Friday 5 April 2013

Frank Bellamy's World War One

To those of us of a certain age(!) the name Frank Bellamy will be well known as an extremely talented  artist whose work featured in the Eagle and TV Century 21, the latter where he drew the Thunderbirds strip. He also drew the long running Garth strip that ran in the Daily Mirror in the early seventies.

A company called The Book Palace is collating much of his work into book format and recently I managed to get hold of a collection entitled Frank Bellamy's World War 1. To be 100% accurate it should be Michael Butterworth's and Frank Bellamy's World War 1 as Frank was only the artist and Michael Butterworth wrote the text, chronicling a basic history of the Great War for readers of Look and Learn in the early seventies.

I must confess that I don't recall the series from the time, though I was only a sporadic Look and Learn reader and really only interested in the Trigan Empire! However, this is an amazing piece of work and Frank Bellamy's full colour artwork is absolutely stunning.

Unfortunately the book is a little on the pricey side at £25, though I did get mine off Amazon for a lot less, it is certainly worth keeping an eye out for...





7 comments:

  1. I do remember the series and it had a lot to do with my Airfix battles in the back garden!

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  2. Great find. I'll look out for it.

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  3. Looks very good, I'm gonna check in Amazon

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  4. Shades of Charlie's War there- I'll keep an eye for it too.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  5. I fondly remember Look and Learn. I subscribed as a spotty face lad for most of my teenage years. The local newsagent imported them and often there would be a backlog of around four issues due to shipping delays or strikes due to not enough HP sause in the staff cafeteria, this was pre Thatcher Britain after all. The Trigan Empire was a favourite of mine too. Actually the standard of illustration and text was top rate, but then, of course,I only bought them for the articles.... honestly.

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  6. Much appreciate the nostalgia! This is almost a 'comic' and there are a few historical 'graphic novels' out there...wonder if there's a list of the good ones anywhere?

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    1. Well if you haven't got the Charley's War collection that will keep you busy. Apart from that the best bet is to learn French!

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