In AUGUST 2014 Egmont plan on publishing reprints of some Frank Bellamy Thunderbird strips. Those who have the Thunderbirds the Comic Collection hardback might find these are duplications, but we'll have to wait and see.
The above is borrowed and re-purposed from Bear Alley where Steve Holland keeps us up to date with forthcoming publications.
I've grabbed the covers from Amazon as Egmont don't appear to have any information on their site!
Each volume appears to have 48 pages and cost £6.99 each - so look as if they will be similar to the Ravette volumes of the 1990s.
Cover from Thunderbirds #13 (4 April 1992)
Originally published in
TV CENTURY 21 141 - 146 "The Earthquake Maker"
TV CENTURY 21 147 - 154 "Visitor from space"
TV CENTURY 21 155 - 161 "The Antarctic menace"
Cover from Thunderbirds #5 (14 Dec 1991)
Originally published in:
TV CENTURY 21 162 - 169 "Brains is Dead"
TV CENTURY 21 173 - 178 "The Olympic Plot"
TV CENTURY 21 170 - 172 "Space Cannon"
TV CENTURY 21 184 - 187 "Devil's Crag"
Cover from Thunderbirds #8 (25 Jan 1992)
Originally published in:
TV CENTURY 21 188 - 191 "Eiffel Tower demolition"
TV CENTURY 21 192 - 196 "Nuclear threat"
TV CENTURY 21 197 - 202 "Hawaiian lobster menace"
TV CENTURY 21 203 - 208 "The Time machine"
Cover from Thunderbirds #11 (7 Mar 1992)
Originally published in:
TV CENTURY 21 209 - 217 "Zoo Ship"
TV CENTURY 21 227 - 234 "Chain reaction"
TV CENTURY 21 235 - 238 "Jungle adventure" - This will only be the second time "Jungle Adventure" has been reprinted - the first being Thunderbirds comic in numbers 38-41, 1993. This last story did not appear in the Thunderbirds collection mentioned in October 2013
Cover from Thunderbirds #22 (8 Aug 1992)
TV CENTURY 21 218 - 226 "City of doom"
and the last two were illustrated by John Cooper - not Bellamy.
All the above is 'guessed' from the story names mentioned on the covers and as experience tells me that could all change! I'll keep you up to date as I learn anything.
Be prepared for a lot of dates, links and assumptions and also a long read! Get a cup of tea and settle down for the story of Frank Bellamy and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
TV21 #86
In the interview (reprinted in full most recently in the Book Palace's excellent Frank Bellamy's Heros the Spartan) that was conducted by Dez Skinn and Dave Gibbons on 12 May 1973 the interviewers asked:
STILL [talking about] DESIGN, THERE WERE SOME VERY BELLAMY-LOOKING SPACE HELMETS IN STANLEY KUBRICK'S "2001" QUITE A FEW YEARS LATER [than Dan Dare which Bellamy drew from August 1959 to July 1960] FB: Oh, yes. I was amazed to see the advertising promotions for "2001" on the underground, with the angular sort of visors I'd used back in '59. DO YOU THINK IT WAS PURE COINCIDENCE? FB: Could be. (Laughter) I SAY THIS BECAUSE YOU MENTIONED ONCE THAT THEY GOT ALL THE COMICS AND S-F MAGAZINES TOGETHER, TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY IDEAS SUITABLE FOR "2001" FB: Yes. I understand they went into it so deeply that they wouldn't turn their noses up at any small article, strip, picture or anything to do with science fiction. They really went to town on it.
Reading this it's reasonable to assume that Kubrick's production team used Dan Dare's helmets as inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. However I always had a few problems with this.
Firstly the Dan Dare helmets (designed by Frank Hampson, Dare's creator, and team) were more a vertical rectangle with a 'u'-shaped front (see below) and Bellamy's revamp - asked for by management when Hamspon vacated the strip he created - had a spherical shape with a prominent oxygen tube at the front (and his Spacefleet logo).
Hampson's helmet Eagle Vol3:13
Bellamy's design Eagle Vol11:21
Secondly the timing of the creation of 2001: A Space Odyssey doesn't help the argument.It was February 1965 that MGM agreed to "fund the production of Journey beyond the stars" as the film was originally called.(Krämer, Peter (2010) 2001: A Space Odyssey (BFI Film Classics) London: BFI Publishing, p.31). The site that lists interviews by Kubrick list the famous one reprinted many times by Bernstein in New Yorker dated April 1965.
I did send an enquiry (back in 2011) to the Stanley Kubrick Archive held at the University of the Arts London. An archivist kindly responded :
There isn't any
mention about Frank Bellamy and Dan Dare in the Kubrick Archive catalogue. There
is a file for product development in 2001: A Space Odyssey entitled 'Helmets'
containing correspondence and photographs of designs of the helmets for use with
the space suits in the film. The photographs of helmets are from Hamilton
Standard, a division of United Aircraft Corporation, with their sketches, and
some photocopies of images from NASA of astronauts in space suits. There is also
a plan from Hamilton Standard of 'Proposed MGM Suit'.
This is the only
entry for Helmets in the catalogue therefore I believe they were the final
designs for the film. However you never know! They might have thought of
Bellamy's designs but were not put into the paperwork generated in the
film.
Too true! You can see the full catalogue entry here:
Correspondence and telegrams between Roger
Caras and Stanley Kubrick and others discussing the obtaining and
designing of the helmets for use with the space suits in the film. It
includes several photographs of helmets from Hamilton Standard,
division of United Aircraft Corporation, also a
quotation from Hamilton Standard for the provision of simulated
pressure garments, with an attached sketch of the same, photocopies of
images from NASA of astronauts in space suits, also a plan from
Hamilton Standard of 'Proposed MGM Suit', space suit for use in the
film.
Date
11 Sep 1965- 26 Nov 1965
Caras, mentioned in this record was vice president of Stanley Kubrick's production company, Hawk Films, but in another piece on the web Allan Grimmell Seibert is mentioned as designing Nasa's astronaut helmets - and he worked for Hamilton Standard. So lots of people involved and inspiring one another but where does that leave us?
I received an email from a friend who is a fan of Gerry Anderson and she mentioned that Andrew Probert saw some TV21s that David Power had and the former commented that the helmets Bellamy drew in a particular story looked very much like 2001 helmets. David also emailed me about this and set off this train of thought.
Still with me?
In TV21 #84 (published date August 27 2066) we see the Thunderbirds strip with Alan and Brains in their International Rescue helmets on the Moon. The helmets are spherical with an attachment at the front- similar to the Dan Dare helmets designed by Bellamy
TV21 #84
TV21 #84
In the later issue #86 we see clearly that Bellamy shows helmets in the same manner - spherical - see the image at the top of this article. In TV21 #88 we see the rounded helmets too
TV21 #88
However, it was David that gave me the bigger clue. Later in the same Thunderbirds story - a fan favourite - where there is excessive activity from the Sun affecting the Earth, Brains and Alan save the day but are blown from the Sun by the resultant explosion and 'fall' to Venus in Thunderbird 3. They sink into a sulphur lake and decide the only way out is to don their "anti-chemical suits" and leave through an airlock.
TV21 #92 dated Oct 22 2066
TV21 #92 dated Oct 22 2066
Admittedly these are 'anti-chemical suits' and not spacesuits, but the look of the helmets is so unusual and close to 2001 and so different from other helmets Bellamy did, it makes me wonder. The publication date of this episode was 22 October 2066 - and we know that Bellamy (and other artists) would have had approximately a 6 week lead time, it's not unreasonable therefore to think this was created around mid-September 1966. So who inspired who or is this just serendipity?
I was very fortunate to discover a documentary online - a really interesting 23 minutes - and it tells us a lot about the helmet design - in passing.
The documentary - below- (at 5'56") shows both Harry Lange and Fred Ordway discussing the scientific basis for the coming film.
Harry Lange and Fred Ordway discussing the 2001 helmet
The whole of this 1966 documentary, produced by the Thomas Craven Film Corporation for Look magazine in the USA can be found on Youtube (embedded below)
Gary Lockwood being dressed during filming in (some time) in 1965/6 - note helmet exists already
There are many interesting characters in the 2001 creation story.
Harry Lange's obituary ("Harry Lange." Times [London, England] 2 July 2008: 52. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.) states:
"In a plot worthy of a James Bond novel Harry Lange escaped across the border from communist East Germany into the West under cover of night and wound up working at NASA on ambitious futuristic space projects with a former Nazi rocket scientist"
He then moved from a
job at NASA to work on production design for Kubrick and went on to
design some of Star Wars, and Dark Crystal. Kubrick called 2001 a
"non-verbal experience"and it seems clear he wanted specialist
designers to show - rather than just make audible - the likely scenario of future space travel and Lange is sure to have had a hand in the choice of design.
Fred Ordway: Which brings me to another important aspect of my work on 2001: A Space Odyssey: coordinating the physical construction of approved designs. This meant a considerable amount of travel inside and outside of metropolitan London. Thus, we had our space helmets built, from our designs, at the MV Aviation Co., Ltd [sic]of Maidenhead; our spacesuits at the Air Sea Rescue Division, Victoria Rubber Works of the Frankenstein Group, Ltd. of Manchester; and our space pod interiors -- instrumentation, controls, displays, etc. -- at Hawker Siddley Dynamics at Stevanage not far from our Borehamwood location.
- Taken from: 2001: A Space Odyssey in Retrospect
by Frederick I. Ordway III on the Stanley Kubrick Site [underlining mine. NOTE MV Aviation was actually ML Aviation]
Ordway records that he started work in England on 11 August 1965 and we know that Lange and Ordway had been working on designs in New York before heading to England.
He also says: My final principal activity involved attending to, escorting, and briefing an unending array of visitors. These included reporters, scientists, engineers, dignitaries, friends, just about anyone interested in our progress. We were particularly pleased when, on the 25th of September 1965, the director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, George Mueller, and astronaut Deke Slayton arrived at the studios.
- Taken from: 2001: A Space Odyssey in Retrospect
by Frederick I. Ordway III on the Stanley Kubrick Site [underlining mine].
Reading an article reproduced from the Maidenhead Advertiser we have several potential names involved in the eventual design and build at MLA, as it was known, so once again no certain names!
So where does this leave us? Did Bellamy 're-purpose' the 2001 design or were the 2001 team inspired by the artist of many space adventures? It seems obvious from a cursory reading that the publicity machine for the film geared up a notch in 1966 but was happening in late 1965 and therefore it's not unlikely that the helmet design might have appeared in a magazine in late 1965- early 1966, but which magazine? I don't know. Bellamy subscribed to many himself presumably for reference material but none of them included contemporary features - to my knowledge. So there you have it. Over to you to add to this fascinating trip down 'Nostalgia Lane'.
Lee Sullivan recently on Facebook, showed us his studio shelves which included these shots, among others:
Footnote:
Would you believe in my hunt for information I found a webpage on the restoration of the original helmet used in 2001. Unfortunately the site - despite its specialist theme - had no mention of Dan Dare, Bellamy, Thunderbirds or TV21.
Keir Dullea is reunited with his red helmet after 30 years
From:http://www.2001spacesuit.com/Events.html
I noticed that Heritage Auctions (who surely must be the biggest auction site for comics and comic art!) have an auction on which includes 2 Frank Bellamy Garth strips
The auction lot (#12524) is titled: "Frank Bellamy, Tony Weare, and Jenny Butterworth Comic Strip Daily Original Art Group (1969).... (Total: 4 Original Art)in the Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121418
The pieces are described as:
Frank Bellamy, Tony Weare, and Jenny Butterworth Comic Strip
Daily Original Art Group (1969). This lot of four daily strips
includes two consecutive Garth strips by Frank Bellamy
(11-27 and 11-28-72), one Tiffany Jones strip by Jenny
Butterworth (12-10-69), and one Matt Marriott strip
(undated). Ink on Bristol board and illustration board, the image
areas range from 15" x 4.25" to 20.5" x 5.5". The art is generally
in Very Good condition.
This lot is in: 1 - Comics & Comic Art Session
(Lots 12001-12619) - 10:00 PM Central Time, Sunday, May 4, 2014.
(Internet bidding closes at the time listed for each session. There is no live session.)
I have never bid on Heritage items so can't guide you regarding the procedure but their help files are excellent and I have been grateful to them for years allowing us to get large scans of the world's most beautiful comic art
Just for fun, here's the other art included in this lot:
Matt Marriott by Tony Weare
There is a connection between Bellamy and Tony Weare albeit small!
Tiffany Jones by Pat Tourret & Jenny Butterworth
And lastly if you search for Bellamy in past auctions you'll see the average price for a Garth sale (what's an average Garth?) is $199 but obviously this lot of 4 mixed pieces will muddy the water somewhat. Also there appears to be an inconsistency in how Heritage judges a piece needing "adult verification" to view! But just get an account and you can see even those ...as long as you're an adult!
SUMMARY
WHERE?: Heritage Sunday Internet Comics Auction #121418 Lot#12524
An email on a mailing list made me have a look at my copies of High Command published by Dragon's Dream.
High Command - Art by Frank Bellamy
Dragon's Dream, the publisher, was founded by Roger Dean (the artist behind, too many to mention, album covers and many wonderfully strange landscapes - my favourites were the Greenslade covers). Dean's website contains his biography as well as some dazzling artwork. The history of Dragon's Dream is explained here: "Dragon's Dream, a specialist publishing house devoted primarily to UK fantasy illustrators founded by Dean and his brother Martyn Dean; it also published under the Paper Tiger imprint. The brothers later sold the company, but remained involved in its productions."from SFE, the Encyclopedia of Science-Fiction
One date given for Dean's 'selling' is 1981 which coincidentally is the date this book was published. I own both a hardback with publishing credits in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht (south-east of Rotterdam) and a paperback.
Hardback
The paperback has no publisher on the title page, but mentions the Dragon's Dream Book was distributed by WHS Distributors. Could this mean W H Smith, the UK newsagent, had an arrangement with the company for a quantity which it sold in its chain of shops? This sort of co-publishing was not unusual in the 1980s when I was a bookseller. It made for a cheaper print run knowing a certain quantity of sales could be guaranteed (into Smith's bookshops).
Paperback
I have also found a Dutch version on the Internet but don't know any more than that. the title has been half translated. I presume editing all the captions and word balloons would have been too prohibitive, but if anyone in the Netherlands can tell me if the comics in this were in English or Dutch I'd be grateful.
UPDATE (08 April 2014) John Wigmans (who helped me with the article on Bellamy and Basil Reynolds' work for Disney), has pointed out that auction sites in the Netherlands have often got copies for sale and that the interior was indeed completely re-lettered inside.
Dutch edition: Der verhalen van Sir Winston Churchill
en General Montgomery
An interior page of the Dutch version (taken from an auction site)
For your pleasure I have reproduced below some example artwork
Robert Fitzgerald's introduction
Churchill introduction (by Fitzgerald?)
Churchill
Interestingly this last episode of the original printing in the Eagle comic (seen below) was never included in the hardback reprint by Hulton in 1958 when the series ended nor here in the Dragon's Dream production.
The missing portrait
The portrait could have gone here!
Field Marshall Montgomery introduction (by Fitzgerald?)
Editors who gave Bellamy the centrespread of their comics were wise people. His complete ownership of the double page is demonstrated nowhere better in my opinion than here (well, maybe in the Heros The Spartan story!). The original series were published in Eagle:
EAGLE Vol. 8:40 - 8:52, 9:1 - 9:36. (04/10/57 -28/12/57, 3/1/58 - 6/9/58) "The Happy Warrior" by Clifford Makins
EAGLE Vol. 13:10 - 13:27 (10/03/62 -07/07/62)
"Montgomery of Alamein" by Clifford Makins
UPDATE: I see the seller has reduced the price to £900 Buy It Now (27 March 2014) - sale ends 4 April
I was searching eBay and tripped over this item for sale for £1400 ('buy it now'). Why don't eBay's search alerts work properly? Seller 'fredy1237' appears as a new identity on eBay and has this rather unique piece for sale: "Frank Bellamy Original Artwork Winston Churchill Coulur [sic]Technique Experiment" . The seller states:
Original rare artwork by Frank Bellamy which is related to the Eagle As far I am unaware this is unpublished, I can provide a letter of provenance detailing how I purchased the artwork from Nancy Bellamy after Franks death. A mounted part page in original folder and mount. Folder size 50cm x 34cm
This is the first I ever heard about this. It's known that Bellamy often did a character outline for a new series and we know that he was nervous about drawing the first living personality to appear on the back page of the Eagle (in the seven year's of this feature). The feature was about Winston Churchill and called "The Happy Warrior". Maybe he felt he needed to show Marcus Morris, the editor, how his likeness of Churchill would look. The seller says this is a colour experiment and this actually lends authenticity as this was Bellamy's first work in colour for the Eagle comic, although this does look faded - particularly when compared to the rich colour used in the published drawings.
It is reasonable to assume that Bellamy was nervous about this commission, especially as he learned that Churchill was to get final approval (and before the comic was delivered the front cover 'Dan Dare' was removed as Churchill didn't like space adventures). Bellamy used references from the Imperial War Museum to get accuracy in weapons, uniforms etc. and found it "a real punishing job".
But if you look at the whole run of the story (from 4 October 1957 to the last episode which is often missed in the reprints, of Churchill's full face portrait (6 September 1958), you'll see Bellamy's confidence growing and his beautiful shaped panels becoming more and more like graphic designs and less like comic panels.
Episode 32
Episode 38
A recent reprint is available - I haven't yet seen a copy - of the whole Churchill saga and other repints have appeared since the first near-complete hardback reprint in 1958. Have a look at the website listing
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952]
Cover by Gilbert Dunlop
Children's Hour was broadcast from 1922 to 1964, the slim Wikipedia article
tell us. The name of the radio programme (and subsequent TV series) is
better known these days than any memories of the radio programme as is
the name 'Uncle Mac' (or to give him his real name Derek Ivor Breashur
McCulloch).
In 1951 / 1952 Bellamy was coming to the end of his Home Notes run and starting to illustrate stories for Boy's Own Paper and Gibbs tooth powder adverts which appeared in the Eagle comic. Before he took on "Monty Carstairs" for Mickey Mouse Weekly in July 1953 as a regular weekly strip we find Bellamy illustrated a story for the BBC Children's Hour Annual
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952] Page 80
Title panel illustration
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952] Page 81
Ship beached
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952] Page 82
Small plane landing
The British Library lists the BBC Children's Hour Annual as starting in 1951. This makes some sense as McCullloch resigned from the BBC in 1950 taking up a job as Children’s Editor at the News Chronicle, (1950–53) and eventually returning to the BBC to compère Children's Favourites
In the 1952 version of this annual (edited by May E. Jenkins, Head of Children's Hour at that time) Angus MacVicar compiled an interview article with Duncan Newlands, "cox'n of the Campbeltown lifeboat" and also Captain David Barclay "of the British European Airways ambulance flight at Renfrew Airport". These were part of a series called "I'm proud of my father" which, it appears, were short pieces broadcast on Children's Hour (as well as appearing here). May and Patricia are their respective daughters who help MacVicar to get their fathers onto the radio. Why? Both men are rescuers of those based in the North West of Scotland and beyond to the Western Isles.
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952] Page 83
Photos of the people mentioned
MacVicar states "Mr Churchill, in the first volume of his War memoirs, The Gathering Storm, describes how Captain Barclay was killed!" - I should think MacVicar was glad Churchill got it wrong! Barclay was the pilot in a war-time flight accident at Kirkwall and had "a slight limp to remind him of the accident".
The author also takes a friendly tone with his audience telling them what a problem travelling around Scotland to collect material is (remember this is 5 years after the War!). He proudly places his latest script in his glove compartment and Bellamy illustrates how MacVicar's car skids on an oil patch.
BBC Children's Hour Annual [1952] Page 85
Car skids and turns a somersault
MacVicar's first thought was "What if the car went on fire and [the script] was destroyed?" and he grabbed it before exiting the upside-down car. It was broadcast 6 weeks later and "few people realised how nearly it had never been broadcast"
Angus MacVicar mentions in the article his serial (presumably on Children's Hour) called Tiger Mountain and Amazon shows us pictures of covers of his later works, and the man himself. I remember reading one of his children's Science-Fiction novels when I was a kid and enjoying it, but which title is lost in the mists of time!
Bellamy's pictures here are rather bound to the time in which they appear and his style has more of his 1940s large linework than his later subtleties. However, having browsed a lot children's literature from this time I can see his work is very clear and shows kids what they need to see in the story
) that was conducted by Dez Skinn and Dave Gibbons on 12 May 1973 the interviewers asked:
shows us pictures of covers of his later works, and the man himself. I remember reading one of his children's