Commando Gibbs v. Dragon Decay

"Your teeth are ivory castles - defend them with Gibb's Dentifrice" - slogan from (at least) 1922

For those who have only known toothpaste in a tube, you might need enlightening.

This product came in a small circular tin and you had to rub a wet toothbrush and create a fizzy paste to rub on your "ivory castles" as Gibbs called your teeth! I can just remember the stuff in the 1960s, and I think some toothpowder still exist!

Frank Bellamy produced 7 strips in the Gibb's advertising in Eagle during the first 3 volumes entitled "Commando Gibbs versus Dragon Decay"

GD 311-1505, Eagle Vol. 2:42 (25 January 1952), p. 5
Dragon looks at 'young Jimmy' through telescope

GD 312-1505, Eagle Vol. 2:46 (22 February 1952), p. 12
Dragon enters bathroom

GD 313-1505, Eagle Vol. 3:2 (18 April 1952), p. 13
Dragon in tank attacks No.14

GD 314-1505, Eagle Vol. 3:6 (16 May 1952), p.13
Dragon in submarine attacks boat

GD 315-1505, Eagle Vol. 3:11 (20 June 1952), p.13
Dragon sends rocket to blow up the Smiths' "ivory castles"

GD 316-1505, Eagle Vol. 3:14 (11 July 1952), p.13
Dragon gets telegram and heads to Cliff House

GD 326-1505, Eagle Vol. 3:24 (19 September1952), p.13
Dragon dresses as Policeman on bike

REPRINTS:

• Eagle Vol. 3:19 (15 August1952), p.13 - Reprints Eagle Vol. 3:2 (18 April 1952)
• Eagle Vol. 3:33 (21 November 1952), p.5 - Reprints Eagle Vol. 3:6 (16 May 1952)
• Eagle Vol. 3:36 (12 December 1952), p.13 - Reprints Eagle Vol. 3:11 (20 June 1952)

Interestingly, I wonder if anyone has any answers for me regarding the numbering of adverts. Even though all previous advertising strips are numbered sequentially, 2 adverts were 10 issues apart, but their (up till now) regular numbering jumps from GD 316-1505 to GD 326-1505.

Anyway to round off, this dentifrice product ran for years. I've found eveiodence from the 1920s and here is another (unknown) artist's take on the theme from Judy 16 March 1963, p28.

Judy 16 March 1963

Finally I was astonished to see there was also an Ivory Castle game! Produced by D. W. Gibbs Ltd, and consisted of a coloured folding board, counters and dice, in labelled envelope with rules printed to rear, from c.1933/4 . The artist is unknown.

Gibbs Dentifrice Game

BIG NEWS: Robin Hood again!

Steve Holland has announced a project he has been working on for Look and Learn / Book Palace that:
"...we're also working on The Complete Frank Bellamy Robin Hood. This is a Look and Learn/Book Palace project that has been in the works for a while now (it takes time to scan and clean up that many pages!). The book will reprint the whole of Bellamy's long run of 'Robin Hood and His Merry Men' and 'Robin Hood and Maid Marian' for 15 months in 1956-57 in the pages of Swift. Not, I may add, the abridged version that later appeared in Treasure in the 1960s. This is the complete run."

The date: 2008! Start saving your sixpences as that means approximately 134 pages of art plus any additional introduction etc.!

This picture has been borrowed and will be returned soon to its rightful owner Steve Holland

Robin Hood & ROK Comics

Robin Hood art Copyright © Look and Learn Ltd

The very 21st century technology of mobile phones presents a mid 20th century version of Robin Hood!

Many thanks to John Freeman who helped me to get this to you. In the picture above you'll see two arrows on the right which allow you to browse the single mocked-up mobile screens

Mind you, the cover is not by Bellamy!

Now if we could see the complete Robin Hood and King Arthur stories from the Swift comic reprinted in one book, so an old man, like myself could read them, that would be brilliant!

ROK also produce mobile phone versions of early non-Bellamy Garth strips, but use the Bellamy Garth for their publicity

Lifetime Achievement Award

I have heard of all sorts of awards with strange names - the Oscars, Nibbies, Daggers etc. But a new one to me, which has been around for at least 5 years is the "Frank Bellamy Achievement Award"!

"Originally formed in 1977 as the Society of Strip Illustrators where comics professionals could meet socially, swap stories, share information and network. It still does all these things. But we've also adapted and changed since then. In 1992 the Society changed its name to the Comics Creators Guild in a move to more obviously represent all the various arts and specializations that combine to produce comics." says their About Us page.

Winners in the past have been from both sides of the Atlantic:
2006: John Severin
2005: Peter O'Donnell
2004: Leo Baxendale
2003: Dave Sim
2002: Dr Jerry Bails

On our page with references to articles about Bellamy, there is mention of the old Society's newsletter where an article was written about Bellamy and a follow up letter correcting errors in said article.

If anyone can let me know why Bellamy's name was chosen for this award, I'd love to know

...ADDITION: Treasure

Steve Holland has padded out the data I had on the Robin Hood strips, which originally appeared in Swift. He points out that the reprints in Treasure were in fact from #197 - 261 (22/10/66 - 13/01/68). The later reprints in Storyland (new to Steve - a miracle in itself!) still need complete data.

Steve adds: "the Treasure Robin Hood reprint [...] was abridged and bowdlerised in various places. It also dropped two episodes" which explains the discrepancy with Treasure only having 65 episodes and the original running for 67 through the two titles Robin Hood and his Merry Men and then Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Thanks Steve.

....ADVERT: Andersonic (Follow up)

If you've never heard of Andersonic check out my blog entry of Sunday, 29 July 2007. The published article about Bellamy and Don Harley Frank, Don, Dan and the Tracys by Richard Farrell is now available at the address supplied on that blog entry or on my website (see the note)

Many thanks to Richard for a great article.... oh, and check out pages 25-27 for my thoughts on Anderson during my childhood!

I'm still looking forward to an authoritative piece detailing where Bellamy started his work on each Dan Dare story and where Don Harley et al continued. That's a story for another day, but compare the two heads of Rax from the same story "Terra Nova". The left detailed stippling was by Bellamy and the right hand one by Harley











Taken from Eagle 21st November 1959, Vol10:40.

...ADDITION: Bellamy's Star Trek work

Due to a frequently occurring erroneous statement on Bellamy's Star Trek work, (please don't hate me Rod ) I thought I'd wade into the waters with this blog entry.

THE BAD NEWS
The following comment appears in several places around the Net:
"Bellamy and Alan Willow produced covers for the series [TV21], which alternated between Star Trek and other titles until such painted illustrations were dropped as of issue 42 to allow an increase from two to three pages of Star Trek material per issue."

This originates (I believe) from a misreading of the wonderful The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History which says: "Alan Willow is probably not a name most Gerry Anderson fans would recall... he is best known for the text illustrations in several early Doctor Who Target novelisations. But a few years before this, he painted most of the covers for TV21 & Joe 90 from late 1969, until the Star Trek strip replaced these on the front page in the summer of 1970."

To see the new series of TV21’s covers go to Comic Magazine’s sales site -and SCROLL DOWN. You’ll see no Bellamy covers at all, as he only drew for the first series. All those covers by Bellamy (five in total) were of Captain Scarlet strips.

At the time of Star Trek's first appearance in UK comics (Joe90 #1 dated 18th January 1969), Frank Bellamy, was still about to give another 9 months on his version of Thunderbirds in the original series of TV21 (and later 4 issues of the combined TV21 & Joe 90 – the new series). In TV21 #209, dated 18/01/1969 his cover for Joe 90 #1 appeared in an advert.

This picture is a poorly joined scan of my copy which has travelled a long way since I bought it!



He never drew Star Trek in comics!

THE GOOD NEWS
Bellamy won the 1971 Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards (for material published in 1971; awarded in 1972) for "Best Foreign Artist". Due to a technicality it was his Radio Times work on Star Trek that was judged rather than any of his past comics work as he was, at the time, not working in comics as such, but had just started Garth in the Daily Mirror. Barry Windsor Smith recommended him as a worthy candidate but due to the fact he wasn’t doing comics works they had to find a comic strip to display. Marv Wolfman showed some original Heros artwork and Bellamy won the award based on his Star Trek in the Radio Times. He also did two other Star Trek works; single panel illustrations to accompany the TV listings in the Radio Times





















Hopefully this clarifies this misunderstanding. Any comments?