Excalibur auctions - part 3

Some images from the recent auction of original comic art from Peter Hansen's amazing collection. This art was sold on Saturday 9th May 2026 by Excalibur auctions.

Part 1 was here

Part 2 was here

Part 3 is a Frank Bellamy special!

Here's some really faded artwork (sob!)

David, the Shepherd King

Character study for Robin Hood (who appeared in Swift)

Enormous page of Frank Bellamy painting (1)

Enormous page of Frank Bellamy painting (2) - shoe to give a sense of scale!

and here's the submission 'slip' from Bellamy for his enormous picture 

Early cover artwork for Gerald Swan published novel

Don's forget to keep up with all things Frank Bellamy here

SSI journal - 1981

I've looked before at all things to do with the SSI (Society of Strip Illustration) here and I like the newsletters they produced BUT these were produced in very low quantities so you stand virtually no chance of collecting a set. 

I've looked at some examples of the SSI journal for 

1992 here 

1982 XXXXXX

1983 XXXXXX

and for other years I'm just going to collect images for the covers as and when they come up for sale on ebay. Over time we might end up with a full (??) set. So here's the start of a covers gallery for SSI journal for 1981...

SSI journal, January 1981

SSI journal, October 1981, #43

at the time of typing is currently on sale from ace ebayer ewan_b

SSI journal, Christmas 1981, #44a

recently on sale c/o ace ebayer philcomics

Eagle annual #5 - pay copy

A real one off here. Yes it's a 'pay copy' of Eagle annual #5. That is, it's a copy of the annual marked up with who was paid (and how much they were paid) for each page of the annual. I've seen copies of comics that were 'pay copies' but this was the first time I'd seen an annual.

Anyway, for posterity, here are some images from the annual. Sometimes the writer/artist is credited and sometimes it's their agent.

All images are c/o Gray Newell [with thanks to Norman Boyd for reminding me]. 

John Ryan's Harris Tweed in sporting action here 

The Imperial War Museum, R. Taylor and Frank Bellamy all contributed here

Art by Desmond Walduck; script by Alan Stranks

Art by Harry Bishop; script by Charles Chilton

More John Ryan (script & artwork)

David Langdon art (and script presumably)

Art by John Worsley; script by Alan Stranks (again)

Frank Bellamy - life drawing

Just capturing for posterity this (unsigned) Frank Bellamy piece of art that was sold on ebay a couple of months ago (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256722977992)

Price was £225 (or best offer)

The seller said...

The artwork is a drawing from life, done at a life drawing class. I acquired this original from the Book Palace in 2009, who obtained it from Frank’s widow, Nancy.

Frank Bellamy - he lifts an elephant!

I never need much of an excuse to feature the art of Frank Bellamy on the blog...and I've long wanted to feature his work for Gerry Cottle's circus because there must be all sorts of variations of these posters as it travelled around the country. 

Bellamy drew 3 posters for Gerry Cottle and you can read more about it here on Norman Boyd's amazing Frank Bellamy blog.

I featured one of the posters - The walk of death! - on the blog here

And now it's the turn of the poster "He lifts an elephant!" Not found many of these so far, I'll update the post when I find other examples.

Frank Bellamy - the walk of death!

I never need much of an excuse to feature the art of Frank Bellamy on the blog...and I've long wanted to feature his work for Gerry Cottle's circus because there must be all sorts of variations of these posters as it travelled around the country. 

Bellamy drew 3 posters for Gerry Cottle and you can read more about it here on Norman Boyd's amazing Frank Bellamy blog.

Lawless 2024 - the photos, part 6

Hard to believe it's another 6 months to Lawless, boo! While we're waiting for the time to pass here's part 6 of my photos from Lawless 2024. 

Part 1 (the artists) was here

Part 2 - 2000AD art was here

Part 3 - more 2000AD art was here

Part 4 - vintage British comic art was here

Part 5 - more vintage British comic art was here

and now yet more vintage British comic art...all from the collection of David Roach

Modsety Blaise strips by Jim Holdaway

top - art by Frank Bellamy

Johnny Future art by Luis Bermejo

art by Mike Western

Lawless 2024 - the photos, part 3

Hard to believe it's another 9 months to Lawless, boo! While we're waiting for the time to pass here's part 3 of my photos from Lawless 2024. 

Part 1 (the artists) was here

Part 2 - 2000AD art was here

Here's just some of the amazing 2000AD art that David Roach had on display...

Mick McMahon art

(mainly) Carlos Ezquerra art

Belardinelli art

Belardinelli art (top), Garth by Frank Bellamy (middle), Carol Day by David Wright (bottom)

Brian Bolland art (top) and McMahon (below)

Complete 'Wrath of the Gods' to be re-printed

Book Palace books have announced (here) that next Summer they'll be re-printing the complete Wrath of the Gods by Ron Embleton and John M Burns and Frank Bellamy's Ghost World in one huge volume.

All the Embleton and Burns double-page spreads will be printed as deluxe fold-outs in this monster full colour volume.

This sounds mouth-watering! A complete reprint of Wrath is regularly cited as being one of the reprints fans of vintage British comics say they'd most like to see and now, next Summer, they can!

Christmas has come early!

A page from Brett Million and the Ghost World strip by Frank Bellamy

4th British comicon - 1971

Here's a rare survivor from 1971 - yes, it's the programme for  Comicon 1971 - the fourth annual British comics convention.

It's a single (folded) piece of A4 paper.

The front cover

The programme of events etc.

The back cover 

Kapow - the art of making comics & film; original comic art, part 5

Just ended at the Rugby Art Museum & Gallery is Kapow - the art of making comics and film (more details here). If you've not yet been to this free exhibition here are just a few of the pages of original vintage British comics art that were on display

I looked at vintage British comic art here and here and here
I looked at 2000AD / Dredd art here

Here's the Frank Bellamy art that was on display...