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THE EAGLE SOCIETY is dedicated to the memory of EAGLE - Britain's National Picture Strip Weekly - the leading Boy's magazine of the 1950s and 1960s. We publish an A4, quarterly journal - the Eagle Times.

This weblog has been created to provide an additional, more immediate, forum for news and commentary about the society and EAGLE-related issues. Want to know more? See First Post and Eagle - How it began.

Monday 30 June 2008

Eagle Artists - Giorgio Bellavitis

Giorgio Bellavitis (1926 - ) was born in Venice. As a teenager during World War II, he was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement and was imprisoned for several weeks with Mario Faustinelli and Alberto Ongaro. The three friends invented a costumed righter-of-wrongs called ‘L’Asso di Picche’ (‘The Ace of Spades’). After the war they set up a publishing company, gathered a number of artists and writers together to form the Grupo Veneziano (Venetian Group), and launched a magazine called Albo Uragano (White Hurricane), which later became renamed, (after its lead strip) Asso di Picche. The strip was pencilled by Hugo Pratt and inked by Bellavitis and Faustinelli. After the revamp, one of the first new strips was ‘Junglemen’, the first episode of which was drawn by Bellavitis, who then drew ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ under the pseudonym George Summers. After Asso di Picche folded in 1948, the majority of Bellavitis work until 1954 seems to have been for Il Vittorioso (The Conqueror). His strips included I Cavalieri del Corvo, Acqua Cattiva, Il Palio di Siena, and Amburgo 1947. Early(?) in this period he also created ‘La Strada Senza Fine’ (The Road Without End), for Corrierre dello Scolaro.

In 1954, Bellavitis moved to England, and some time after, he was instrumental in introducing the Italian illustrator Rimaldo D’Ami (Roy Dami, founder of the Damy Agency) to Britain. He was the therefore first of many Italian comic strip artists to be published in Britain.

Bellavitis
first strip after arriving in England was ‘Paul English’ for Swift. He then drew ‘Mark, the Youngest Disciple’ to a script by Chad Varah, his finest work for Eagle. Bellavitis stood in for Richard Jennings on two complete ‘Storm Nelson’ adventures, the first of which was set in his place of birth*. He also drew for Eagle Annual and Swift Annual, including the illustrations for a text story The Winged Devils - a tale of the Ancient Vikings in Swift Annual No 2. He worked for a short time on Express Weekly, drawing ‘Rodney Flood’, and he is known to have done some illustrations for the Sunday Pictorial Children’s Annual. In 1956 he helped out on Eagle’s ‘Jeff Arnold in Riders of the Range’. His work also appeared in Playhour and Treasure. In 1958, however, he returned to Italy to pursue a career in architecture.

Professor Giorgio Bellavitis is now actively involved in the conservation and restoration of Venice, advising UNESCO and other bodies. Girogio Bellavitis' projects in Venice have included, in the 1980s, the garden design and landscaping for Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, the home of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and from 1997 to 2005 direction of the restoration of Ca’Foscari. Giorgio Bellavitis has written and co-authored a number of books and is the author of ‘Venice: a City in the Sea of History’, which prefaces the Heritage Guide to Venice published by the Touring Club of Italy.

The picture above is from 'Mark the Youngest Disciple', Eagle, 12th November, 1954.

* The Eagle strip 'Storm Nelson' was later reprinted in Italy in Giorno dei Ragazzi as 'Kid Tempesta'.

Eagle strips
  • ‘Mark the Youngest Disciple’ (Vol 5 N0 46 - Vol 6 No 23)
  • ‘Storm Nelson: The Quest of the Golden Queen’ (Vol 6 No 29 - Vol 6 No 46)
  • ‘Storm Nelson: The Quest of the Southern Cross’ (Vol 6 No 47 - Vol 7 No 14)
  • ‘Riders of the Range : The Hooded Menace’ (half of 1 episode, Vol 7 No 23)
  • ‘Riders of the Range: The Wreckers’ (with Brian Lewis) (Vol 7 No 36 - Vol 7 No 44)
Eagle Annual strips
  • ‘Storm Nelson in The Mystery of the Purple Patch’ Eagle Annual No 6
Links:
ET Ref:
  • Tiner, Ron. 'Giorgio Bellavitis'. Eagle Times Vol 13 No 1 p16 - 21.

1 comment:

Will Grenham said...

Thanks to Steve Holland for a couple of points regarding my original post:

There appears to be info on the internet that Bellavitis drew 'Ghost World' in Boys' World. He may have been offered it, but as far as is known he did not draw it.

Bellavitis was instrumental in introducing d'Ami to Britain. Some sources (including the ET ref. which was the main source of the original post) have it the other way round.

I have corrected the post to reflect the best available information.