Illustrators Special #11: The Art Of Frank Bellamy (magazine/book review).

In my youth, Frank Bellamy (1917-1976) was a legend. I first came across his work in ‘TV21’ where he did his take on ‘Thunderbirds’ and then later with the ‘Garth’ newspaper strip in ‘The Mirror’. I liked the ‘Garth’ stories pre-Bellamy and wish they’d get reprinted but his art took it to a new level and have had multiple reprintings. I was less aware of all the other strips he did previously, including a year’s run on ‘Dan Dare’. As the writers here, Norman Boyd and Peter Richardson, point out, Bellamy could stipple shades but also had a great use of chiaroscuro dimensionalising that made his work instantly recognisable.

This particular ‘Illustrators Special’ shows his early work and how his ambition allowed him to rise through the ranks. It quickly becomes obviously he knew how to draw battles and a lot of characters in a panel. That is an art in itself because each figure has to be doing things different from the rest.

Generally with books like this, I like to read them over a few days so I absorb all the information but ended up reading most of it in a single period. Of course, there was more early comicstrip pages than text which ended up being spread over a few paragraphs a page. What I found especially interesting was when Bellamy explained some of his techniques like stippling to give a grey shade is a lot of hard work but justified. One thing we art connoisseurs do know is we spot when there is a lot of work given into any illustration and Bellamy had that in spades.

It was also a time in the UK where the artist not only drew, inked and coloured their work but also did the lettering. Seeing some of the work in progress here with the speech balloon placement sans words shows how much consideration was given to it in the work. Although they were lettered, the reason for the blanks were actually more to do with foreign language reprints and done by overlay.

Something that hasn’t changed is the need for research and Bellamy did this a lot with period work, whether it was with religious stories to war time with Churchill and Montgomery.

I think his work on ‘Thunderbirds’ and ‘Garth’ have been downplayed a lot but that’s largely because whenever his art is shown, they do come up the most. For me, seeing his some of his artwork for ‘The Winged Avenger’ from the self-named episode of the 1967 ‘The Avengers’ TV series is a must see. What I didn’t realise was there was 30 pictures made. Someone somewhere must have them all to see.

If you were too young to have seen Frank Bellamy’s work before then its worth getting this Illustrators Special to have a look at his art and use the checklist to see if you can find some of the work he’s done. Did I mention him doing ‘Radio Times’ covers of a certain Time Lord? If you think you’re familiar with all of Bellamy’s work, then I think this book will surprise you at what you’ve missed and the ability to draw accurately whatever is requested.

GF Willmetts

February 2023

(pub: The Book Palace, 2021. 146 page illustrated squarebound magazine. Price: £30.00 (UK), $ (US) via Bud Plant. ISBN: 978-1-913548-08-1)

check out website: www.bookpalace.com and www.illustratorsquarterly.com