ORIGINAL ART: Garth, Garth, Garth and Garth!

Garth:  G32 and G34 "The Women of Galba"

This month sees not just one Frank Bellamy artwork up for auction but 8 Garth strips! These come via Compalcomics. Malcolm Philips offers a listing at both his Compalcomics and TheSaleroom

GARTH: The Women of Galba - 2 episodes: G32 and G34

Garth: 'Women of Galba' two original artworks (1973) by Frank Bellamy for the Daily Mirror 6/8 February 1973.
Indian ink on board. 21 x 17 ins (x 2)
£500-600

That's the description for these two near consecutive strips in Lot #122 reads. The original story ran in the Daily Mirror from 27 December 1972 - 10 April 1973. The reserve price of £450 has been met - actually while I was typing this note!

GARTH: The Wreckers - 2 consecutive episodes: G308-G309

Garth: The Wreckers G308-G309

Here are two consecutive strips from the story "The Wreckers" - you might remember I discovered an unseen episode - in England at least - previously.  These two show Garth and Andromeda being brainwashed and demonstrate beautifully how to vary panels in just a small space! The lot is described as:

Garth: 'The Wreckers'. Two original consecutive artworks (1973) by Frank Bellamy (one signed) for the D. Mirror 29/31 December 1973. Indian ink on board. 21 x 17 ins (x 2)

At this time of writing the reserve has not been met but I suspect that will happen today or tomorrow!

GARTH: Freak out to Fear - 2 consecutive episodes: H135 and H136

Garth: Freak out to Fear H135-H136

I love these two as they portray the Swinging 60s-type environment in London (yes, I know they were published in the 70s!). Guy St. Clair appears to be a junkie - it can't be his unkempt hair that clued Garth in as Garth has a mirror nearby! And Guy ends up in hospital! A nice pair of consecutive strips, again showing Bellamy's command of black and white and how to vary images to grab attention.

Lot #127 is described as:

Garth: 'Freak Out to Fear', two original consecutive artworks (1974) both signed by Frank Bellamy for the D. Mirror 10/11 June 1974. Indian ink on board. 21 x 17 ins (x 2)

GARTH: The Bride of Jenghiz Khan - 2 episodes: J4 and J6

Garth: The Bride of Jenghiz Khan J4 and J6

This time we have two almost consecutive strips from "The Bride of Jenghiz Khan" story, which ran in the Daily Mirror from 28 September 1974 - 14 January 1975 - H228-J11. Garth is with Professor Lumiere in China on a dig. Bored he heads off  and as a result of a landslide discovers a skeleton with a necklace which he strangely remembers as belonging to "Crystal Sky". Touching it he becomes Kailim, guard captain to Feng, warlord of a Chinese province.  These two strips come right near the end of the story. Lot #129 is described as:

Garth: 'Bride of Jenghiz Khan', two original consecutive [sic] artworks (1975) both signed by Frank Bellamy for the D. Mirror 6/8 January 1975. Indian ink on board. 21 x 17 ins (x 2)

If you want information on reprints of the strips travel to the menu on the website "Garth Reprints" and I'll add these to the spreadsheet, where I record sales of original art by Frank Bellamy.

AUCTION SUMMARY

GARTH: The Women of Galba - 2 episodes: G32 and G34
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom -Lot #122
STARTING BID: £450 reserve
ENDING PRICE: £800
END DATE: Sunday 28 February 2021

GARTH: The Wreckers - 2 consecutive episodes: G308-G309 

WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom - Lot #125
STARTING BID: £450 reserve
ENDING PRICE:£780
END DATE: Sunday 28 February 2021

GARTH: Freak out to Fear - 2 consecutive episodes: H135 and H136
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom - Lot #127
STARTING BID: £450 reserve
ENDING PRICE: £680
END DATE: Sunday 28 February 2021
 

GARTH: The Bride of Jenghiz Khan - 2 episodes: J4 and J6
WHERE?: Compal/Saleroom - Lot #129
STARTING BID: £450 reserve
ENDING PRICE: £740
END DATE: Sunday 28 February 2021

Original Art: Garth on Heritage - Freak out to fear (H148)

H148 episode of  "Garth: Freak out to fear" Drawn by Frank Bellamy

For those of you who follow this blog, you might notice there is so little time between the fast approaching Heritage auctions that I'm using a template to get them done quickly. Hope this works for you.

Heritage have another Garth for auction, this time from the story "Freak out to fear"
Heritage describe this piece:

Frank Bellamy Garth Daily Comic Strip Original Art dated 6-27-74 (Daily Mirror, 1974). Frank Bellamy drew the exquisite fantasy strip, Garth, from 1971 until his death in 1976. This ink over graphite on Bristol board daily has an image area of 21.5" x 5.25", and, aside from some light overall aging, the condition is Excellent. From the Ethan Roberts Estate Collection.

UPDATE: David Jackson pointed out to me it would very unusual for FB to use Bristol Board, his preferred board was CS10 - more of which in David's second part on Bellamy in the 1950s!

The whole story ran originally in the national UK newspaper the Daily Mirror  from 6 June 1974 to 27 September 1974 - (H132-H227)
Ir was reprinted  in Garth: Freak out to Fear by All Devon Comic Collectors Club Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.17 [No date] and in America in Menomonee Falls Gazette. Lastly the  Daily Mirror once again reprinted it - this time in colour from Wednesday 1 June 2016 to - Wednesday 26 July 2016 coloured by Martin Baines.

Want to read more? Here are the 6 strips from the series taken from the above-mentioned Daily Mirror reprint

 

WHERE?: Heritage Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121731
SELLER:Heritage
STARTING BID:$
ENDING PRICE:$382.40 inc. Buyer's premium = £293.38
No of bids:6

END DATE: 30 July 2017

Garth story Freak out to Fear - reprinted

Ant Jones (the curator of the Garth Facebook page) and Martin Baines have let me know that the latest Garth story to be reprinted in the Daily Mirror is the Frank Bellamy illustrated "Freak out to Fear". The story ran originally in the newspaper (in black and white) from 6 June 1974 till 27 September 1974 (H132-H227). I suspect that this was the last to be reprinted and colourised because of its subject matter - drugs, but that's my theory. I'm just so pleased to see the last of Bellamy's version of the unique UK superhero printed. This means that Martin Baines has coloured all of the Frank Bellamy daily strips for the Daily Mirror! Some feat!

Daily Mirror 1 June 2016

The story has been reprinted before in black and white by the now sadly defunct All Devon Comic Collectors Club in Daily Strips: Collectors Club Editions No.17 [No date] - and also in the American Menomonee Falls Gazette #218 (16 February 1976) - [#232 3 March 1978]. MFG reprinted H132-H225, in their final issue. Unfortunately, in addition to not printing the last two strips in the story, they inexplicably skipped H160-H165! As Wikipedia states: The final issue was published on March 3, 1978. (There were a total of 232 issues, but the final issue was mislabeled on the outside cover as #234.) and as Mike Tiefenbacher explains in the last issue "A funny thing happened between issue 226 and now" Ah well we're grateful for what we got!

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Freak out to Fear

H218 Freak out to fear

The latest piece of art by Frank Bellamy to be made available for sale on eBay shows Garth throwing two thugs around which wakes the host and hostess. This comes from the story "Freak out to fear" which starts with one of my favourite panels of a boutique in swinging London named "The Scene" on King's Road! I would love to know whether the word "dangerous" in the last panel is cut in the board and replaced, as did so often happen with John Allard's lettering. He would also be quite clumsy in my opinion with 'white-out' or Tipp-ex as we called it when I was a boy and that would be the only time you'd see any on Bellamy artwork.

Being a great detective on your behalf I asked the seller whose first name is Bob about how he came by the piece. I spent an enjoyable 45 minutes on the phone with a great guy. He told me some amazing stories  - his life as a Police Officer/Detective that touch on murder plots with Bob Monkhouse and a crowd of 500 as witnesses; his helping Paul Neary with his early artwork around the time of Heroes Unlimited and the Hunter strip in Warren magazines and many other things.

But regarding Frank, he told me about how he rescued a man from a car that was in a head on collision and kept in contact with him for many years and the obviously grateful survivor asked if there was anything he'd like as a present. Bob remembering his childhood rides by bike with his dad  to the local newsagents to pick up the Eagle, thought of Bellamy's Churchill strip and how Frank was at that time illustrating Garth in the Daily Mirror. He asked for Frank Bellamy's signature! The man, whose name is forgotten, managed one better and got hold of a copy of the original art - yes, you've guessed it, the above! Bob, at a later date, spent a delightful day with the charming Nancy, who by that time was widowed and Bob was shown her favourite etchings done by Frank of her as the 'life study'!

Many thanks to Bob for sharing such interesting anecdotes

The opening bid for this art is £200 and the auction ends 28 April having previously been unsold at the same price. I always wonder if a low start price helps get to the price a seller wants and will watch this again with interest and let you know what it goes for.



UPDATE: The seller told me. he had tried three times at the same price on ebay and eventually sold it "near to the asking price", (June 2012)


I have scanned below a clearer copy of the strip for you to see more detail - click to enlarge!

Enlarge to view © Daily Mirror