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Topic: The Two Franks - Sad Anniversaries (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:08am | IP Logged | 1  

Every year when my birthday rolls 'round, I am reminded that it is bracketed by the deaths of two of my all time favorite (and most influential) artists, Frank Hampson and Frank Bellamy.

Bellamy died on July 5th, 1976, at the young age of 47, and Hampson followed on July 8th, 1985, at 67.

These were the artists who introduced me to DAN DARE, in EAGLE, the impact of which upon my career literally cannot be measured. (Hampson had created DARE, and, indeed, co-created EAGLE.)

Here are a pair of stunning pages from TERRA NOVA, the storyline that introduced me, at age 9, to Mssers Hampson, Bellamy and Dare. . .

Hampson (Studio). . .

Bellamy. . .

Thank you, gentlemen. My life would have been very much diminished without your presence!

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Erin Anna Leach
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:14am | IP Logged | 2  

Gorgious art. Did either Hampson or Bellamy do their own coloring as well?

Edited by Aaron Adam Leach on 08 July 2011 at 8:15am
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:16am | IP Logged | 3  

Just stunning. The way Lex's sweater alone is rendered is incredible.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:16am | IP Logged | 4  

Gorgious art. Did either Hampson or Bellamy do their own coloring as well?

••

Bellamy, yes. Hampson's was done by his studio, under his supervision.

These are, it should be noted, full color, hand painted pages.

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:20am | IP Logged | 5  

Incidentally, to add the correct weight to that first page, Dan and his pals have flown to the distant world of Terra Nova searching for his father, who had piloted a mission there 30 years before -- and failed to return.
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Martin Arlt
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:21am | IP Logged | 6  

I remember seeing an original Bellamy page at a gallery a few years back. "Stunning" doesn't begin to do it justice.
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William Roberge
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 7  

JB, Do you think you would ever want to try your hand (and head) at a Dan Dare story?

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132137
Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:25am | IP Logged | 8  

I remember seeing an original Bellamy page at a gallery a few years back.

••

Happily, all I have to do in order to have the same experience is look at the walls of my Studio. I have several Bellamy originals, two double page spreads from HEROS THE SPARTAN (EAGLE) and a page from the story that followed TERRA NOVA, PROJECT NIMBUS. Plus, I have two of his black and white GARTH dailies.

No Hampson, alas. The prices had begun to climb toward the regions Dan Dare commonly explored by the time I got around to serious collecting. Mind you, if the RIGHT page turned up for sale. . .

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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132137
Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:27am | IP Logged | 9  

JB, Do you think you would ever want to try your hand (and head) at a Dan Dare story?

••

I still occasionally doodle the characters and ships from DAN DARE, for my own amusement (and, as was noted in another thread recently, his signature ship, Anastasia - seen on the Hampson page, albeit cropped - has turned up in the background in a few of my books) but to actually tackle a story would be far too intimidating, I think!!

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Aaron Smith
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Joined: 06 September 2006
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 8:45am | IP Logged | 10  

Thanks for posting those pages, JB. I was familiar with Bellamy, but not with Hampson's work. Great stuff!
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132137
Posted: 08 July 2011 at 9:19am | IP Logged | 11  

By the way, on a "historical" note, I scanned that art this morning from the actual, printed pages which I cut from the front of the copies of EAGLE my aunt started sending me in 1959, and which have managed to survive in pretty good shape down to the present day. (Some of you may recall that, after perhaps a decade or more when I thought they had long since vanished during a move, I was delighted to discover them, all still in the brown paper sheaths I made for them half a century ago, in a stack of completely unrelated papers and whatnot in a corner of one of the smaller rooms of my Studio.)

As I have mentioned before, some beautiful collections of these stories are available from Titan Books, thru Amazon.com, and are HIGHLY recommended.

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Don Zomberg
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Joined: 23 November 2005
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Posted: 08 July 2011 at 9:35am | IP Logged | 12  

I've danced close to that edge, JB, but can you recommend which volumes to start with? Does it matter?

It's quite telling that I've never read Dan Dare and I keep flirting with the idea of purchasing those hardcover books!

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