Thunderbirds original double-page artwork (1966) drawn, painted and signed by Frank Bellamy for TV Century 21 No 90 1966. From the Bob Monkhouse Archive.
The Bob Monkhouse Archive featuring his collection of original artwork produced some record-breaking results in the latest auction at Comic Book Auctions – with a Frank Bellamy double page artwork for TV Century 21 breaking the record for any Thunderbirds piece sold in a ComPal auction with a sale price of £4550.
Three consecutive strips of Garth for the Daily Mirror, all signed by Bellamy, also sold for £1200.
Three consecutive strips of Garth for the Daily Mirror by FRank Bellamy
The combination of fresh-to-market high quality boards and Uncle Bob’s unrivalled provenance started with an Ally Sloper piece from 1900. The artwork by W F Thomas from yesteryear looking like it was drawn yesterday its ‘Vote For Sloper’ cover strongly endorsed at £720.
Ally Sloper artwork by W F Thomas
A Terry Wakefield-illustrated “Terry Thomas” strip for Film Fun in the 1950s fetched £270 and a Don Lawrence “Erik the Viking” artwork for Smash fetched £400.
“The Trigan Empire” adventure series was one of the main reasons for the popularity of Look and Learn. Another was the fact that it was initially drawn by Don Lawrence and a page by him fetched £420.
Trigan Empire original colour artwork drawn and painted by Don Lawrence from Look and Learn cover dated 28th February 1970 (later reprinted in Vulcan No 28 in 1976). Trigo and his arch-enemy, Zer Thorus, face the searing wilderness. From the Bob Monkhouse Archive.
The auction house says they hope to offer more art from the Bob Monkhouse archive next year.
Other highlights of the auction included the sale of a complete year of The Beano for 1939, issues that heralded the first “Jack Flash” by Dudley Watkins, the first “Pansy Potter in Wonderland” by Jimmy Clark and the first “Horse that Jack Built” by Bill Holdroyd. The collection sold for £1520.
A bound volume of The Dandy from 1948 also contained several first appearances, notably “Raggy Muffin the Dandy Dog” by Jimmy Chrichton and “The Slave of the Magic Lamp” by Fred Sturrock, which magicked a six fold upper estimate £2550.
A Dudley Watkins “Biffo the Bear” cover for the Beano published in 1953 just reached its estimate of £1540, and a page of his The Broons art fetched £500.
Beano/Biffo The Bear original front cover artwork (1953) from The Beano No 551 Feb 7th 1953. Drawn and signed by Dudley Watkins.
A worn copy of the first issue of Commando – War Stories in Pictures missing its back cover commanded a hefty £310. ‘Walk – or Pay!’
Three original Charley’s War artworks by Joe Colquhoun revealed a terrible secret from the battle of the Somme in July 1916. The centenary of ‘The War to End All Wars’ resonated with our bidders and £2650 spirited these atmospheric pages away.
Charley’s War three original artworks by Joe Colquhoun from Battle 615 (1984). The Battle of the Somme, July 1916. Charley and his mates have been taken prisoner and one of them reveals the terrible secret of the previous Christmas in flashback where the captain’s treachery resulted in the Germans’ deathly revenge.
• You can read the full “Market Report” here on Comic Book Auctions
Our apologies for including artwork from Garth not featured in this sale in an earlier version of this story
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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John,
Not the highest price raised at auction for a Bellamy Thunderbirds double page spread – one sold on eBay for £5600 in 2014. I was following it at the time and it was a last minute bidding war (Two buyers probably each thinking they’d made a killer bid at the death and not expecting it to go that high).
I located a link to a blog posted at the time:
http://frankbellamy.blogspot.com/2014/05/original-art-on-ebay-thunderbirds-from.html
Regards,
Mike
Thanks Mike. The price fetched was the highest price paid for such art in a Comic Book Auctions Sale – I’ve updated the copy accordingly to reflect that.