SWIFT Cover update

INTRODUCTION

See my post and notes on the website regarding the Swift comic cover in question. I bounced a few emails to Steve Holland at the time and I don't now how but I missed the full story. Fortunately, having visited and met Steve for the first time a few weeks ago, I plied him with food and beer and found out the following. Steve kindly said I could quote him which helps me post this a bit quicker than normally do!

GUEST: Steve Holland:

SWIFT COVER STORY
Frank Hampson had finished working on "The Road of Courage" in Eagle in early 1961. It takes a few weeks to get the finished comic through the printing process so there's usually a lead-in period. The last episode of "Road" appeared in the issue dated 8 April 1961 but was probably completed by Hampson in February at the latest. This was shortly before the Fleetway took over the Odhams/Hulton group of comics. The deal was officially brokered on 22 March 1961.

To quote "Living with Eagles", "In May Leonard Matthews wrote that he would be 'taking up residence' at Longacre the following week." So you can see that various changes would have occurred during the summer of '61.

Hampson, meanwhile, was still drawing a regular paycheque from what was now Fleetway Publications. New editors and sub-editors began to arrive and the various titles began to reflect these changes. In September 1961, a new style of covers began to appear on Swift, each cover based around an event (the first Sputnik, the Battle of Hastings, the Gunpowder Plot, etc.). Some were new, some were reprints of old Thriller Picture Library covers.

Again, lead time for printing dates the decision to change the covers to around June/July 1961. Someone, possibly Alf Wallace or (more likely) Val Holding, who had been installed at Odhams by Matthews, realised that Hampson was still on their books and commissioned three covers from him.

The first (General Custer) was delivered and published in December 1961 (it would have been painted by Frank in September or October). Frank then fell ill and could not complete the second commission. This was passed on to Frank Bellamy who painted the cover featuring Amundsen reaching the South Pole which appeared the week after Hampson's General Custer cover on 16 December 1961. Hampson recovered and was able to complete the third cover (the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I) which appeared in January 1962 and was probably painted in November 1961. This has been confirmed by David Slinn who was working for Eagle and Swift at the time, although the rough dating of events is mine.

OUTRODUCTION

Thanks Steve for clearing that up.

Click on "The Lost Characters of Frank Hampson" by Alistair Crompton & Wakefield Carter to see the Hampson covers mentioned above. Now how can I illustrate the blog without repeating a previous picture, well here's a bonus for you. An odd black and white picture from earlier in the year, but around the same period of time published in the Eagle 26 August 1961

Reprinted Bellamy illustrations - Thunderbirds Extra 1966

The 48 page 1966 Thunderbirds Extra was published in March of that year by City Magazines Ltd who produced the weekly comic TV21 in cooperation with Century Publishing Limited. It contains a lovely Thunderbird strip illustrated by Brian Lewis - a far too neglected artist, and a strip by Don Harley, (Dan Dare and later Thunderbird artist, most famously in Countdown) and finally Ron Turner best known for his colour back cover on TV21's Dalek strip and later Anderson annuals.

But here it's the text stories that are of interest to Bellamy fans and one in particular: Thunderbirds: Flight to Destruction

Three pages of text are accompanied by what are obviously Bellamy illustrations, but it takes a fanatic to track them down. And I have! Shaqui gave me the idea for this blog post, so again thanks Shaqui.

Here are the pages from which the above illustrations are taken

TV21 51 pp.10 &11:
TB5 is from the 3rd B&W page in TV21 #51
The portrait of Jeff Tracy is from the same TV21

TV21 51 pp.12

TV21 56 pp.10 & 11
Scott's portrait is from the above

TV21 60 pp.10 & 11
Jeff and Brains' portraits are from the above

TV21 60 p.12
TB1 comes from the above

Only the brave, George Medal and Frank Bellamy

After his successful run illustrating a full colour double-page spread on Field Marshall Montgomery in Eagle, Bellamy created 6 single black and white page stories in the Eagle series "Only the brave". His episodes ran from Eagle volume 13:33 to 13:38 with dates 18th August 1962 to 22nd September 1962.

Background to the series: Only the brave told the true life stories of recipients of the George Medal (as opposed to the George Cross) and the British Empire Medal. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the George Medal which was "instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI". I re-read the stories for this blog and was amazed how moving they are after all these years and how Bellamy managed to fit excitement and pathos in the series taking only one page! Bellamy illustrated part of the covers of the 2 Eagles in which he did his first 2 black & white pages. The cover at that time was divided up in illustrative panels. For the curious, this is directly before the Eagle decided to create single image covers of racing drivers "Kings of the road". The name is not to confused with the exciting Gerry Haylock drawn series - but I digress!)

Which names are covered by Eagle?
No. 24 Flt Sgt John Goldsmith I February 1941 Flight Sergeant John Goldsmith was driving his ambulance when he spotted a plane in difficulty. He sprang to the rescue of the pilot stuck in the wreckage despite the danger of a likely fuel tank explosion

No. 25 John Edwards John Edwards, a bank manager in Birmingham, stopped a robbery in his bank, facing up to two masked men. "After the gunmen had stood trail the judge left his bench to congratulate Mr. Edwards"
No. 26 Lilan Daka in 1958, a Ngomi tribesman in Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) rushes headlong into a hut where a woman is screaming, as a lion heads towards her baby. He forgets that he has not loaded his rifle yet fights the lion bear-handed

No. 27 Malcolm Bignall In June 1957 Bignall drove a 50 ton transporter (with a tank on board) for the Royal Army Service Corp through the towns and villages of Hampshire. The brakes failed on a hill and he was heading for Hurstbourne Tarrant where villagers were unaware what was coming. Despite personally being injured as the transporter's flywheel hit him he managed to steer the transporter and tank into a nearby field and was awarded a British Empire Medal

No. 28 PC Verth of Manchester P.C. Archibald Verth of Manchester stops a robbery in a gunsmiths and is awarded a BEM. (see the Third Supplement the the London Gazette Fri 23rd May 1958 for further details - or read the Eagle!)

No. 29 PC Tom Young P.C. Tom Young hangs onto a car when he discovers a petrol thief. He's taken for a ride on the bonnet and travels at 70 miles per hour (could cars go that fast before 1962?) Eventually the car runs out of petrol and Young chases the criminal. Later he too is awarded the British Empire Medal

These were the reprinted:

1. WHAM #95 (09/04/1966) "World of Adventure" Bomb Burglar (PC Verth of Manchester)
2. WHAM #96 (16/04/1966) "World of Adventure" Death ride (PC Tom Young)
3. LOOK AND LEARN #545 (24/06/1972) - 549 (22/07/1972) titled the series as Bravest of the Brave

• #545 - "Lionheart" (Lilan Daka) (24 June 1972, p.18)
• #546  - "Crash Landing" (John Goldsmith) (1 July 1972, p.18)
• #548  - "Runaway Tank" (Col M Bignall)  (15 July 1972, p.18)
• #549  - "Maniac Bomber" (P C Verth)  (22 July 1972, p.32)

Baked Beans and Bellamy

Steve Holland forwarded a piece of information which reminded me to post this picture. I had always listed Countdown as being the earliest copy of the advert for Crosse & Blackwell Baked Beans, but Steve has trumped me

Look and Learn 485, dated 1st May 1971 has the wonderful piece by Bellamy

© Look and Learn Magazine Ltd

Bellamy produced a lovely clear picture of knights in battle to illustrate the free pictures (on the rear of the wrappers)for the series "Life as it was 600 years ago". I can't personally remember seeing the wrappers, but feel that C&B beans were too expensive for my family at that time!

I've added large scans on the Advertising page of the website, as usual click on the Note



If you spot an earlier appearance I'd love to know

Don Harley and Frank Bellamy

The latest edition of the fantastic glossy magazine Spaceship Away (number 17, Spring 2009) has just been released. I got a surprise when it popped through the letter box and I found, not only Mike Noble's excellent centrespread, but also an article mentioning Frank Bellamy.
Don Harley is well known in UK comics for having drawn many famous strips at the time Bellamy was alive but the most famous was his time with the Frank Hampson studio (and after) on Dan Dare.

In this article Harley shares amusing anecdotes about his time with Bellamy, but the highlight is the drawing, in colour, of Watson, Harley and Bellamy, with Bellamy showing the cover he's produced for Eagle January 1960. Dan Dare is being chased by a missile whilst flying his spaceship Anastasia at breakneck speed. The two pages of the article are reproduced below with permission. Please do NOT reproduce them without getting Rod's permission - tempting though it is! The quality of the scans does not do the magazine justice - get an original magazine!





Thanks to Don Harley for sharing these memories - I'd love more Don! - and to Rod Barzilay for his producing this brilliant magazine



Where can you get it? Run, don't walk to Spaceship Away's website and spend your money to support Rod - he might even break even one day!

Frank Bellamy and Letraset transfers

LETRASET

Letraset's  Space Adventure Transfers

 None the of the above is Bellamy's artwork, but he did do the advertising artwork for the Space Adventures which I know appeared in TV21 and also Smash comic around October 1969 (a Christmas stocking filler?). Here's Bellamy's artwork and obviously the advert with Bellamy's art appeared in lots of UK comics at the time and not just TV21, it was just convenient to list that as I can say with authority it was the first TV21 appearance of the advert!

TV21 #242 the last issue before joining Joe 90

If you follow the links on his site you'll browse through a load of memories - if you're my age - which have sunk down in the brainpan, but have been quickly re-awakened! To save you time here's the link to the actual contents of this particular Action Transfer set.

Dean, the owner of the - the defunct - 7 Wonders site gave me permission to share images with you. As his site is now down I'm uploading what was there, none of which are Bellamy's artwork.  Read more about Letraset here

Tom Vinelott let me know:

Just to let you know that all Dean's Letraset scans on Seven Wonders moved over to Action-Transfers.com many months ago, so any links you may have on your site (I only checked a couple) will now be pointing to the wrong page.

 

Tom Vinelott's site 

 

Various items

I have had several emails from my kind friend Richard Sheaf since I started this blog. I'm trying in this email to let you know about changes and scans I have added to the Frank Bellamy site as a result, as well as some general tidying up.

MOVED:

• From Articles to Advertising - Comic Media News No 25 Mar-Apr 1976 with scan in the Note This is the black & white advert for Comicon '76. But interestingly this advert appears cropped from the 1975 event poster which I have added too
• Deleted the entry on the Advertising page to my guess work on BOAC and added full entry to 'Welcome Aboard' in the Magazine page as outlined in my previous blog entry
  

ADDED:

• Added to Advertising Comic Media News No. 21 plus scan of the (B&W plus red) poster for Comicon '75
• Added to Books Two romance novel covers (with thanks to Steve Holland) - glad they're out in the open now
• Added FB's complete adventures of King Arthur to the Books page