Frank Bellamy's Complete Swift Stories

Available now from Book Palace Books, Frank Bellamy's Complete Swift Stories gathers together all of Bellamy's contributions to the classic childrens' comic. Following a brief period drawing for Mickey Mouse Weekly, Bellamy began drawing strips for Swift in 1954 and contributed his first two major strips to that paper, "King arthur and His Knights" (1955-56) and "Robin Hood and His Merry Men" (1956-57), before moving on to draw biographical strips for Eagle. This book brings together every episode of Bellamy’s work for Swift, uncut and as they appeared over 50 years ago.

SYNOPSIS

Collecting together in one bumper, 380-page volume every strip and illustration produced by Frank Bellamy for the classic British childrens' comic Swift, this volume contains the complete adventures "Robin Hood", "King Arthur and His Knights" and "Swiss Family Robinson", plus his contributions to other strips ("The Fleet Family", "Paul English") and the Swift Annual. As a bonus, the book includes a colour frontispiece of a cover Bellamy produced for the paper in its later years and is issued with a unique print of a page of "Robin Hood" reproduced from an original art board.

The book has a foreword by Dave Gibbons and introductory material to each of the strips by Steve Holland.

This is a limited edition, slipcased hardcover with both covers and slipcase bound in leather. It is limited to 200 copies.

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Reviews

"The overall effect of pouring over the contents of this collection is witnessing the development of Bellamy from a very good illustrator who had recently embarked on comic strips (at the age of 37 he wasn't a young prodigy like the Embleton brothers) to a real super star of comic art ... The book itself is a real work of art both in terms of its design which neatly compliments the dynamics of Bellamy's artistry as well as in its production providing the bibliophile with an experience second to none in terms of tactile and aesthetic satisfaction."—Peter Richardson, Cloud 109.

"The strips are beautifully reproduced and careful scanning and restoration from the original printed pages from Swift comic have achieved a fidelity of reproduction which put many other collections of U.K. comic art to shame, in fact there is no diminution from the quality of the Robin Hood print reproduced from original art which accompanies this book and its equivalent page in the book itself. The luxurious feel of the book is greatly enhanced by the beautiful leather binding and slipcase in which the book is housed and while the price tag will be an impediment to the casual purchaser, devotees of Bellamy's work will be more than delighted in the knowledge that the production values that have been invested in this book are second to none"—Amazon.co.uk.