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Frank Bellamy (21 May 1917 Khoury, George. ''True Brit: Celebrating The Comic Book Artists Of England'' (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2004). – 5 July 1976) was a
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...
, best known for his work on the ''
Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
'' comic, for which he illustrated ''
Heros the Spartan Heros The Spartan appeared in ''Eagle'' from 1962 to 1966 and was created by Ken Mennell but was written solely by Tom Tully. It seems reasonable to assume that the film Spartacus (1960) inspired some of the story's creation. The comic strip began ...
'' and '' Fraser of Africa''. He reworked its flagship '' Dan Dare'' strip. He also drew '' Thunderbirds'' in a dramatic two-page format for the weekly comic ''
TV Century 21 ''TV Century 21'', later renamed ''TV21'', ''TV21 and Tornado'', ''TV21 and Joe 90'', and ''TV21'' again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during the latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership ...
''. He drew the newspaper strip ''
Garth Garth may refer to: Places * Garth, Alberta, Canada * Garth, Bridgend, a village in south Wales :* Garth railway station (Bridgend) * Garth, Ceredigion, small village in Wales * Garth, Powys, a village in mid Wales :* Garth railway station (Powy ...
'' for the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
''. His work was innovative in its graphic effects and sophisticated use of colour, and in the dynamic manner in which it broke out of the then-traditional grid system.


Biography

Born in
Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...
, Northamptonshire, He started work at William Blamire's studio, in Kettering in 1933. Bellamy met his wife Nancy whilst he was stationed near Bishop Auckland during World War II and was married in 1942. In 1944 their son David was born to the couple. After the war, they lived in Kettering until 1949, when they moved to Morden in south London to be closer to publishers, most of whom were based in London. Bellamy worked freelance from home from the time he left Norfolk Studios in 1953. In 1975 the couple moved back to Kettering.Woollcombe, Alan. "The Unseen Frank Bellamy," ''Speakeasy'' #100 (July 1989)
Archived at FrankBellamy.com
Retrieved Dec. 11, 2020.


Career

Whilst in the army, Bellamy had a weekly illustration published by the ''Kettering Evening Telegraph''. Later, he worked in advertising (for Gibbs Dentifrice). In 1953, he began his first comic strip, called ''Monty Carstairs'' in ''Mickey Mouse Weekly''. Shortly after he moved to ''
Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...
'' where his work included ''Swiss Family Robinson'', ''King Arthur'' and ''Robin Hood''. In 1957, he moved to ''
Eagle Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
'' and began working in colour on their back page biography strips: ''The Happy Warrior'' (the life of
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
), ''The Shepherd King'' (the life of the biblical King David), and ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' for which Bellamy only did eight episodes before moving to '' Dan Dare''. Bellamy took over ''Dan Dare'' part way through the ''Terra Nova'' storyline, replacing creator
Frank Hampson Frank Hampson (21 December 1918 – 8 July 1985) was a British illustrator. He is best known as the creator and artist of Dan Dare and other characters in the boys' comic, the ''Eagle'', to which he contributed from 1950 to 1961. Biogr ...
. It was an awkward set-up: the new owners of ''Eagle'' thought the strip looked dated, so gave Bellamy the brief of redesigning everything, from the costumes and spacecraft to the page layouts. Bellamy was left to draw the title page unaided (in contrast to Hampson's many-hands approach, where the drawing, inking, lettering and colouring were all separately completed by a team of artists), while two of Hampson's former assistants, Keith Watson and Don Harley, had to do the second page. Bellamy's redesigns were somewhat controversial and, after he left the strip a year later, the next artist was instructed to reintroduce the original designs. Bellamy then went on to draw two of his most celebrated strips, '' Fraser of Africa'' and ''
Heros the Spartan Heros The Spartan appeared in ''Eagle'' from 1962 to 1966 and was created by Ken Mennell but was written solely by Tom Tully. It seems reasonable to assume that the film Spartacus (1960) inspired some of the story's creation. The comic strip began ...
''. He also drew ''Montgomery of Alamein'' (the life of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery) and did some work for ''
Look and Learn ''Look and Learn'' was a British weekly educational magazine for children published by Fleetway Publications Ltd from 1962 until 1982. It contained educational text articles that covered a wide variety of topics from volcanoes to the Loch Ness ...
''. ''Fraser of Africa'', one of Bellamy's artistic high-water marks, was not his idea but, as he was obsessed with Africa, he was the perfect choice to draw it. Bellamy used a monochromatic sepia colour palette to reflect the sun and desert locale, with occasional bursts of bright colour. It was a challenging and unusual approach and ''Fraser of Africa'' became the ''Eagles most popular strip. Bellamy insisted on proper research and even had a reader living in East Africa supplying reference material. ''Heros the Spartan'', a sword and sorcery adventure set in Roman times was another artistic triumph. Drawn as a two-page spread and usually organized around a complicated splash in the centre of the two pages, ''Heros'' was a bravura display of skill. The battle scenes displayed a vividness and complex layout rarely seen in comics and it won Bellamy an award (for 'Best Foreign Artist') from the American Academy of Comic Book Arts in 1972. In November 1965, Bellamy left the fading ''Eagle'' to work for ''
TV Century 21 ''TV Century 21'', later renamed ''TV21'', ''TV21 and Tornado'', ''TV21 and Joe 90'', and ''TV21'' again, was a weekly British children's comic published by City Magazines during the latter half of the 1960s. Originally produced in partnership ...
'', where he drew the centrespread '' Thunderbirds'' strip. Rather than faithfully draw puppets, he took the artistic licence of rendering the characters as real people for a more exciting strip, as was already being done by the comic's other artists (including
Ron Embleton Ronald Sydney Embleton (6 October 1930 – 13 February 1988) was a British illustrator who gained fame as a comics artist. In the 1950s and 1960s, Embleton also pursued a career as an oil painter, and he exhibited his works widely in Britain, Ge ...
and
Mike Noble Mike Noble (17 September 1930 – 15 November 2018) was a People of the United Kingdom, British comic artist and illustrator, best known for drawing strips like ''Fireball XL5'' for ''TV Century 21''. Biography Noble's father was a stockbroker's ...
) in their strips. Apart from one short break, Bellamy drew ''Thunderbirds'' throughout its run in ''TV Century 21'' and ''TV21'', leaving shortly after the comic merged with ''Joe 90 Top Secret'' to become ''TV21 & Joe 90'' in 1969. He also drew the colour splash pages for five ''
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', often shortened to ''Captain Scarlet'', is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor ...
'' strips. Bellamy's break from the ''Thunderbirds'' strip in the autumn of 1966 enabled him to work on an episode of the British TV series '' The Avengers'' entitled '' The Winged Avenger''. The story featured a villainous strip cartoonist and Bellamy was asked to create all the illustrations used in the episode. He also designed the artist's studio set and the costume of the Winged Avenger himself. Filmed in December 1966, the episode aired in February 1967. In June 1971, Bellamy began drawing the newspaper comic strip ''
Garth Garth may refer to: Places * Garth, Alberta, Canada * Garth, Bridgend, a village in south Wales :* Garth railway station (Bridgend) * Garth, Ceredigion, small village in Wales * Garth, Powys, a village in mid Wales :* Garth railway station (Powy ...
'' which appeared in the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
''. This was the period in which intense competition with the new tabloid '' The Sun'' encouraged large helpings of nudity to be seen in British tabloids, and the strip reflected this. Bellamy's style was much more vivid than that of the original artist John Allard, and he was probably brought in to spice up the strip.
Jim Edgar James Edgar (born July 22, 1946) is an American politician who was the 38th governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999. Previously he served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1976 to 1979 and as Illinois Secretary of State ...
had been writing the strip since 1966 and shared the by-line credit with Bellamy. Bellamy applied all the graphic tricks in his arsenal from stippling and crosshatching to chiaroscuro inking to create a modern and eye-catching look for Garth unlike anything else appearing in newspapers at the time. Bellamy worked continuously on ''Garth'' for the next five years, although drawing in black and white rather than colour gave him time to maintain a number of other regular commissions. During this period he drew the first comic strips ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' had ever run in its magazine as non-fiction journalism. He also regularly produced illustrations for the BBC's '' Radio Times'' television
listings magazine A listings magazine is a magazine which is largely dedicated to information about the upcoming week's events such as broadcast programming, music, clubs, theatre and film information. The BBC's '' Radio Times'' was the world's first listing ...
, in particular for the '' Doctor Who'' television programme. Frank Bellamy died suddenly in 1976, at the height of his powers. He had plans for many projects, including a
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
strip he was to write himself, inspired by the
spaghetti westerns The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most of ...
of Sergio Leone, three silent pages of which appeared in issue 1 of the
Denis Gifford Denis Gifford (26 December 1927 – 18 May 2000)Holland, Steve, Obituaries: Denis Gifford', ''The Guardian'', 26 May 2000. was a British writer, broadcaster, journalist, comic artist and historian of film, comics, television and radio. In h ...
-edited "Ally Sloper" comics magazine, but no others were completed. The
Society of Strip Illustration The Society of Strip Illustration (SSI), later known as the Comics Creators Guild, was a British network for all those involved in any stage of the creative process of comics production. The SSI, which was co-founded in 1977 by Denis Gifford, met ...
(co-founded by Denis Gifford) named one of its awards after Bellamy: The Frank Bellamy Award for Lifetime Achievement.


Bibliography


Comic strips drawn by Frank Bellamy

Eagle: * ''The Happy Warrior'' (biography of Winston Churchill) (1957/58) * ''Montgomery of Alamein'' (1958) * ''The Shepherd King'' (the story of David) (1958/59) * ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (1959) * ''Dan Dare'' (1959/60) * '' Fraser of Africa'' (1960/61) * ''Heros the Spartan'' (1962/63) TV21: * ''Thunderbirds'' (1966–69) * ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'' (1968) Joe 90 Top Secret: * ''Joe 90'' (1969) Garth: * ''Sundance'' (75 of 87 instalments drawn by Bellamy) (July - 11 October 1971) * ''The Cloud of Balthus'' (12 October 1971 - 27 January 1972) * ''The Orb of Trimandias'' (28 January - 22 May 1972) * ''Wolf Man of Ausensee'' (23 May - 6 September 1972) * ''People of the Abyss'' (7 September - 23 December 1972) * ''The Women of Galba'' (27 December 1972 - 10 April 1973) * ''Ghost Town'' (11 April - 12 July 1973) * ''The Mask of Atacama'' (13 July - 25 October 1973) * ''The Wreckers'' (26 October 1973 - 18 February 1974) * ''The Beast of Ultor'' (19 February - 5 June 1974) * ''Freak Out to Fear'' (6 June - 27 September 1974) * ''Bride of Jenghiz Khan'' (28 September 1974 - 14 January 1975) * ''The Angels of Hell Gap'' (15 January - 2 May 1975) * ''The Doomsmen'' (3 May - 15 August 1975) * ''The Bubble Man'' (16 August - 28 November 1975) * ''The Beautiful People'' (29 November 1975 - 16 March 1976) * ''The Spanish Lady'' (17 March - 7 August 1976)


Books

* ''Century 21: Classic Comic Strips from the Worlds of Gerry Anderson - Volume 2'' (Reynolds & Hearn, 2009) (paperback) / (hardback) * ''Century 21: Classic Comic Strips from the Worlds of Gerry Anderson - Volume 1'' (Reynolds & Hearn, 2009) (paperback) / (hardback) * ''Dan Dare Deluxe Collector's Edition Volume 10 - PROJECT NIMBUS'' (Hawk Books, 1994) * ''Eagle Classics: Fraser of Africa''. (Hawk Books, 1990) * ''Timeview - The complete Doctor Who Illustrations of Frank Bellamy'' ( Who Dares Publishing, 1985) (paperback) / (hardback) * ''Garth. Book 2: The Women of Galba'' (with
Jim Edgar James Edgar (born July 22, 1946) is an American politician who was the 38th governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999. Previously he served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1976 to 1979 and as Illinois Secretary of State ...
). (Titan Books, 1985) * ''Garth. Book 1: The Cloud of Balthus'' (with Jim Edgar). (Titan Books, 1984) * ''High Command: The Stories of Sir Winston Churchill and General Montgomery'' (Dragon's Dream, 1981) * ''The Daily Mirror Book of Garth 1976'' (with Jim Edgar). (IPC Magazines, 1975) * ''The Daily Mirror Book of Garth 1975'' (with Jim Edgar). (IPC Magazines, 1974) *"A Cowboy Story" in '' Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls'' (with
Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...
&
Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, television presenter, and public speaker. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries. Palin w ...
). (Methuen 1974)


Notes


References

* Wright, Norman: "Frank Bellamy and Fraser of Africa" in ''Eagle Classics: Fraser of Africa'', 3-10 (Hawk Books, 1990) * Garriock, P.R. in ''Masters Of Comic Book Art'', 32-41 (
Aurum Press The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...
, Big O Publishing, 1978) * Skinn, Dez & Gibbons, Dave: "The Frank Bellamy Interview" in ''Fantasy Advertiser'' #50, 14-31 (Derek G Skinn, 1973)


External links


The Frank Bellamy ReferenceThe Frank Bellamy Reference Blog

The Frank Bellamy website
* ttp://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/frank_bellamy.html Biography and work on Captain Scarletbr>The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History covering Bellamy's first appearances on Captain ScarletGallery of Frank Bellamy's Dalek illustrations for the Radio Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamy, Frank British comics artists Eagle (comic) People from Kettering 1917 births 1976 deaths