Original art for sale - Thunderbirds, Look-in and Garth

The title of today's blog post is a bit like the chant from the Wizard of Oz! "Thunderbirds, Look-in, and Garth, oh my!" And it certainly is a magical day for Frank Bellamy fans.

The latest Comic Book Auctions Limited catalogue is out and bidding closes on Tuesday 6 September at 8pm UK time.

I have copied the details below as it turns out this blog is one way some buyers keep a track of sales! Or so I was told by a gentleman recently! I'll update this entry with the sale prices as soon as they are known UPDATED 10 Sept 2011 - see below 

TV21 #133

Lot # 187 is described as

Thunderbirds original double page artwork drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 133 Aug 5 1967. Bright Pelikan inks on board. 19 x 27 inches £2,000-2,500

UPDATED 10 Sept 2011 Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £3,025 

TV21 #206

Lot # 188 is described as

Thunderbirds original artwork (1968) by Frank Bellamy from TV 21 No 206 Dec 28 1968. Bright Pelikan inks on board. 18 x 15 inches
£800-1,000

UPDATED 10 Sept 2011 Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £550 

Lot # 221 is described as

Southerner original double page artwork painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for Look-in #23 June 12 1971 with original magazine.
On the night of Friday October 3 1970 the 42,000 ton Liberian oil tanker, Pacific Glory was transformed into a blazing inferno after a collision with another tanker off the Isle of Wight. Southern Television's film news were the first TV units to reach the scene as Southerner, the world's first outside broadcast vessel sped to the area. The newsmen and technicians later carried off six major news film awards. The true story of the Pacific Glory Disaster was dramatised and painted by Frank Bellamy for the centre pages of Look-in eight months later
Pelikan inks on board, some fading to the blues. 24 x 18 inches (Removable laser colour copy text boxes added to complete the story) £550-650

 UPDATED 10 Sept 2011 Winning bid : U/S (Unsold?)

Lot # 223 is described as

Garth original artwork (1971) by Frank Bellamy for The Daily Mirror 14 July 1971. Entitled Sundance, this was Bellamy's third board
Indian ink on board. 21 x 7 inches
£180-220

UPDATED 10 Sept 2011 Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £203


Now what do I think of all this? Well funnily enough I am excited by this episode of Garth (don't forget it's being reprinted in the Daily Mirror right now!). This is the 15th episode of the story 'Sundance' (Jim Allard preceded Bellamy's fondly remembered run). It's only Bellamy's 3rd episode of the story.  What's interesting, and you can't really see it here, is that Bellamy did not use zip-a-tone, or letraset/letratone but it does appear here on the fallen soldier's trousers. And worse there is white-out / Tippex! FB was proud of never having used the stuff, so who did it? The answer: John Allard, who was kept on to do various things on the strip.

Below is a photo I took when I had access to the owner's original artwork. Hopefully you can see this interesting fact. It certainly doesn't mar the original delicate linework of Bellamy.

E164 - Note the zip-a-tone - click to enlarge

I suspect the estimate on this particular board is low.

And secondly the very rare Look-In piece. The description mentions faded blues, but I think even with that fact this should fetch a good price as it's the only piece that Bellamy did for his former editor on TV21 (Alan Fennell) in this comic. Having the work on Garth as well as many other individual commissions, Bellamy didn't have time, even if he wanted to go back to weekly comic strips! Having the "Removable laser colour copy text boxes" makes this a very interesting piece. One wonders why the text was not on the original board, but if you look at the scan below you'll see that it's not hand lettering but type

Look-in 12 June 1971

That leaves just the Thunderbirds to comment on.....They look brilliant and the colours vibrant.

One curiosity - I notice that the colour in the comic shows a pink sky in places - but a natural blue in the original. Anyone know anything about this? I have discovered other adjustments (certainly not improvements!) to Bellamy's artwork in the Thunderbirds strips. I expect he wouldn't have seen the published art - David, his son, was born 8 December 1944 so was a bit old for TV21 at that time (that's rich from the guy who still owns a complete set!) and I have no knowledge that he received a gratis copy

Here are the two compared:

Anyway, I still owe money on my house so I'll leave you all to bid!

Comicartfans - Original art: Garth - Beast of Ultor

WARNING! Following this link could serious put a dent in your free time!

If you've never heard of Comicartfans site, you haven't been reading the detail of my blog. It's grown enormously since its first appearance. Various people share their pictures and some trade on there. That's swap and sell in other words.

'Zaalxx' has put up for offer a beautiful example of Frank Bellamy's Garth. It's an episode from the Beast of Ultor

H93 The Beast of Ultor

To see the original at Comicartfans click here and if you want to make 'Zaalxx' an offer you'll need to register with the site first but can then use the form provided.

If you want to see some of the beautiful Bellamy art that Jeff, Paul, Chris, Terry, John, Stephen and many others have shared, click here. But don't say I didn't warn you that you'd find this a 'sticky' site!

Bellamy's influence on others

UPDATED - see the bottom of this post

Recently Bill Storie sent me a scan of an old J. T. Edson paperback making the comment that "not Bellamy art of course but...does the pose look familiar? Not the first time I've seen other artists swipe Frank's poses - maybe we should start a new section (just kidding!! We'd need an entire separate website for that!!)."

JT Edson cover 

I did a bit of trawling and found the following examples in Bellamy's work to illustrate this point so just for a bit of fun have some Bellamy pictures pointing at you!

Ghost World

Ghost World

Eureka

Eureka reprinted and sepia-ed!

and then there's Thunderbirds where he repeated this motif so many times

and just in case you thought I couldn't find any cowboys - Edson's stock in trade!....

Comicon'78

Marvel Western Gunfighters

The image above is taken from Western Gun Fighters: A Marvel Special 1980. This was originally given to Dez Skinn as a 21st birthday present (see http://dezskinn.com/fanzines/) and is used here with permission. Dez tells the story that Bellamy pointed out his own error in the way he has drawn one belt buckle correctly and one wrongly!


There you go. I could have added Heros, Montgomery and so on but I think the point's made. However before I leave this alone I saw this advertised recently....

Art by Tim Keable

I'd love to know if Tim is a fan of Bellamy. Just in case Tim thinks I'm implying it's a swipe, here's a review of this anthology I think that's enough meandering! Back to work.

Of course if you find any more, let me know

---

UPDATED: 09 August 2011

Out of the blue, I received this from Tim Keable - which at first I thought might be a lawsuit ....read on:

I noticed you used a recent comic cover of mine in your latest article. Well, in answer to your query I have to confess to being an absolute Bellamy buff.

The cover art was indeed a swipe.

When we started doing the West comics with colour covers, Andy Cheverton (the writer) and I decided that each cover would have a different design.
With this in mind we've done one in the style of Saul Bass and we have one coming up with a kind of '50's horror comic type look.

When it came to Stray Bullets I really wanted to do an illustration in homage to Frank Bellamy. I decided to stick as closely as I could to the techniques I know he used.

I've still got some CS10 lineboard left so I cut a piece at around A2 size.

Using black india ink for the lines I then coloured it with FW acrylic ink applying it in layers the way Frank did. Highlights and corrections were done using an ink rubber and scalpel. No process white was used!

I was generally pleased with the result and it made me realise even more just what a craftsman he was. Those inks on that surface are a real nightmare!

May I just take a moment here to commend you on your site. Truly a labour of love.

I had to leave the last bit in as I, like all bloggers, need the encouragement!

I wrote back to Tim to thank him and he replied:

CS10 isn't made any more but I've seen people selling it on ebay for £75.00 a sheet!
There is a company called Paper People who manufacture something which they claim is as close as they could get to the original.The interesting thing about Frank and also others like Mike Noble is that they developed these techniques out of necessity due to the printing processes involved.
I could bang on for hours about such things!
One question before I go.
Are you going to do any more articles about Frank's Sunday Times Magazine work?

Yes, Tim, keep your eyes peeled on the blog and many thanks for your comments!

Beautiful People starts in Daily Mirror

The bad news: Spanish Lady has ended

Did anyone notice that the word 'blackamoor' was blanked out in one balloon? Strange, from the paper that brings us all sorts of "interesting" stories each day!

The good news: Once again that fantastic Martin Baines has shared the fact that the next story in the Daily Mirror to be reprinted and coloured is "The Beautiful People". This story ran from 29 November 1975 - 16 March 1976 (numbers J282-K64) and has only ever been reprinted in a very rare fan publication.

I'd love to get some feedback on what you think of the art in this story as I can see that maybe (and please don't burn me at the stake) that Bellamy -after 4 continuous years - might have been a bit tired. Let me know.

And for 1970s glam rockers - do you think the lead in this story looks like a certain Mud lead singer?

Click on the image to enlarge to full size

© Daily Mirror

Frank Bellamy and all things African

Click to enlarge

In the list of 'Unpublished' works - which I confess is a mixed bags of things I've seen, but have not necessarily got scans of, there are several animals of Africa, scenes from Africa and also Masai warriors (my best description). I know that Bellamy exhibited in various top shows in London with pictures listed with African names and unfortunately I haven't been able to match names to pieces. For example, he listed 'Oluwaru' which a quick search on the Net tells me is Masai for 'wild animal'. I have seen lions with Kilimanjaro in the background, but this sounds grander.

Anyway, Adrian Fear has contacted me to share a " drawing [which] actually belongs to my brother. He bought the drawing at a flea market about 10 years ago. The pictures dimensions are 530mm by 610mm. It is a pencil and pastels drawing on black paper/card then mounted."

I know that Nancy Bellamy proudly displays one such piece, of a head in profile, and others, on her walls in her home in Kettering, but this is a new one to me. I'm very grateful to Adrian for not only making contact but also sharing this photo.

The piece is the same as those I have seen and shows another side to Bellamy, who most people know as the comic artist and who Sir William Russell Flint respected for his African work. Praise like that does inspire!

Bellamy and Doctor Who

I recently had an email that asked whether I knew anyone who could loan the Cartoon Museum some Bellamy art for a forthcoming exhibition. Good news, if you haven't heard already, the exhibition is now on.

Cover art by Paul Grist and James Offredi

I was privileged to be invited to the Private Preview and attended with a friend who contributed one of the pieces of art. I met the fantastically friendly Lee Sullivan (see his work here) who was so interesting to listen to when critiquing Bellamy's artwork and a fellow Mike Noble fan. And by now you will have seen his original art of all the doctors in one lineup (if not click on the link!) Thanks Lee.

I also bumped into another really nice guy. Mike Tucker told me he works on the special effects on Doctor Who. Far too modest - see his wiki entry and his website. We discussed various pieces of the artwork hanging on the walls and we both couldn't believe that some of the artists for even recent pieces were unknown. I casually asked him if he enjoyed his job. He answered quick as a flash "I get to build models and blow them up, yes, I enjoy my job!" Good to meet you Mike

Now before I forget who this blog is about, and before one of you says, Frank Bellamy didn't do any comic artwork of Doctor Who ........you are incorrect.

The Radio Times for 3 - 9  April 1971 had a panel of Bellamy's artwork - which would appear the following week

Radio Times for 3 - 9  April 1971

Then we got the Radio Times dated 10 April 1971 - 16 April 1971 in which he illustrated, in a special feature, the Doctor Who story "Colony in Space" with 2 full colour pages and two half page black and whites.

Copyright Radio Times

Scanned from Time View: Complete "Doctor Who" Illustrations of Frank Bellamy

However the two pieces at the exhibition by Frank Bellamy are not from this story and are illustrations which accompanied other Doctor Who stories. But who's (sorry!) complaining when the exhibition brief is stretched a little? It's always amazing to see Bellamy originals - and these two are in particularly good condition. I won't tell you what they are but would encourage you to attend not just for Bellamy, but for the great artwork by Lee Sullivan, John Ridgway (fantastic linework from 'Voyager' the graphic novel), Gerry Haylock (cover of TV Action), John Canning (TV Comic) and the fanatical fan of Frank Bellamy, Dave Gibbons (of Watchmen fame). This is a only a small list of what's at the Museum as well as there standing exhibition which includes Reid, Baxendale, Riddell, and many other UK comic/cartoon artists

Thanks for the invitation Anita

Norman

P.S. There are lots of reviews on the Net, but this one has some pieces from the exhibition and a review here

Bellamy and the British comic conventions

It's really hard work classifying the work that Frank Bellamy created. I  have followed the original layout by David Jackson, myself and many more in placing work in one of these categories:

Comics are straight forward, or you'd think so. What about Look and Learn - was it a comic or a children's magazine? This category includes reprints (as do the others) so that should someone want to check the list (thus the name 'checklist') they will find any comic - whether reprint or original. But what about comic strips in annuals? 

Annuals section contains those uniquely bound hardbacks the UK have been producing for decades. Bellamy produced some comic strips but otherwise illustrations to support a story.

Magazines is where Bellamy did many single or multiple illustrations - some he loved and was proud of (Everybody's) and some he found a burden to do (Home Notes). But what is a magazine? One definition states the origin comes via French for the Arabic for a storehouse (and thus the military use). But I'm thinking of the OED definition:

magazine, n.
 
A periodical publication containing articles by various writers; esp. one with stories, articles on general subjects, etc., and illustrated with pictures, or a similar publication prepared for a special-interest readership.The use of the word (rather than periodical) typically indicates that the intended audience is not specifically academic.

Third edition, March 2000; online version June 2011. <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/112144>; accessed 25 June 2011. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1904.

If we accept a periodical (i.e. regular appearance) do we include annual/semi-annual comic convention brochures? Libraries, the experts in classification, debate the point. When is a standing order different from a journal subscription?. We'll come back to this in a minute.

Newspapers - that should easy but even here, is the Sunday Times Colour Supplement a magazine or newspaper? I go for the former

 Aren't annuals books? Not for purposes of this classification, otherwise yes, books are books including reprints

Advertising This category is a tough one. I could list every instance of one advert (Walls Wonderman), and I just might, if any more come forward; Should I list an instance where a fan uses a Bellamy comic convention logo and adjusts the year - yes, I think so.

Media This is for any TV or Radio appearance of Bellamy, his Thunderbird 6 film poster is under 'advertising'

Unpublished a mix of all sorts. I am aware that some of these have been 'published' - for example in fan magazines, and the Internet if nowhere else but felt this category allows me the nearest to miscellaneous! I have seen all these but some remain 'hidden' at the owner's request

Unseen Bellamy solely an excuse to highlight a major exhibition that features large in Bellamy lore. It also allows me to list items, some of which have never been published, and helps us to identify pieces - for example by Jeff Haythorpe and Tim Barnes who were at the event

Articles and books about Bellamy the final category that shows some obsessive tendencies. It includes some large articles on Bellamy but also some peripheral mentions of his art. I could add loads to this and when I have free time I do! Hopefully the descriptions help people select what they need and avoid any really peripheral mentions!

I wanted to clear up one massive mess I have helped perpetuate. But thanks to Dez Skinn's sterling efforts, I have now re-classified some of the comic convention programme covers, adverts etc. I have used Dez's web pages (http://dezskinn.com/fanzines-3/) and wonder now, shouldn't I be adding a category of published webpages (but, oh dear, what about Twitter feeds, Facebooks notations?), no, that way lies madness! But let me know what you think.

Enjoy my cut down version of Dez's webpage (used with permission of the kind guy) with the emphasis obviously on Bellamy. Read the full story from the eyewitness accounts Dez shares

Skinn states:
"Frank Bellamy came along with stacks of his old Eagle artwork and gave an amazingly in-depth talk on the trials and tribulations of working on Dan Dare and Garth as well as his enjoyment on Fraser of Africa and Heros the Spartan."

"Frank Bellamy was so chuffed to be the guest of honour at Comicon 71 that he produced five new colour visuals for us to auction off. [The photo below left] shows a bearded young Dez holding one of them" - this is mentioned as "Fantasy figure"in the 'Unknown' part of the checklist and to our knowledge never been published. And yes, I have asked Dez but he can't remember the other pieces (however, Dez's note accompanying 1978 states we do know one more)

"Below is one of the stunning pieces of art Frank Bellamy created especially for the event. It was unexpected and too late for a place in the convention booklet, although all of them did finally make it into print in later years."

Not used in 1971

The emboldening is mine and explains one of those mini-mysteries, how the artwork states '71' yet didn't appear anywhere with this.See 1981 below

The famous Doctor Who artist Andrew Skilleter, wrote a review of the 1971 convention and focussed on Bellamy. Nancy Bellamy accompanied Frank - I wonder how she enjoyed it? I know she has mentioned it in the past as being impressive.

Skilleter gives an insight into Bellamy's working practice when he reports on a Q&A session in which Bellamy says "how he would read through the script, marking frames 'Large', 'Medium' or 'Small', ignoring the scriptwriter's notes as to 'long shots', 'close-ups', etc. and then starting work on the layout pencils, trying for as much dramatic effect as possible."  

The piece below was designed by Bellamy for the 1973 convention which never took place.  Fortunately the '3' could easily be changed to a '5' - see below

Not used until 1975

1973 logo slightly amended

Skinn: "Something of a recovery began with Comicon 75. Rob [Barrow] used (yet another) Bellamy visual for its promotion, a superb piece of design actually created for the aborted Comicon 73" .

Bellamy died in July 1976 and unfortunately this meant the publicity for the 76 con would not in fact appear. Skinn says: "Unfortunately, the artwork promised in the progress report by Frank Bellamy and Jim Steranko was noticeable by its absence". The flyer included the piece produced for Comicon'73, and the promise of material by Bellamy.

 

The actual booklet (with a wraparound cover by Trevor Goring) only mentions Bellamy on one page:  "In memory Frank Bellamy 1917-1976"

In 1976 Gifford also ran the Comics101 event to celebrate the 101st birthday of British comics (based on Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884)).  Bellamy managed to provide Gifford not only with his final comic strip - for his newly launched "Ally Sloper" but also this piece for his Comics101 convention booklet

Skinn mentions that the cover for the 1978 Comicon brochure by Bellamy is "Another Frank Bellamy visual (one of those he had produced for the 1971 convention auction) finally surfacing as the cover of Rob Barrow and Colin Campbell’s Comicon ‘78 booklet". So that accounts for another piece from the 5 he produced in 1971 mentioned above

And finally one that Dez hasn't mentioned ...yet!

The very kind Ewan Browlow provided this scan of the 1981 Comicon wraparound cover - seen in 1971 above! Skinn wrote:

.. "half of the piece that Bob Monkhouse owned which I have had photographed and was for Comicon 71. The bottom right corner (under claw) has been blocked in to read '81' whereas before it said '71'".

The 1971 logo used here in 1981