Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Doomsmen

J191 - The Doomsmen

UPDATE: £168 with 14 bids (24 Mar, 2012) 

'Tweedacademy' is selling another Garth original and it looks to be beautifully preserved with a lovely portrait of Garth's looking surprised. It comes from the story - yet to be reprinted in the Daily Mirror -  "The Doomsmen", where Garth tackles humanoid looking robots. It looks to be in excellent condition with the usual beautifully clear line work. The seller says:

A wonderful example of a character study of our time travelling hero Garth, from the story entitled 'The Doomsmen' published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1975. This strip (J191) is actually the last episode of the story, before we moved onto the magnificent 'The Bubble Man' (being reprinted in The Daily Mirror as we speak). It shows Garth, much to the amusement of ourselves and Professor Lumière (did David Suchet read Garth I wonder?) being taken aback by the forward nature of the young lady. I'm reminded of Bellamy's remark in the highly enlightening interview in Fantasy Advertiser International, that 'sometimes as an artist you find yourself captured looking for an expression in the mirror'. The last panel of this strip 'is' Bellamy to my mind. What do you think?

I'd agree - I can just see Bellamy, who we know, like most artists, used a mirror to get just the right expression, acting the part he drew.

The opening bid is 1p and the auction ends 24 March 2012and I'll update this page with the sale price

Below is a scan of the last three parts of the story with a beautiful Bellamy explosion, for your enjoyment.

© Daily Mirror

Garth reprints

The reason I wanted to do a blog post on Garth reprints is primarily because I noticed that someone who has been kind to me in the past and who could use a little financial help himself, is selling several of his collection that I thought I'd highlight.

If you visit eBay <http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/jumpmybones/m.html?item=320864038834&viewitem=&_trksid=p4340.l2562> you'll see some of the Daily Strips reprints of Garth which were produced by the All Devon Comic Collectors Club. They are particularly clear reproductions so worth considering purchasing. He also has the reprint in full colour of the strip Montgomery of Alamein which ran in Eagle from volume 13:10 - 13:27 (10 March 1962 -7 July 1962). This is unlikely to be reprinted any time soon due to licensing costs so head over to eBay and bid. While there grab the RSS feed at the bottom of the page and add it in your favourite way to a reader or Favorite toolbar etc so you can see what else comes up from this seller.

I don't usually highlight such sales, normally sticking to just auctions of original artwork, but felt that this needed highlighting and it gave me the opportunity to thank my friend and to mention other reprints.

For those who didn't know, Garth was beautifully reprinted in Menomonee Falls Gazette and during Bellamy's lifetime. He even wrote to the guys who produced the fan reprint

MFG 67

I noticed recently that someone in India is posting Hindi reprints of Garth - shows how far he travelled and how widely Bellamy's Garth is known. The quality of paper in India has always been of a pulp unbleached nature - thus the pink hue.

Ghost Town

People of the Abyss

And don't forget to follow the current coloured reprints in the Daily Mirror. For a listing of reprints (excluding the Hindi ones as my knowledge is very thin on this), see the website listing

Les Lilley and Frank Bellamy

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph 17th July 1990

Richard Sheaf has once again alerted me to a tiny corner of 'Bellamyland'!

He was reading a copy of Les Lilley's book "It's all there in black and white", Lilley's account of the creation and history of the Cartoonist's Club and noticed that a piece by Bellamy will have been exhibited alongside some of Prince Philip's personal collection of cartoons.

The British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent has an archive of the cartoonist's 'Giles' papers in which mention is indeed made of Prince Philip's loan of materials for the exhibition which took place on 2 August 1977 on board the "Tattershall Castle" - read on to find out more, in Lilley's account. UPDATE: The floating gallery had other exhibitions and the Ally Sloper launch took place on 1 September1976  - see Ally Sloper #2 for details

I have discovered that this book is online

The Cartoonist's Club says:

The Cartoonists' Club is the UK's oldest and largest organisation for cartoonists. Established in 1960, [...] celebrating [their] 50th anniversary in April 2010 and plans are in progress to continue and expand our primary role which is to promote friendship and interaction between cartoonists via the medium of events, meetings and social gatherings both in our original home, London, and throughout the United Kingdom. Visit our website and say hello.

They have kindly shared -in full -  this witty account online and you can read about the exhibition on pages 55 onwards in Chapter 10:

Click on image to see publication

Lilley, of course, was a popular writer of cartoon gags as well as comic strips in national newspapers. His list is too big to do justice here but amongst others, "Tiffany Jones" for the Daily Mail, and the sexy science fiction strip "Scarth" for The Sun, "The Seekers" drawn by John M. Burns in the defunct 'Daily Sketch' and Les Lilley also wrote "The Sun's Whodunnit Strip" in the 1980s with Pat Williams illustrating. The Vision On site (by Ralph Morris) has an interesting perspective on Lilley for those old enough to remember the Tony Hart programme. His obituary in the Independent is still available online.

Now, if you're thinking this is a tenuous link, read the obituary which mentions,

Later he was instrumental in the creation of the Society for Strip Illustration, formed by a small group of professional strip cartoonists including the brilliant "Garth" artist Frank Bellamy, who died before he could take the post of chairman.

Do we have any clues what the piece by Bellamy that was exhibited?  No, I'm afraid not. If anyone can help, please get in contact. The header piece above is to show that Bellamy started his first continuing public work career in cartooning!

The Cloud of Balthus starts in the Daily Mirror today

Martin Baines let me know that the next reprinted and coloured Frank Bellamy Garth strip is "The Cloud of Balthus" starting today in the Daily Mirror

Wednesday 22 February 2012 © Daily Mirror

Once again he has been really kind and sent me the original digital copy for you to see. Interestingly, I had never noticed the fact that Bellamy has almost exactly the same pose for Lee Wan, the girl on the right, in both tiers. I must be kind and point out that we would never have seen them published like this, one above the other, as they were printed one tier each day back in October 1971. And as a friend said "well, that shows his continuity was good"!

I love some particular bits of the art in this story, you'll see undersea and space scenes as well as, if you can believe this, an explosion in black and white, in the original that takes up most of the strip for that day, oh, and the usual pretty woman for Garth! Ah, how times haven't changed! I have no direct evidence that Jim Edgar, the writer knew anything about art, but the name 'Balthus' may have been inspired by the artist by the same nickname.

This story ran originally from 12 October 1971 to 27 January 1972 (Numbers E237-F23) and has been reprinted quite a few times, but you won't hear me complaining: The Daily Mirror Book of Garth, 1975; Garth Book One: The cloud of Balthus Titan Books, 1984  and in the fan publication Menomonee Falls Gazette Numbers 52 - 67

Did you catch the visual clue in yesterday's advert?

Wolfman of Ausensee ends today

Wolfman of Ausensee ends today and I have personally found the colouring has added quite a bit to an already exciting story. Martin Baines, the colourist, has added to the odd number of tiers by creating a collage from the next story. Tomorrow I'll show you what it is but play along for fun and see if you recognise the story. I see that today's newspaper actually tells you the name of the story - so Martin's suggestion below has changed.....but let's leave this as a mystery till tomorrow!

Here is the last episode and the advert - many thanks once again Martin.See you all tomorrow!

Tuesday 21 February 2012 © Daily Mirror

Original art for sale - Thunderbirds - at Comic Book Auctions

Lot #156

The latest piece of art to come up for sale by Frank Bellamy is from TV21 number 232 and comes from the story which begins in space with a faulty rocket which plummets towards San Francisco, but is finally diverted by Thunderbird 3. It heads towards into the uninhabited Manafu Atoll where it crashed and then we see the atoll blow up due to an active volcano.TB1 patrols the area and discovers the chain reaction is affecting another island where natives are living. To stop the chain reaction - which might still affect San Francisco, Brains has a plan.

The single page is for sale with an estimate of £1,500-£2,000 and the auction ends Tuesday 13 March. Comic Book Auctions' description:

Thunderbirds original artwork (1969) drawn and signed by Frank Bellamy from TV21 No 232 Alan, Virgil and Gordon take off in Thunderbird 2 as Scott nears the volcanic bomb-zone in Thunderbird 4 Bright, fresh Pelikan inks on board. 19 x 15 ins £1,500-2,000

As usual I'll update with the sold price when the auction ends

UPDATE: Winning bid incl. 10% Buyer's Premium: £1,925 (March 2012)

Meanwhile enjoy the two pages as published in TV21 Number 232

TV21 #232 Part A

TV21 #232 Part B

Original Art: Garth on eBay - The Beautiful People

J287 The Beautiful People

The latest piece of art by Frank Bellamy to be made available for sale on eBay shows Garth climbing a balcony - after leaving a party to apprehend the thugs who have gatecrashed the party. This comes from the recently reprinted story "The Beautiful People". It looks to be in excellent condition with the usual beautifully clear line work and those great Bellamy 'swirl' effects

The opening bid will be £90 and the auction ends 19 February

I have scanned below my copy of the re-coloured reprint from last year for you to see more detail when clicking!

Reprinted in the Daily Mirror 5 August 2011

UPDATE: Sold for £90.00 (February 2012) with 1 bid