Frank Bellamy interview for BBC Look East and - About Anglia TV

We've just got over the excitement of the Frank Bellamy "Edition" interview and Alan has uploaded two more interviews. Alan Hayes has a website, called Hidden Tiger which will be of interest to anyone who likes 'Cult TV'.

1976 ITV: ANGLIA TV: ABOUT ANGLIA: Chris Young Interview 1976

Chris Young interviewed Frank Bellamy in Geddington where he moved to in his last year of life. Geddington is near Kettering and famous for being one of the places where Queen Eleanor's body when rested on its route to Westminster Abbey from Nottingham and subsequently it had a cross placed at the spot. It can still be seen today. If you're visiting, have a look at the Star Inn too as it appeared in one of Bellamy's "Garth" strips, "The Spanish Lady"

The interview starts with an introduction,  and leads to the interviewer Chris Young taking to Frank and seeing examples of his work. We can date the interview from the internal evidence that Bellamy has illustrated Garth for 5 years (he began in 1971).

The TRANSCRIPTION

ANNOUNCER’S INTRODUCTION

Frank Bellamy gives millions of people all over Britain a brief dose of escapism, over the Cornflakes or perhaps on the way to work. It’s his pen that creates the daily adventures of that durable veteran cartoon superman Garth, hero of a thousand adventures in the Daily Mirror. Chris Young visited Frank and Garth at their home in Kettering.

CHRIS YOUNG INTRODUCTION
For nearly 5 years, Frank Bellamy has lived every one of Garth’s extraordinary adventures, in his studio, first in his house in Surrey, now at his new home, a bungalow at Geddington near Kettering. The monsters and other baddies that Garth has done battle with, and of course beaten, were created solely by him before being committed to paper for the regular enjoyment of the Daily Mirror’s several million readers. The strip is also syndicated and is actually seen in many countries throughout the world. Frank Bellamy’s first published works were cartoons of local footballers in the Kettering Evening Telegraph. Just after the war he moved to Fleet Street, working in an advertising studio and in 1953 went freelance when he was offered the first comic strip of his very own in Mickey Mouse Weekly. Later he spent 8 years on the Eagle comic during which time he helped draw the almost legendary figure of Dan Dare. By himself, on the same comic he illustrated the entire Field Marshall Montgomery and Sir Winston Churchill stories. He’s also done regular work for the Sunday Times and the Radio Times and three years ago was judged the best foreign artist by the American Academy of Comic Book Artists. But Frank all his career had dreamt of drawing Garth a story which first appeared more than 30 years ago. Now work on the strip is a full time job, as it appears six days a week.

INTERVIEW
Chris Young: Now, looking closely at this original Garth drawing, Frank, how difficult is it to get action into such a small space?

Frank Bellamy: Well, it is very difficult because it is, as you can see, quite a small space, that’s why he’s chopped off  [a lot there] the point [here and there] for example, is to show violent action. Someone being shot instead of sagging down er…gracefully dying, being shot out of the picture you see. That’s why I have this little composition he’s forward from that I hope The same here he’s too being shot. This is violence in a western once again illustrating the…how Garth can be a detective one minute, he can be a Sheriff, he’s as a Marshall actually, the next minute in this.

CY: OK, so let’s move on, because you don’t only do Garth, in the past you have done all sorts of other things, haven’t you?

FB: Yes, this

CY: This is what?

FB: This is Thunderbirds. And this is a development of mine, to stop the usual treatment of a strip, which was picture after picture after picture, to give a composition to a complete double page spread including one frame, which is right the way across. This is showing the entrance to the Atlantic Tunnel. There’s an aircraft taking off here [an airfield]

CY: And this is all your imagination?

FB: This is purely and simply imagination and I was saying before, getting involved, feeling mentally about it, and that’s what actually makes me draw pictures in that way…

CY: It would take a long time to draw that.

FB: It would, this is a case of having to draw one of these every week, regularly.

CY: Alright , let’s look at the next one. Now we’re getting a bit more serious aren’t we?

FB: This is to show, er, heart attacks and treatment, non-photographically, purely pictorial journalism this and er..showing what happens during a heart attack. I’m afraid it’s rather a quick jump from comics. But, is exactly the same treatment, same approach on Thunderbirds, Garth or this.

CY: And that was in the Sunday Times?

FB: This was in the Sunday Times colour supplement, yes.

CY: Alright, and beneath that?

FB: In other words they accept the comic strip medium

CY: Even in a er…serious newspaper

FB: This one is the pre the first moon landing. I must tell you it’s the first strip that I have ever drawn minus balloons [WHAT?]. It would have been lovely to say I made it, [WHAT?] but it is the first time drawing a strip minus balloons and in this case for real because I’ve been drawing for years science fiction, it seems funny to draw it naturally happening.

CY: But that was done before the moon landing?

FB: This was done before the actual moon landing

CY: Were you fairly, er, accurate?

FB: All the way through, I understand. Yes.

CY: It all came true

FB: Yes. Ha ha ha !

ANNOUNCER’S ROUNDUP

The talent of one of Britain’s top illustrators Frank Bellamy

[4 minutes 38 seconds]

 

1976 BBC: LOOK EAST 9 March 1976

The second interview comes from the regional show Look East (BBC East Anglia) and is an article that has been recorded (obviously). To date the film has not been found  The Interview takes place again at Frank's house in Geddington. We suspect, from what's said Frank Bellamy drew his interviewer. Interestingly I have a copy of the letter sent commissioning this interview.  George Milner-Smith wrote on 23 February 1976 on BBC Norwich letter heading and he apparently enclosed a photo and symbol for Look East. He states the transmission date “is due to be” Tuesday 9 March 1976 - dependent on the day's other news stories - presumably a rail disaster might supersede the interview. Milner-Smith requested a cartoon (is this because of last line of the interview?)

 

 

The TRANSCRIPTION

ANNOUNCER’S INTRODUCTION

FADE IN
….Northamptonshire, and he now draws one of the top newspaper cartoons, Garth in the Daily Mirror. In Look East tonight he talks about his work.

[BAD CUT ON TAPE]

INTRODUCTION
…and behind the comic strip in today’s paper [BAD CUT ON TAPE] …a cartoon is one of the biggest selling points of any newspaper. Now, one of the most successful cartoons is Garth in the Daily Mirror. It’s drawn by an artist from Northamptonshire, Frank Bellamy. Now, today Garth is engaged in a life or death struggle on a cliff top. It’s the strip Frank Bellamy was drawing when we talked to him in his home in Kettering.

Garth, for the uninitiated, is the ageless hero of many adventures in time and space. And this is only one of many commissions which fill the day of one of Britain’s top illustrators. Frank Bellamy has been drawing all his life and his work is in demand all over the world. But he’s never been to art school.

During the heyday of British comics Frank worked for the Eagle since it ceased publication several issues have become collector’s items. He’s been drawing the Garth strip for the last five years, responsible for every drawing of each day’s issue. But what sort of a challenge does it all present?

INTERVIEW

FB: It’s difficult to say what sort of challenges. The only challenges I can really say are challenges on your inventiveness and being able to churn out the work in a given time, because,…for my money a deadline is absolute religion, of course, I must stick to those things which separates me from the weekend painter. I’m having to do a thing to a given format and a given time. Each one has its own problems. My er.. contribution is to present this visually and I like, if possible, to present it in a different way each day, not repeat what’s happened previously or the way a presentation, in fact, keep it flying all the time. It sounds very easy but I can assure you it isn’t at all.

Accuracy is very important because the readership of, for instance, the Daily Mirror could be between 13 and 14 million. Somewhere along the line, if I’m drawing a western there’s someone there who’s probably a buff on western arms and ammunition and clothing, I must be correct because they always like to write in and say you’ve made a mistake. For instance, there’s a job over there for the old Eagle I was rather pleased with the presentation, the whole thing, it went through the editors, all the process engravers all these various people seeing this particular work, no-one noticed, other than the readers when it happened. You’ll notice that I have a German infantryman there firing his rifle, there’s the flash from the muzzle, but I’m afraid the bolt is up in the air instead of down. All the readers write in, spot that deliberate little mistake, which wasn’t so deliberate, it was an absolute mistake on my part, it’s bound to happen every now and again.

I started Eagle the famous Eagle, which I’m sure is the ultimate in children’s comics in 1957. I spent a number of years, enjoyable years, drawing for Eagle because it was a cut above any comics that had ever been known in this country before. This Montgomery is one of Eagle’s, and from there in later years they approached me to see if I would draw Dan Dare. I wasn’t over keen on drawing Dan Dare because I hadn’t originated the characters. However, I did the drawings for a year, exactly a year, and they then wanted me to go ahead and draw a centrespread, which is in full colour, which was Heros the Spartan, which I drew for a number of years, I forget how many. He was a cross between a Greek warrior and a Roman warrior and is what we call sword and sorcery. Could be up to all sorts of things; mysterious islands, monsters, queer beings, all sorts of things with this historical element running through the whole thing. It was a very adventurous story, bags of battles, lots and lots of hard work for me I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  And it was an unusual type of strip on the British market. They were usually science fiction, westerns, basically school stories, police, cops and robbers, this was historical with a lot of fantasy which was first class for strip cartoons. 

Unfortunately, Eagle, after its tremendous success gradually did fold and I’m afraid television took over. And here’s an example, when I left Eagle going into draw Thunderbirds. Here’s an example of the difference between drawing Dan Dare which was fiction which seemed years ahead, we were in a scientific age and it had caught up and it made extra problems for me to invent, particularly in things - sequences such as this.
 
[5 minutes 37 seconds] 

There are more interviews to come! Alan and I have been communicating about them.

Frank Bellamy interview - Edition on the BBC

***SEE BELOW FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH FRANK BELLAMY***

Radio Times 24 Nov - 30 Nov 1973 p.4

We got a nice surprise in 1973 when opening the weekly Radio Times (24 November 1973 - 30 November 1973). On page 4 there's an article which includes a photo of Frank Bellamy surrounded by his artwork. The title of the piece "Modest strip artist" has a half page article on Edition where Barry Askew interviews Bellamy for the programme broadcast on 30 November 1973. The photo - much used - was credited to Jeremy Grayson with a bye-line "Frank Bellamy: suffers agonies of diffidence bringing work to Radio Times".

 The article text:

Frank Bellamy must be the world's most modest strip artist The Eagle strips he created for schoolboys in the late 50s and 60s - Fraser of Africa, Marco Polo and The Happy Warrior - are legendary now. Garth, his Daily Mirror strip, is a cult hero.
But he still suffers agonies of diffidence when he's bringing in a piece of art work for RADIO TIMES. He's diffident, too, about appearing in Edition (Friday 11.40 pm BBC2).
"I never had an art school training", he says, "And I still remember my first day's work in an advertising studio: I made tea and cut myself on the guillotine machine. Never touched a pencil."
He says he sees figures as a camera might. "And I never cheat at drawing. If I'm in doubt, I use myself as a model. I know I've occasionally caught myself snarling in the mirror".

The corresponding page in the TV listings (page 51) shows:

Radio Times (24 Nov 1973 - 30 Nov 1973) Page 51

Bill Storie, a friend of the blog and keen Bellamy fan previously wrote on this blog:

In my view Barry Askew held the opinion that comics were ephemeral and hardly worth mentioning and the usual BAM, POW, CRASH were mentioned - a good indicator that someone's view of comics is stuck in the 60s Batman show. The programme, Edition, went out as the last programme of the evening (yes, TV used to be less than 24 hours a day!) and states "Frank Bellamy, the artist who draws 'Garth' in the Daily Mirror and the Daily Record [...]"

 Bill goes onto say:

The Radio Times "Modest Strip Artist" reference mentions that (erroneously) FB drew for the Daily Record - this is technically accurate inasmuch as he was never (as far as I know) commissioned to do art for that paper but his work did appear there quite often in the form of Garth and various other spot illustrations such as the moon landing piece. Back in those days the Daily Record was basically the Scottish version of the Daily Mirror (the Mirror did not have a large Scottish readership and much of the Mirror's daily output was simply re-jigged into the Daily Record). [See much more on this issue here ~Norman]

You can now hear the whole interview thanks to Alan Hayes (hiddentigerculttv) and he has this description on the audio:

Comic artist Frank Bellamy (1917-1976), who is famous for his work on publications such as The Eagle, TV21 and Radio Times, interviewed on the BBC2 late night programme 'Edition', hosted by Barry Askew.

Bellamy is highly thought of, particularly by fans of comic art, Gerry Anderson and Doctor Who, but also of The Avengers, for which he supplied on-screen artwork for the 1967 episode 'The Winged Avenger'.

Soundtrack only - a rare off-air recording. Originally transmitted on Friday 30th November 1973.

It's 8 minutes and 18 seconds long (including the intro and 'outro' plus station ident - I sound as if I know what I'm talking about!) I transcribed the version I had and have included it below so the text is searchable, but Bill is right. It's not the best interview! But Bellamy was paid £40 ""to provide own drawings and to be interviewed". As an ex-librarian I had the privilege of going behind the scenes at the BBC Archives and checked with an expert - the programme was another victim of the tape wiping that has caused many a Doctor Who fan to weep! If it ever appears, Frank's estate is due a re-broadcast fee!

 

The Transcript:

ANNOUNCER: “Now we close the evening here on Two with Edition.”

[INTRO MUSIC]

[INTRODUCTION]
BARRY ASKEW: “Edition POW!, that’s one man’s view of me sitting here in the studio. The only thing he hasn’t drawn are my tortured tonsils, for which my apologies at the outset. Frank Bellamy, whose cartoons have a unique unchanging quality, stretching from Dan Dare in Eagle to Garth which he now does in the Daily Mirror. Later in Edition we look at his work in the world of comics.

[INTERVIEW]
BA Frank Bellamy, I suppose you’re best known for your work on Garth in the Daily Mirror, currently. Having looked at that film where mainly we saw American comics, in fact. What kind of comics did you grow up on, as a boy, yourself?

FB Well, the first ones were things such as Chips or Rainbow and then gradually getting Sunday supplements from the United States which contained Tarzan and that type of thing. There you see the American comic as you see it in the, er.. film, was non-existent in this country. There were comics, [little types] , for sort of eight year olds, right down to six and five…

BA Things like Beano and Dandy which I grew up on?

FB Yes. I’m afraid they didn’t affect me at all, I never used to read those sort of things.

BA Let’s look at what did, in fact, affect you. I mean, one of your classic periods was with Eagle and there we have an example of Dan Dare. Now what kind of technique development do you put into Dan Dare?

FB The technique I used, you mean the materials?

BA Yes.

FB The materials I use are exactly the same during all my career as a strip artist; waterproof inks. In this case, full colour waterproof inks.

BA What about the design techniques themselves, how were those developed?

FB That was a development of mine. I was tired of seeing frame upon frame of little, squared off pictures which was the old fashioned idea. I wanted to bring out the page as a complete page or a spread as a complete spread, make it a unit in its own right.

BA You also I think had special thoughts on colour, didn’t you?

FB Oh yes.

BA If we look at, for example, we have Fraser of Africa there, which is another Eagle piece of work. Tell me about the colour that goes into that.

FB You’ll notice on this one it’s sepia run through it. The idea originally was to develop a different type of strip to the others, which were either full colour or black and white monochrome. This had to be reproduced in full colour, I gave them colour experiments which they put under the process cameras, all proved positive and that’s the net result; producing that sepia look and a different er..look to the page in the Eagle.

BA With something again for the Eagle, like Montgomery of Alamein, there’s an interesting example there of the way that you use frames and shapes in different ways.

FB Well, there once again is breaking up this square frame, one on top of another and to bring out important frames. For instance, the one in the centre there, was just to give a monochrome look to associate with the monochrome films of the second world war.

BA Yes, er..TV21, which was a magazine, um..is that a completely different technique, or is that just a development of the one we’ve seen?

FB It’s just a development, the materials, as I said in the first place, it’s exactly the same here as the first, say, Dan Dare ones we had Eagles, which is going back to the 1960s.

BA Yes, and of course there we have Star Trek that I think is er.., is er.. the Radio Times

FB Yes, a full page in the Radio Times, once again, exactly the same technique.

BA This seems to imply that your technique hasn’t changed very much at all over the years. Is that so?

FB Er.. very little. It’s intentional because I’m always conscious of the printer and their limitations. It gives me limitations but I’m prepared to accept it.

BA What kind of limitations, if we are looking, for example, at that Sunday Times Colour Supplement front cover there, what kind of limitations do you have to bear in mind for the printer, in producing that?

FB I give him pure colour so that it will reproduce purely. There’s the red, there’s no black or anything, I use one red, one yellow, one blue. [So that you do] not confuse the process people with umpteen different colours on the original you see.

BA But to bring it right up to date, of course, you are I suppose, obviously most famous for Garth and here we have one or two examples of Garth. I think the first one in fact, is from last April, isn’t it.

FB Yes, yes, it’s a western strip, actually. Previous to the er..first one, which was of course taking place in the present day, he arrives in a ghost town and gradually changes off into er.. the old west.

BA He’s a remarkable looking character there, isn’t he?

FB Suddenly you see on the second episode there, he is er..a western Marshall.

BA And then you bring him right up to date, if we look at, for example, yesterday’s and today’s. What’s he doing here, what’ve you made him here?

FB This is what.. we, er.., loosely call it a suit story – this is when people are walking about in suits, this is espionage and all that sort of thing. I can’t tell you any further because that would be giving the show away on a present running story.

BA How long has that got to run?

FB Um.. they usually ..[run] about seventeen weeks, it varies one way and another, usually about seventeen weeks.

BA Right. You can’t give them any kind of sneak preview?

FB Er, ooh, all I can say is that with one mighty heave he gets out of it as usual.

BA I see. Tell me how one sets about drawing um..a Garth strip. Can you show me?

FB Well, yes. In this way; there is a piece of board exactly the same way I would use for the Garth strip. [scratching sounds of pencil  on board] Set it out in pencil in this manner and once again you’ll notice I break up the frames. I’ll show you on this one here. For the start, of course, there’s the balloon and stuff to go in, [scratching sound on board] [mumbling] it’s about the most important piece of all.

BA Does the scripting give you a problem? How do you relate the script to your er..to your work?

FB I keep in general to the script. Occasionally you get little things that on a typewritten script don’t work visually. Then it’s up to me to er.. re-draw, [scratching sound] or re-think, or present it in a different manner.

BA If.. if you find a script that you’re not, yourself, in sympathy with, I mean, can you draw to that or not?

FB Well, yes, but er….

BA If you don’t actually feel the script?

FB More often than not, I try to make myself feel it and it’s much better if you, I can get one that I’m interested in in the first place. For instance, the western one, I was thoroughly interested in drawing a western because I want to get these little bits of authenticity in a western instead of just a cowboy story.

BA How long would it take you in fact to do a complete Garth strip?

FB Agh, that’s a difficult one. All I can say is that I have to complete bank of six..my pen’s running out… six a week and come what may, a deadline is a deadline, it’s a religion to me. And er..they have to have one every week.

BA Well there we see it, the end of a complete live Garth strip, specially for Edition. And Frank Bellamy thank you very much indeed for that example of your technique.

FB Oh, thank you.

BA From Edition now it’s goodnight

[MUSIC].

Many thanks to Richard Farrell for alerting me to the fact there was now a public version to hear online!

Frank Bellamy inspired the Italian UFO

Shaqui Le Vesconte, a long-time friend of this blog, forwarded me some scans which I'm sharing in this quick article. He states:

Here's a scan from UFO - Paura Dallo Spazio from Italy in November 1975. The strip is abridged from one originally in UFO - Verso La Morte in 1974

"UFO - Paura Dallo Spazio" November 1975
Published by Edifumetto

In the excellent reprint of all the original British UFO comic strips, UFO Comic Anthology Volume 2, Shaqui tells the history of Italian versions of fumetti (comics) based on the Gerry Anderson series UFO. On page 220 he talks about the comic artist who handled these strips:

[Vladimiro] Missaglia obviously had access to copies of TV Century 21 or Countdown. Some issues featured craft based on Fireball XL5, Stingray or Thunderbird 1 with Marineville appearing as an alien base at the end of Base Luna Non Risponde, Others were cribbed from Dan Dare, the Gold Key Star Trek comics and Garth, drawn by ex-Thunderbirds comic artist Frank Bellamy. Biffìgnandi's covers, when not referencing UFO, used images from 200I: A Space Odyssey, TheTrigan Empire and, on one cover, Mechani-Kong from the 1967 Japanese film King Kong Escapes, even if these had nothing to do with the contents. [Emphasis mine]

The comic ran apparently "for over two years of original strips, totalling 37 issues. Releases were monthly during 1973 but there was a new issue nearly every two weeks at the height of its popularity during 1974." (p.220). 

UFO #12 - "Verso La Morte" [Artist unknown]

 The example above comes from the third series of "UFO" fumetti, #11 published in 1975 - "Paura dallo Spazio" ["Fear of Space"] which, as Shaqui says, was an edited version of the second series of UFO #12 (1974) title "Verso La Morte" ["Facing death"]. 

This was also reprinted later in French in "Sunny Sun" #30 with the title "Mission impossible" (which needs no translation!) in 1980. "Sunny Sun" itself ran for 54 issues (1977-1986) starting as a fortnightly publication before moving onto being a monthly.

Now this is interesting to me as I guessed the artist couldn't have been copying from John Tornado, the German reprints of "Garth", nor the French or Italian reprints of Garth which seems to suggest he was following the Daily Mirror as it was published, or more likely the American Menomonee Falls Gazette where the story was published between issues #52 - #67 (11 December 1972 - 26 March 1973).

The images in question come, of course, from "The Cloud of Balthus" story (12 October 1971 - 27 January 1972 - E237-F23)

Shaqui wondered if the spacesuits were taken from anything Bellamy drew but I couldn't spot that coincidence. If you can do let us know!

Happy Birthday and new original art

Today is the anniversary of Frank Bellamy's birth. In May 1917, the world was at war, Italy was struggling with anarchists, while a new Pope was consecrated.  Fátima in Portugal was making a name for itself, and Atlanta in Georgia experienced a terrible fire leaving 10,000 people homeless.

This is a great day to highlight some new findings!  

Chris Hall got in contact and mentioned he had some Frank Bellamy original art he's selling. I'm always interested in recording these things to show how prolific and wide-ranging Frank Bellamy's talent was, and someone recently asked me about the artist's hobbies when not at work. Here's an example of a busman's holiday - his interest in portraying Africana and especially the Masai people. It's so sad he only ever got to Morocco on the African continent despite an interest in going on safari in Kenya.

MASAI WITH EARRING, NECKLACE, SPEAR and SEME

Masai with earring, necklace, spear and seme

Because of the differences between Masai drawings I have given them an arbitrary number and short description, so this one - totally new to me - becomes Masai Warrior #7. It looks to be more of an outline than others (but Bellamy also drew some abstract African pieces) and the warrior has two weapons: the spear and the leaf-shaped 'seme' - a 24 inch long sword (see here). 

Here are two similar drawings for comparison:

Masai (#5) with earring (and 'lightning' lines)

Masai (#3) circular earring, spear and partial shield

Here's the list of all of them so far:

• MASAI WARRIOR #1 - Brown tonal small face-on portrait of Masai warrior with elaborate animal headdress
• MASAI WARRIOR #2 - Brown tonal portrait of Masai warrior with large spear at left, thin band head-dress and animal hair covering neck
• MASAI WARRIOR #3 - Portrait with large circular earring, spear and partial shield
• MASAI WARRIOR #4 - Masai warrior with spear (triangular shaft)  and shield with necklace of animal hair
• MASAI WARRIOR #5 - Side portrait with earring and necklace - bottom right signed
• MASAI WARRIOR #6 - Indistinct portrait with spear and shield looking almost metallic
• MASAI WARRIOR #7 - Outline portrait, with necklace spear, and seme.
  

The next artwork Chris shared was this one and bear in mind the titles are mine, until I can match any to Bellamy's exhibited artwork by name.

MASAI DESIGN with WARRIOR

Masai design + warrior

 It's hard to tell precisely what material was used here and descriptions by others doesn't clarify the position - but then I've seen big name auction houses mention Bellamy's watercolour paints on Thunderbirds - where he only ever used inks! 

We are seeing a side view of a warrior with his spear, seme and shield and to his left is, what looks like, connected bones with some fur attached. The Masai are well known for their elaborate clothing and decorations which include coloured bone beads,fur and ivory.

SCAM BUDDY, I SAW HER FIRST!

"Scram buddy" cartoon

The cartoon showing two 'squaddies' following a well-dressed lady,  and one says to the other "Scram buddy! I saw her first!". The style is definitely from the period around 1939-1946 and the squaddies and Bellamy's signature that can just be seen verify this thought. Was it published? Was it a doodle? A portfolio piece to show when he got out of the Army? We don't know.  

SPACEFLEET REDESIGNED BADGES

Dan Dare Spacefleet insignia

This piece is interesting as it forms one of several boards on which Bellamy drew preparatory materials for his requested re-design of Dan Dare - which eventually didn't 'take'. I've already shared two of them (which Alan Burrows shared with me) showing operational and Spacefleet uniforms - so now we have the insignia re-design too

Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood

Robin Hood by Frank Bellamy

 Way back I wrote to Marv Wolfman (yes, THAT Marv Wolfman!) because I knew he had communicated with Frank Bellamy back in 1969 and later. He managed to obtain a drawing from Bellamy which is the subject of this short article. Marv also wrote again in early 1974 when he asked Bellamy whether he would be able to contribute to the newly launched black and white horror magazine line put out by Marvel. I would have loved to have seen that, as we know Bellamy's chiaroscuro line work was superb.  Unfortunately due to his daily comic strip work on "Garth" he was unable to comply with the request.Imagine an alternative world of Frank Bellamy drawing for Marvel Comics!

I've been meaning to share this with everyone for ages so without further ado -with permission from Marv - here you go.

Simon Osborne also write to me a while after Marv forwarded the above image and shared with me his drawing by Bellamy of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood in colour

Similar images with added Bellamy interest around the backgrounds at hip height! One B&W; the other colour - although it looks faded. It's hard to tell with Simon's photo as it has a sepia tinge all over but what an amazing find

Incidentally Marv has stated on Twitter he has "several Bellamy originals" including "Heros originals". I'd love to see those too Marv - ad thanks again

ORIGINAL ART: David The Shepherd King

Eagle 14 March 1959 (Vol: 10 No.11)
"The Shepherd King"

I've always loved Frank Bellamy's early Eagle colour strips and "David The Shepherd King" is one of them - or to be more accurate with its title "The Shepherd King: The Story of David". 

Heritage Auctions have episode #27 of the 31 published in Eagle (Vol. 9:37 - 9:52 and 10:1 - 10:15, (13 September 1958 - 27 December 1958, and 3 January 1959 - 11 April 1959). This particular one comes from Eagle 14 March 1959 (Vol.10:11) and was, of course, on the back page in glorious photogravure print! 

The subject matter is not so glorious as Abner (formerly Saul's army commander) had agreed to give David all of Israel but Joab, the commander of David’s army, accused Abner of trying to trick David. Without David’s permission, Joab murdered Abner under the pretence of being loyal to David when in fact he wanted to avenge his brother’s death at the hands of Abner. So in the strip above, David makes it clear he had nothing to do with it and commenced a day of mourning.

The auction description:

Frank Bellamy Eagle Vol.10 #11 King David Episode 27 Story Page 1 Original Art (Longacre Press, 1959). Fans of this long-running weekly UK series know it often had gorgeous Frank Bellamy artwork! This one features rich color work and beautiful detailed linework. Ink and watercolor [sic] over graphite on illustration board with an image area of 14.25" x 17.5". The board has corner sear and a stain on the upper left, as well as foxing down the right side. In Very Good condition.

It's actually all inks - which many people cannot understand, but Bellamy was a stickler for getting it right so it would print correctly.  

Here's the printed version for reference and the front cover of the relevant Eagle - with a nice piece by Frank Hampson.

 

Eagle 14 March 1959 (Vol: 10 No.11)
"Dan Dare" - Frank Hampson

Eagle 14 March 1959 (Vol: 10 No.11)
"The Shepherd King"

 

And because David Slinn reminded me the 73rd anniversary of Eagle falls next Friday 14 April, here's the cover of the first issue! Yes, I know there's a lot of Hampson today, but hey, it's my blog!

Eagle 14 April 1950 (Vol: 1 No.1)

AUCTION SUMMARY

The Shepherd King Eagle 14 March 1959 (Vol.10:11)
WHERE?: Heritage (2023 April 26 Wednesday Comic Art & Animation Select Auction #322317 )
ENDING PRICE: $4000 (£3,207.92)
END DATE: Wednesday 26 April 2023

Frank Bellamy and Garth numbering and dates

 

I was recently alerted to the fact I have never stated anywhere what the hand-written numbering and dates on Garth original art mean. It's flattering when people think I know everything to do with Frank Bellamy and his run on the Daily Mirror's Garth strip from 1971 to 1976.

So let's have a go at presenting my thoughts and see whether anyone can add anything.

Here's an example of the printed page (scanned very poorly) which shows one episode of the strip "Garth" (H118) published on page 24 of the Daily Mirror 21 May 1974 from the story "The Beast of Ultor". 

For those who haven't seen how these strips first appeared in print, this gives you some idea. However over the 6 years Bellamy drew "Garth" there might be more strips on this page. "The Perishers" strip appeared later in the run on this same page, as did "Andy Capp" and "Little Joe" - and that page may appear in different places day-by-day. I remember a kind friend of my Dad's cutting the page out for me, so I got to know the recently departed Bill Tidy's work too.

Daily Mirror Tuesday 21 May 1974 p.24
Garth: The Beast of Ultor (H118)

I have a scan of the following day's original artwork and the original shows, around the border, two things usually in pencil: two days and a date and secondly a single letter from A-F.

Daily Mirror 22 May 1974.
Garth: The Beast of Ultor (H119)

On this artwork we can see the pencilled "Tues-Wed 22 May 1974" and the letter "F". But notice the "Mon-Tues 21-5-74" is crossed out. I think this is where there was a jump in days and date because the Daily Mirror dated Wednesday 8 May was not actually published according to the Newspaper Archive. I infer that the "double day" notation plus date had to be moved as a result until the art editor had caught up, usually three weeks later - why 3 weeks? - see below.

Hand notations

But why write two days and then publish the strip on the second day - H119  was published on Wednesday 22 May 1974 - I double checked. it seems likely that the first day is the 'preparation' day and the second the publication day. This seems the most likely. I did wonder if this had anything to do with Northern editions or Scottish editions (remember my matching strip numbers in the Daily Record?) but it's not, that I can see.

 Here's a second example:

Daily Mirror 2 September 1972, p.18

You can just about see an episode from "The Wolfman of Ausensee" - episode F207. This page comes from the Daily Mirror Saturday 2 September 1972 and here is the original art with the corresponding numeration

Handwritten notations

This shows the "Fri-Sat" note plus date which matches publication. Also we have the letter "B" which to my mind is Bellamy's notation to the Art Editor that this is the second one of the 6 strips he delivered every week. 

We have never seen any other letters besides A, B, C, D. E and F and the Daily  Mirror was not published on a Sunday and the sequence rotates -A-F.

A friend and I lined up several originals and saw all of them are different sizes from top to bottom where Bellamy cut single boards from a bigger CS10 board. 

Here's another example:

F206 with notes and stamp

Daily Mirror 1 September 1972 p.20

Here we see "Thur-Fri 1 Sept"  (not shown on this image but the letter "A" appears on the original board) but also a red sticker - which is seen infrequently on the boards - with "1972 VIII 8 13:57" which logically tells us the date the piece arrived at the Daily Mirror offices. If this is correct it also gives a clue as to the lead time for Bellamy to produce the strips and them being published - from and including: Tuesday, 8 August 1972 to and including: Friday, 1 September 1972 = 25 days. This is not always the case as one would expect. Do the "received" stamps/stickers only appear on the "A" boards?

There are also anomalies where we see dates crossed out and alternatives given in these pencil notations, as mentioned above.Checking some of the published Daily Mirrors there were strikes -two messages included in two papers:

• Daily Mirror 22 March 1973: "Southern editions of the Mirror didn't appear yesterday because of industrial action. Here's a double ration of strips"
• Daily Mirror Tuesday 6 November 1973: "Here's a double ration of your favourite strips" 

No explanation is given for the latter but presumably industrial action again! And notice the differentiation between Northern and Southern editions.   

The problem putting this article together is that anyone who frames the strips is likely to hide/cut off the notations. Also some people who have originals may rub out the pencil notations. So thank you Paul Holder for his assistance in analysing these obscure ephemera!

So to conclude:

• The two days are 1) 'prep' day and 2) publication day
• The date is the publication date
• The letter (from A-F) indicate the order of any one strip in the 6 delivered each week
  
• The date and time stamp show date of receipt

One other notation is to the internal production team that a strip should be reproduced at a certain size. J154 has "Wed-Thu  3-7-75"; a receipt date and time of "1975  VI 11 16:19" and a note to say "197mm" - the width of the published image -one episode is approximately 21.5 inches by 8 inches as drawn by Bellamy

 

Any questions, or observations?