FRANK
BELLAMY'S HEROS
THE SPARTAN
(Book
Palace Books, 2013; Hardcover)
Collects
Heros
The Spartan
comic strips, (Books 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8) originally published in Eagle
on October 27, 1962- October 26, 1963, June 9- October 17, 1964, and
June 6- October 17, 1965 and the Eagle
Annual September 1965
Writer:
Tom Tully
Artist:
Frank Bellamy
Limited
to 720 copies worldwide, this deluxe hardcover has made me a convert
to The Church of Bellamy. Once you see the light you too will begin
hunting down all of these expensive, obscure British books. I have
quite a collection of them going now. Kill me.
Heros
The Spartan is, obviously, a Spartan from Rome. His adventures see
him encountering Jackal-Men, sea serpents, armies of giants,
monsters, pagan god cults, and Druids while taking him
as far as Libya. This is incredible fantasy stuff. Being British,
there is way more violence than American comics would allow
at that time.
You
know what I really loved about this strip? The complete lack of humor
and snark. No crappy one-liners, no self deprecation or any of that
other crap. Those things have helped ruin comics.
Bellamy's
artwork is breathtaking. It is honestly quite distracting. I would
have to pore over each double-page spread strip, read it, and then go
back and gawk for a while. It took me six months to finish this book
because of that.
Stuff
like this makes 99% of comic books published seem like amateurish
crap. This is high adventure that is also high art. This strip
belongs on walls in museums. Forget chase variants and crossovers and
pick up Heros The Spartan! You can thank me later.
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- This strip was originally published as a two page
centerfold. There is some slight gutter loss here and there, with
this example being the worst.
 |
| The absolute worst case scenario in terms of gutter loss. The rest of the book is quite good in this regard. |
Sometimes
there is zero loss, other times very very minor, other times maybe
1/8”, and the worst being slightly more. This wouldn't annoy me as
much as it did if the word balloons didn't cross the gutter in the
books. Sometimes a letter of a word gets swallowed, and the worst
case scenario (seen above) is two letters get lost. It is still
readable but it takes a second of guesswork. It didn't detract from
the quality of the story but it did annoy me.
The
only other complaint that I have is that is that Books 3, 5, and 7
were omitted because Luis Bermejo handled the art duties. Bermejo is
great in his own right and I would love to see these strips as well.
Book Palace made a judgment call to go with Bellamy strips only with
this book. The disruption in story is only momentary, as
the weekly strip was designed in such a way as to let anyone walk in
at any time and get it. It is really a lost art form.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book: Foreword by
John Byrne. (2 pages)
Foreword
by Dave Gibbons. (2 pages)
Foreword
by Walt Simonson. (2 pages)
Foreword
by Ken Steacy. (1 page)
Foreword
by John Watkiss (1 page)
Introduction
by Norman Boyd. (8 pages)
Lighting
The Darkness: An Insight Into The Life And Work Of Frank Bellamy,
loaded with rare unseen artwork, full page sample strips of other
Bellamy work, and an interview from the 1970s by Dez Skinn and Dave
Gibbons. (37 pages)
Linework
and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. These were mostly
scanned from original art boards, meaning that this material has
never been seen by the general public in this quality and detail.
Think of it as a frame by frame restoration of a classic movie,
finally available on Blu-Ray disc.
Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. Incredible thick dull matte finish uncoated
stock, although it is very smooth feeling. Whatever sorcery they used
to make this paper, or no matter how many virgin Amazon rainforest
trees the Chinese paper mills used to make it do not matter so long
as I have a book as beautiful book like this. I am of course
kidding...or am I? Face facts, folks- if you collect dead tree
editions of books then you can't be that concerned about the
environment, can you?
Binding
rating: 5 out of 5. Smyth sewn binding, ten stitches per
signature. The book lays completely flat from the first page to the
last, which is a godsend given how massive it is! (11
X 14 inches, or 270 mm X 360 mm for my friends out there in the
non-English units of measuring system world outside of the United
States.)
Hardback
cover coating rating:
5 out of 5. The image is printed on the casewrap; no dustjacket
provided. The images are spot varnished and semi-glossy, while the
solids have a dull matte finish coating which seems fairly impervious
to scuffing.
