Heros Update

Not ONE but TWO exciting bits of information for you to digest and act upon.

Firstly we're very pleased to be able to announce that we are now accepting pre-orders for the eagerly expected Frank Bellamy's Heros the Spartan The Complete Adventures

 

You can pre-order the book now from this exciting page

 

If you chose to pay by Paypal then you are reserving a copy and you've budgeted for it at a time convenient for you. Alternately if you pay by credit card you have the satisfaction of knowing your copy is reserved but that we won't charge your card until we have the book in stock from the printers and we're ready to ship. The book is set to retail at just £95. We wanted to keep the price below three figures while still offering our usual high production values. We're working on a shipping price for customers outside the UK and it will be finalised once we have an exact weight. This will be another large book but we only charge the cost price of airmail postage to keep it honest for our loyal customers.

 

And what about the second piece of news? Those of you who collect our super limited editions will be pleased to know that once again we will be offering a deluxe leather bound edition with extra features. Most of this is still under wraps at the moment but I can tell you that this edition will comprise of just 120 copies worldwide making it an instant collectible.  Be warned that these leather editions will not hang around long! We will have the price and the pre-order available in the next few days. Watch the skies or preferably subscribe to our email newsletter for the latest updates.

 

Please remember that for both the regular and the leather editions if you pre-order you are guaranteed to be able to purchase at the stated pre-order price, regardless of what happens to the strength of GP Pound Sterling, the cost of paper, printing et cetera in the next couple of months.

 

Bellamy captures a wonderful facial expression in this Heros panel

Remember Heros isn't our only book featuring Frank Bellamy's glorious artwork; see here for details.

 

 

That's all for now, just remember not to put any books on the bonfire come November 5th, that's the Fireman's job.

Best Regards

Dave

 

Off To The Races

Following on from Peter's recent post I'm happy to report that this week Illustrators issue Two is on it's way to our printers.

 

The cover feature is A Brush with Fitzrovia The Elegant Art of David Wright. You can subscribe to Illustrators  here (scroll down the page to get to #2).

 

In other news work continues apace with Frank Bellamy's Heros The Spartan and while that book is a little way off I was reminded recently of one of my favourite Bellamy illustrations featured in our Frank Bellamy's Story of World War One book.

 

 

 

I can't really imagine the horror that a tank attack would have for a WWI era infantry soldier stuck in a trench but Bellamy certainly gives us a flavour of it here. The wonderful limited edition hardcover, with bonus print limited to 175 copies is available here and the trade edition here

Back with more soon.

Best

Dave

Holding Out for a Heros!*

You will be pleased to know that work is proceeding at a furious pace on our definitive Frank Bellamy Heros the Spartan tome. Peter Richardson, our answer to Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C. has been working 25 hours a day (or so he tells us) digitally restoring high resolution scans of the best copies of Eagle known to Fankind. The results look stunning, so much better than the slightly off register printing in the original comic. So good that they might almost be originals. Ah ha! and there's the rub. There is nothing quite like the beauty of a high resolution scan of one of Frank Bellamy's original paintings. We want to make our book as special as possible and to that end we have been searching out Heros original artwork for inclusion in the book. This is where you, our loyal readers come in. Do you, by any chance (and I think you'd know...) own an original Bellamy Heros page? Do you know another collector with impeccable taste who owns one? If so we'd love to get in contact with you to arrange for a scan that could be included in the book. If you can help with a scan the you will receive acknowledgement in the book and owners of an original we use will receive a complimentary copy of the book. Right let's see how many boy detectives we have in the audience!

All the Best and have a great weekend!

Dave

*With apologies to all Bonnie Tyler fans in the audience!

Heros - A First Glimpse of the Cover Art

Dave, over at Book Palace HQ has been doing a magnificent job of releasing tit-bits of information on our forthcoming Heros project and as we have been emailing contributors, restoring scans and devising the overall layout, none of which could have happened without the negotiations with various interested parties to achieve copyright clearance, dotting of Is, crossing of Ts etc, etc, we have been aware of a build up of speculation to the point where we just know that we have to start showing you something more substantial than verbatim scans of old Heros spreads.

So let me fill you in on a few of the details, so you can get a handle on what is happening. Firstly and most importantly the format; the book is going to be the same size as our Wulf the Briton epic, so it's Gi-Normous, so that you can fully appreciate the artwork as Frank Bellamy intended it to be seen. Interestingly, Bellamy was such a perfectionist that he often worked on his strips the same size as they were reproduced, and never more than a quarter up, so he knew exactly how each pen line and brush stroke would reproduce. In addition and such was his professionalism, he reduced the number of bottles of colour Pelikan ink he worked with to ... 3, plus black. The reason being that Eric Bemrose who printed the Eagle would often have to retouch art which had colours that were proving unco-operative in repro and such work resulted in the publisher having a re-touching surcharge added to their bill. Bellamy's work NEVER incurred one of these charges.

So the good news is that, as with Wulf, you are getting the optimum best job we can deliver in terms of the pages being as Bellamy intended. There is one compromise we have had to make and that is that the book will not be presenting each double page spread on a single page. We fully explored the feasibility of such an approach, but we were left with two alternatives, one being a greatly reduced size for each Heros spread, the other being a book that would have to be bound along it's longer edge and would cost a fortune.

So in the end sanity prevailed, we went back and looked at the double page spread in our companion volume Wulf The Briton (there is one from Christmas 1959) and looked at the all important gutter. The wonderful thing about Prolong is the quality of their binding, the books are bound in signatures of four sheets and open out flat with no problem whatsoever, so in the end we decided that the answer to our problem was right under our noses. In addition the book will be much easier to handle and more of a reading experience. Plus it will greatly help in keeping the cost of this book down. So all in all we decided it was by far the best route to take.

Anyway and because I know you are keen to see something more substantive here are some before and after restorations plus...





The cover. Hope you like it.

Heros - A Quick Update

Before I head out of the office for a weekend spent camping in a field with a bunch of Dead Heads (no giggling at the back please) I'm very pleased to be able to announce that comics legends John Byrne, Dave Gibbons and Walt Simonson have all graciously offered to contribute their memories and appreciation of Frank Bellamy's legendary Heros the Spartan comic strip. The three gentlemen  explain a little of what Bellamy's famous creation means to them and the influence it has had on their own outstanding and award winning work.

These two images come from the rarely seen Eagle Annual from 1966, the very last work by Frank Bellamy on this series to be published in Eagle. Note particularly the use of dramatic contrast in the inking, unusual in artwork of this period designed to be coloured where simple blocking usually sufficed. Also of course the circular panel used to highlight and suspend a moment of dramatic action.

I think this second example really shows Bellamy's layout design and colouring to great advantage.

We are honoured to receive Messrs Byrne, Gibbons and Simonson's contributions for our Heros project and we hope that their insights will enable readers far and wide to more fully appreciate the genius of Frank Bellamy's creation.

Please note scans above are from a copy of the Eagle annual in rough and not our finished work destined for the Book Palace Books edition, thus the bend in the centre of the page where it isn't quite flat.

Right off to camp it up in the mud. See you soon I hope!

Best
Dave





Our Next Project

With both the first issue of Illustrators and our Art of Denis McLoughlin book currently being printed we thought it was time to give readers a sneak preview of our next major project. As some of you will know we have wanted to publish Frank Bellamy's work on Heros the Spartan for some time. This classic strip from the pages of the legendary Eagle comic stands equal to the best comics art from around the world. To do justice to the quality of the material we are aiming for very high production values. If by chance you have never seen the late great Frank Bellamy's work on Heros here are a few panels, the large battle scene at the bottom is taken from a page of original art which is a wonder to behold. There will be more to follow, keep watching these pages.

Best Regards, Dave.