Facebook group for the Garth newspaper strip

I think it's about time I mentioned Ant Jones' Facebook page which follows all things Garth. At the moment he is linking daily to the Daily Mirror's reprint of Garth by Frank Bellamy, but the FB (!) page has lots of really interesting versions of Bellamy including Bellamy's Garth in Hindi! Its brief is wider than my interest as it covers the whole history of the Garth strip.

I personally have not jumped into the "Facebook waters" in any depth but skirt around the fringes, but this is one place worth lingering. I generally watch new developments on the Net and sign up an account (using Frank Bellamy's name) in order to see whether I'll do anything with it at a later date. Facebook demanded too much time so I left it there. However it's worth dipping your toes in and visiting Ant's page just to browse the images by clicking on one and then 'scrolling' through.

To wet your appetite here's a piece from the Women of Galba story, coloured by John Ridgway and used with his permission

© Daily Mirror

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

Latest Garth story today in the Daily Mirror: People of the Abyss

Today (Monday 16 April 2012) the new Garth story starts and once again I have to say thank you to Martin Baines, whose colouring I'm enjoying a lot, for sending me the new coloured strip

I've been on holiday for a week so am still catching up with hundreds of emails, RSS feeds etc etc so I'll make this quick - after all you're here for Frank Bellamy artwork not my ramblings!

Martin sent this to me to let me know that the 'Cloud of Balthus' story was ending and a new story starting

© Daily Mirror

and then sent today's episode which when enlarged looks brilliant.

© Daily Mirror

For those who want to know, Frank Bellamy illustrated the Jim Edgar script "People of the Abyss" between the 7 September1972 - 23 December 1972 (Numbers F211-F303) in the Daily Mirror. The story has been reprinted before in  The Daily Mirror Book of Garth, 1976; the Titan reprint series, that was unfortunately never completed, Garth Book Two: The women of Galba, 1985 and also in the fan newspaper strip reprints Menomonee Falls Gazette #98 (29 October 1973) - #114 (18 February 1974).

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Bubble Man & Angels of Hell's Gap & The Doomsmen

Just like a London bus, you wait for  a while and then several come along at once.

I have updated the recent sales including a phenomenal amount for a Garth original. Are we seeing rising interest?

The three pieces on sale this week on eBay are care of the seller "muddyfunster2001" (also known as Chris Martin of Burgess Hill) and they look to be in very good condition. Chris let me know how he bought them:

"Rather boringly I picked them up at a local antique market from a dealer who didn't really know what he was selling. I used to read Garth (and numerous other Bellamy illustrated strips) as a schoolboy in the '70s and immediately took a fancy to them so I bought them on impulse" They are:

• The Doomsmen #J139   UPDATE: £227 - 11 bids - April 2012
• The Bubble Man # J239 UPDATE: £170 - 10 bids - April 2012
• Angels of Hell's Gap #J56 UPDATE: £180 - 15 bids - April 2012

They all start with £99 starting bid and are already attracting interest.

The Doomsmen #J139

Every time I see a woman sitting/standing like this, drawn by the master I am reminded of the lovely Nancy Bellamy, Frank's wife. She was a great model and very proud of her figure even into her 80s!

The Bubble man J239

He also knew how to make aliens look very alien. Is it a frog, a butterfly, a hybrid between the two?

Angels #J56

I won't bother repeating myself! Enjoy!

I will update this entry when the auction finishes in the same way I have for the recent ones

Frank Bellamy overseas

 I've recently done some work on my list of reprints of Bellamy's work abroad. I'm OK with French, German and Spanish (the latter not so much) but some of the work I have committed to the webpage could use some help.

Way back at the start of this blog Alberto Soares helped by providing a list of Portuguese reprints and a wonderful site helped me to provide some covers to the comics reprinted there.

I also recently received a request for some help from a Professor in Serbia of all places. Glad to help when I can, the emailer responded to the favour by supplying me with details of Bellamy's work in the former Yugoslavia which was the prompt to tidy up the overseas listing.

Shown above are a selection of foreign language (and Aussie!) pieces, take a further browse over at my overseas listing on the website

Shameless plug

Just a quick plug for Geoff West and friends at Illustration Art Gallery. They have some new Frank Bellamy artwork which you have to see to believe......

Unfortunately I still have a mortgage on the house, but some of you may like to view these for free on his website.

Original Art: Garth on eBay - Bubble Man & Manhunt

J197 The Bubble Man

'Tweedacademy' is selling a copy of one of the Bubble Man strips as well as one from the last Garth story Bellamy illustrated Manhunt 

Again they look beautifully preserved as the piece that has just finished on eBay, fetching a nice £168 does too.

The seller says of the Manhunt strip:

This is from 'The Bubble Man' (J197) published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1975 and being re-run currently in said paper. Here we have a vibrant action piece with Garth about to be kidnapped by the eponymous Bubble Man's henchbugs. 'Space Bugs!' cries our hero. I'd be a tad more salty if I were in his position! Bellamy again makes a virtue of the outlandishness of the creatures and their scale shows that even Garth would be hard pressed to take on two at a time, even with crow bar (they don't fight fair anyway). He'll get the better of them before the story is done I'll wager :)

Good example of Bellamy techniques in one panel!

UPDATE: £181 with 17 bids (March 2012) 

Tweedacademy obviously read too many Stan's Soapbox columns in the sixties Marvel Comics - where hyperbole was always under done! But looking at the close up of the last panel, it does show those famous 'Bellamy swirls', and his lovely lettering in the balloon - where usually Jim Allard lettered the other speech balloons.

K247 Manhunt

The second piece is from Manhunt. This is the last story that Bellamy illustrated and  the seller says:

I believe this is one of the last strips Bellamy did (strip number K247) before his untimely death, from the story 'Manhunt' published in The Daily Mirror newspaper in 1976. This particular work is, in essence, a complete panel with all the narrative complete in the transition from the aircraft in cloudscape through to the amazing work on the eyes as our protagonist (plus, of course, charming companion) dissolve to another dimension in mid flight. Remarkable stuff. A true 'Bellamy' effect and very poignant in retrospect as we know what was to come.

This is indeed a beautiful example of Bellamy's Garth work. Tweedacademy is right in saying it was "one of the last" but in fact Bellamy's last signed strip is K254 (25 Oct 1976), however the credit above the strip as printed in the paper is Martin Asbury who stepped wonderfully into Bellamy's shoes. The crude copy below is taken from the Mirror's online database, but it shows the credit above the strip.
UPDATE: £315 with 39 bids (March 2012) - a phenomenal amount for a Garth!
 

Bellamy's last Garth strip # K254

And lastly a clearer idea of how the art changed from Bellamy to Asbury can be seen in this only reprint of Manhunt, taken from Mike Higgs' compilation Mirror Classic Cartoon Collection, London: Hawk 1998. Visit Martin's site to see his work since Garth as well as the opportunity to buy original art including, yes you guessed it, Garth strips

The last 2 Garth strips by Frank Bellamy & the first 3 by Martin Asbury