Shoot Down the TC193’ TV Century 21 (23 April 1966 - 4 June 1966)
‘Thunderbirds: The Atlantic Tunnel’ TV Century 21 (11 June 1966 - 13 August 1966)
My wife gave me wonderful feedback on the Special and mentioned these typos:
- p. 10 "
ashe was soon hard at work producing paintings" - p.19 "The very first place he saw was Bride Lane and on his list was Norfolk Studio, Bride Lane"
- p.82 "When he picked up the phone to enquire whether or not Bellamy would be available to illustrate Stingray, it was with the certain knowledge"
- p.94 "‘The Atlantic Tunnel’ allowed Bellamy to make full use of the visual acreage afforded by the double-page spread format"
- p.104 "Bellamy’s usual attention ensured the art was always underpinned with the correct historical detail."
- p.106 - Two occurrences of Radio Times not being completely italicised
- p.114 "as the train rattled back
toon its journey west." - p.114 "Eventually the logistics proved too much"
- p.114 "Asked about
whatthe responsibilities"
Thanks darling!
December 2021:
Richard Sheaf really has a good eye -
- p. 43 - "Chad Varah" not "Chad Vara"
- p. 47 - should be copyright "Dan" not "Dab"
- p. 57 - "series" rather than episodes [Ahh, see what you mean there Richard! ~Norman]
- p. 82 - "recognisable" rather than "recognizable"
- p. 106 (twice) - Radio Times not Radio Times
- p. 113 - "realised" not "realized"
- p. 113 - Stephen Dowling is correct but it's usually Steve Dowling
- p. 138 - The Times not Times
- p. 28 - "Bellamy followed up his 'Carstairs' work with a
five-weeksix-week run [...] of Walt Disney's The Living Desert."
October 2022
David Driver (Frank's Art Editor) wrote:
- Just a small observation on the caption page 128, “use of Bellamy so much”! It was the editor, who was against me featuring ‘Dr Who‘ so regularly. He felt my enthusiasm for the programme was in need of control, he was wrong. He loved Frank Bellamy’s work and encouraged it being featured.
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BOOK PALACE BLURB
Frank Bellamy is an artist whose work reflects much of the century that he inhabited. Born a year before the end of the First World War, his art documented an age of conflict, exploration, technological advancement, social change and an age which could envisage worlds as yet undiscovered as well as worlds long departed deep beneath the sands of time.
His story follows the course of many of his contemporaries, a driven determination to secure a living as a illustrator, bolstered by sporadic exposure to art tuition, stints in a provincial studio “learning on the job”, and the “pilgrimage to London” and more specifically Fleet Street, which in the 1950s was a veritable Mecca for aspiring illustrators.
What makes Bellamy's story so particular is his development into a pre-eminent graphic artist. (Robin Hood, King Arthur, Heros the Spartan, Montgomery, Churchill, Fraser of Africa, Thunderbirds and Garth.)
From a relatively staid and unremarkable (yet highly competent) artist to a ground-breaking master of the comic strip, his rise to fame presents not just a fascinating tale about his life and work but also the story of UK comics from what was a golden age through to the influencing of the next generation of comic artists—and creatives in other fields—who would succeed him.
Typical of those who fell under Bellamy's spell is Oliver Frey who graces this edition with his introduction to the work of Frank Bellamy.
More like a book than a magazine, illustrators is the art quarterly devoted to the finest illustration art ever published. It guides you through the stories behind the artists and their art, with features written by some of the leading authorities on this important art form.
As well as building into an indispensable reference library, illustrators gives readers an insight into the creative process, from idea to sketch to painting, and from painting to the image seen by millions.
Truly fabulous artwork abounds in every issue, much of the art taken from scans of the original work.
This illustrators Special Edition limited to just 1000 copies worldwide. A Book Palace Books publication.
Authors: Norman Boyd, Oliver Frey (intro)
Artist: Frank Bellamy
Publisher: Book Palace Books, July 2021
Number of pages: 144
Format: Soft Cover; Full Colour illustrations
Size: 9" x 11" (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548087
