EAGLE TIMES VOL. 37 No. 2 Summer 2024

 

The new EAGLE Times is out now. It features a report on our recent Gathering in Cardiff and a range of other articles, including pieces about 'Storm Nelson', the first 'Dan Dare' stage play and the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway. Details of how to buy a copy are printed on the right and full contents are listed below:

• Keep Young and Beautiful
The text of Steve Winders’ address to the Eagle Society at the Cardiff Gathering in 2024.

• Railway Wonders: The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway by David Britton
2027 marks the 100th anniversary of the line and the article recalls the 1954 Eagle feature and looks at the line today. 

• These are a Few of my Favourite Things by David Gould
An article about some of the best parts of Eagle, including the strip, “Dan Dare – The Red Moon Mystery”. 

• Eagle Society Annual Gathering – Cardiff 2024
A report by Reg Hoare on the successful Gathering, which included excellent talks by Mike Collins and David Roach. 

• Talking Up a Storm, Again, by David Britton
A look back at Eagle’s often overlooked sea adventurer and the artists who drew the strip.

• The Half Moon Mystery
Steve Winders reports on a ‘Dan Dare’ play performed in London in 1972 and tells the story of the people who staged it and their remarkable theatre.

• The Case of the Shivering Samaritan Part Two
An Adventure of Archie Berkley-Willoughby of Scotland Yard by Steve Winders, in which Archie meets the Samaritans' founder and EAGLE contributor Chad Varah.

• Letters page

THE 'RETURN' OF STORM NELSON

Three years ago I gave a speech at the EAGLE Gathering in Southport where I commented on the number of storms that were battering the country. I said that giving them names was only encouraging them and that I was looking forward to 'Storm Nelson'. Well now we have 'Storm Nelson'. Named by the Spanish Weather Service, it has brought strong winds, heavy rain and low temperatures to Britain, with snow in places. EAGLE's Storm Nelson was a 'sea adventurer', who owned a Fleet of marine vehicles, including a ship, a motor launch, a submarine and a small helicopter, which he and his team used to right wrongs all over the world. The strip, by Guy Morgan, who wrote as Edward Trice, began in October 1953 and ran until March 1962. Morgan was a film and television writer who also wrote a 'Storm Nelson' novel, Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard. Most of the stories were drawn by Richard Jennings, who also took over the writing of the strip for the final year. Giorgio Bellavitis also illustrated two stories. 

Steve Winders

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 22

Two contributors to EAGLE had been prisoners of the Germans during the War and both recalled their experiences in significant post war films. Guy Morgan, who wrote the Storm Nelson strip for EAGLE, using the nom de plume of Edward Trice, wrote The Captive Heart, which was made just a year after the War and was filmed in the actual camp where he had been held. Although the central plot of this film is fictional, it focuses on a large group of characters and convincingly conveys the experiences of prisoners of War. Morgan also worked on the script of Albert R.N. (1953) which is a fictionalised account of a real event that had involved another EAGLE contributor, the artist John Worsley, who illustrated The Adventures of PC 49 from 1951 until 1957. As a prisoner, Worsley made a dummy to fool the Germans at roll call, enabling a prisoner to escape without being missed. (See above). The original 'Albert' dummy did not survive the War, but Worsley made another one for the film and this can still be seen in the Royal Naval Dockyard Museum in Portsmouth. 

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:

• Previous post on eagle-times: Regarding Giorgio Bellavitis
• Lambiek Comiclopedia entry: Giorgio Bellavitis
  

ET Ref:

• Tiner, Ron. 'Giorgio Bellavitis'. Eagle Times Vol 13 No 1 p16 - 21.