Eagle Artists - Robert Ayton

Robert Norton Ayton (1915-1985) was born in Bowes Park, in the London borough of Wood Green. He was the second of four brothers. In 1919 the Aytons moved to Wembley, where Robert attended Park Lane Primary School. As a boy, as well as showing an early interest and capability in art, he loved speed and designed and built model aeroplanes. His nephew Rupert (son of Robert’s younger brother William) later cherished a 12" example of one of Robert’s hand-carved propellers.

In 1928, following the sudden death of his father, the almost 13-year-old Robert was offered an apprenticeship with Adkin and Sons, a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company. Robert's father and grandfather had both been loyal and successful servants to Adkin. Robert however declined the invitation, and from about 1930 he attended the Harrow School of Art. He may have taken additional courses with the Central School of Art and Design and/or Hammersmith School of Art.

After his formal art training, Robert worked for several advertising agencies, including (possibly) Dorland's, before becoming a freelance artist. In the late 1930s he had an account with Castrol and around this time also undertook substantial commissions from Rolls Royce. His various commissions included aeroplanes and fast cars, including Malcolm (later Sir Malcolm) Campbell’s Bluebird.

In 1939 Robert met Joan Elmes, who would later become his wife. They saw little of each other during the next few years because Robert was called to Army service in the Second World War, but they were married during leave, in 1942.

After the war, in 1945 Robert picked up his freelance artist’s career. He became friends with Norman Williams who, from 1950, would illustrate many of Eagle’s true life adventures. Through Norman Williams, in 1955 Robert was recruited by Marcus Morris to illustrate a new adventure strip set in the times of the Napoleonic Wars. The strip, written by George Beardmore was ‘Jack o’Lantern’. It quickly became one of the most popular strip stories in Eagle, as recorded by the Hulton readers poll at the time.

Soon after starting on ‘Jack o’Lantern’, Robert and Joan moved to Yeovil, Somerset, and over the next five years Robert would draw nearly 250 weekly full-colour episodes. His strips had an air of authenticity aided by painstaking research of his subject matter from uniforms and fashion to the settings for the stories. Joan recalled, when interviewed in 1997, that she and Robert tramped around the village of Bosham taking photographs when Robert was researching the location for the ‘Jack o’Lantern’ story ‘The Moonshiners’.

In 1957, when his friend Norman Williams died, Robert took the news hard but, called on the draw the final episode of ‘The Great Sailor’ (the story of Nelson), he did so, although his artwork was not credited. After he left in 1959 to take a break from weekly deadlines, ‘Jack o’Lantern’ continued, drawn by another artist (C. L. Doughty), but only for another 36 episodes.

After what was to be a two year break from comic strip work, he took on drawing half page illustrations for Girl, and other art work. Then Robert returned to Eagle in 1961 to draw ‘The Golden Man’, the story of Sir Walter Raleigh, in a strip scripted by Guy Daniel and Marcus Morris. It was his final work for Eagle.

Like quite a few former Eagle artists (including Frank Hampson, Frank Humphris and Martin Aitchison) Robert later worked for Ladybird Books, illustrating for them around 50 books on a variety of subjects, from fairy tales to technology. Often he would put himself into his drawings - for example as the Slave of the Lamp in ‘Aladdin’. He taught illustration part-time at the West of England College of Art. He also illustrated for Oxford University Press, drew television background illustrations for BBC Bristol, and from 1980 was a member of the artistic group known as the Bristol Savages. At that time he lived in a large farmhouse outside Backwell, Bristol.

In 1983 Robert and Joan moved to a smaller home, a glass-workers row house, at nearby Nailsea. It was there, two years later and aged 70, that Robert died in Joan's arms after suffering a massive heart attack. He and Joan never had children. As Joan put it, when interviewed for Eagle Times: “There are enough delinquents in the world without bringing more into it.”

Eagle Strips:

• Jack o’Lantern (Vol 6 No 4 - Vol 10 No 40)
• The Great Sailor - final episode, uncredited (Vol 8 No 11)
• The Golden Man (Vol 12 Nos 15 - 37)

Eagle Annual Strips:

• Jack o’Lantern Eagle Annual No 6 - No 11 [1962]

Links:

• Bibliography at Bear Alley

ET Refs:

• Howard Corn. Robert Ayton. Eagle Times Vol 10 No 3 pp 2 - 6 *

* Thanks to Rupert Ayton for corrections and additional information about his uncle Robert

Update (1 Apr 2014) - Thanks to Andoni for correcting info re Jack o'Lantern (which previously stated Robert Ayton's run on the strip ended with issue Vol 10 No 45). As Andoni has pointed out, C.L. Doughty took over from issue Vol 10 No 41. C.L. Doughty therefore drew 36, rather than the previously stated 31 episodes, and I've amended that info also.     

Eagle Annual -the Best of the 1960s comic (review)

Just published by Orion Books is the latest in their Eagle Annual nostalgia series, which began two years ago with Eagle Annual - the Best of the 1950s Comic (see Steve Winders' review at Bear Alley), and was followed last year by the Eagle Annual of the Cutaways (see eagle-times' previous review). This year's offering is Eagle Annual - the Best of the 1960s Comic. Compared with Eagle Annual - the Best of the 1950s, the price has increased from £12.99 to £14.99 (the same as the Eagle Annual of the Cutaways), though (in this case) the page count has increased, from 176 to 192. As before the books are edited by, and have an introduction by, Daniel Tatarsky.

As Tatarsky says in his introduction, Eagle's creator and first editor Marcus Morris chose to include only selections up to 1962 in his The Best of Eagle, which was published in 1977, for reasons Tatarsky speculates were "more to do with his absence after that date than any genuine feelings about the output under his replacement". While I would agree that much of Eagle's content in the years following Morris' departure could appropriately be included under a "Best of" title, much should not. Many Eagle readers gave up the original Eagle in the mid-sixties as the quality declined following the buy-out of Hulton Press and the later takeover by IPC. There is some good material presented in this book, covering 1960 to 1969, but, not surprisingly, the majority of the content is from the first half of the decade, rather than the last.

Starting with a sympathetic two page introduction, the book proper begins with the first front cover from 1960 (2nd January, 1960 Volume 11 No 1), which as Tatarsky points out, was the last attributed to Hulton Press due to the buy-out by Odhams. After this date the former Hultons became Longacre Press. By then Frank Bellamy was drawing 'Dan Dare', and a full page of his 'Trip to Trouble' artwork is seen. The book closes with the "Great News, Pals!" advertisement that appeared in the last issue of Eagle on 26th April 1969, announcing the "merger" with Lion. In between, the main content consists of various sample pages, articles and "clippings" from Eagle's last decade, presented in almost, but something less than, chronological order. As with the Best of the 1950s, many of the items have no indication of the dates on which they were published, making the book not very useful as a reference volume - but then reference is not its intended purpose.

The format is similar to the previous offerings - ie slightly larger than the traditional Eagle Annual dimensions - but the dull matte finish, and "cloth" spine used previously has been eschewed, appropriately, for a glossy cover more reminiscent of the later 1960s Eagle Annual covers. Where the previous offerings provided an overtly "distressed" look, outwardly at least this effect has been toned down, and the book should look more appealing in the bookshop displays. Unfortunately opening the book reveals a continuation of the "dirty page" approach that has been criticised previously (not just here!) in connection with the earlier volumes. If anything the effect is worse in this book, as even full pages of the original magazine have been trimmed and set within this grubby looking background. The editor provides occasional commentary within the book. It is an unfortunate feature that some of the commentary is superimposed over the original content!

All that said, the book has a lot to recommend it. Take a look. If you weren't put off before, then you should enjoy this book just as much as the first. Lets us know what you think.

As I write, the book can be obtained from Amazon.co.uk for £8.99

Eagle Times Vol 22 No 3

Autumn 2009 contents

• What's in a name? - The first part of a look at the career of multi-talented artist Gerry Embleton, who contributed to the original Eagle as well as drawing the revamped 'Dan Dare' for "new" Eagle in 1982
• The Eagle art of George William Backhouse - a review of the career of the artist, concentrating on his work for Hulton Press.
• Dimworthy and Co. - an exploration of the schoolboy comic strip series from the 1960s Eagle
• The Rivals of Jeff Arnold, part 2 - 'Steve Larrabee' from Lone Star comic
• Danny Dare - a review of the 1964 comic strip about "Dan Dare's Number One Fan!", created for Wham! by Leo Baxendale and later drawn in part by Dan Dare artists Bruce Cornwell and Don Harley
• Colour Printing in Eagle - a brief account of the four-colour photogravure process used to produce Eagle, with examples of the colour separations and print combinations that led to a page of 'Dan Dare'
• Journey into Space: The Host - a review of Julian Simpson's new radio play featuring the latest adventure of Charles Chilton's Jet Morgan and his team of space explorers
• John Ryan (1921-2009) - an obituary of the creator of Captain Pugwash and Harris Tweed (Eagle), Lettice Leefe (Girl) and Sir Boldasbrass (Swift), plus John Ryan Remembered
• The musical George Backhouse - illustrating Master Melodies of the World for Amalgamated Press in the 1930s
• PC 49 and the Case of the Murderous Mouse - the 3rd and concluding part of the story adaptation
• Lost Continuity in the Dan Dare strip - commentary on an apparent inconsistency in the fictional Dan Dare timeline
• Hulton's Merchandising - an example of an Eagle and Girl merchandising advertisement that appeared in the trade magazine Games and Toys in 1954
• Another Eagle dummy?
• Pop Music during Eagle Times - 1966

The cover art illustration for this issue is by Gerry Embleton and features 'Dan Dare' from the "new" Eagle, 1982

John Ryan (1921 - 2009)

John Christopher Gerald Ryan was born in Edinburgh on 21 March, 1921. His father being in the diplomatic service, he spent some of his early life abroad, but he received his education at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire. It was there he first gained an interest in cartooning (writing and drawing for the school magazine was offered as an alternative to a thrashing for a minor offence!)

During the second World War he served with the Lincolnshire Regiment, mainly in Burma, and when not otherwise occupied he sketched and drew caricatures, which were published in army magazines. After the war, he attended art classes in London at the Regent Street Polytechnic, following which, he joined Harrow School as Assistant Art Master. He had met his future wife Priscilla while at the Regent Street Polytechnic, and in 1950 they married. As a wedding present, a friend introduced them to Marcus Morris, then priest and editor of Anvil.

John produced some illustrations for Anvil, and was challenged by Morris to create a humorous strip for a new children's magazine, which would be Eagle. The result was 'Captain Pugwash', "the story of a bad buccaneer & of the many sticky ends which nearly befell him". The black and white strip appeared on the lower half of page 5 of the first issue of Eagle. Although later destined to become successful as an animated television series and a series of books, Captain Pugwash's life in Eagle was short. Deemed too young for the Eagle's target audience, Pugwash sailed away after his 19-episode first adventure. But John Ryan was a talent too good to waste, and Marcus Morris had already asked him to create a new strip, which he did - based on a skit of Priscilla's "ideal man". 'Harris Tweed' began in issue 15 of Eagle and ended, after twelve years of weekly episodes, in 1962. Along the way, John also created, wrote and drew successful strips for Eagle's companion papers, Girl ('Lettice Leefe, the Greenest Girl in the School') and Swift ('Sir Boldasbrass'), and for all three papers' associated Annuals. After Girl folded, John continued to draw 'Lettice Leefe' for Princess - accomplishing a 16-year run of weekly episodes.

Foregoing Harrow School's offer of a job as Art Master, John remained Assistant Art Master until 1955, when he became a full-time freelance writer and artist. Although 'Captain Pugwash' had not been a success in Eagle, John Ryan worked on his beloved character, and drew and wrote the first of what was to become a series of Captain Pugwash books. In 1956, after many rejections, Captain Pugwash found a publisher in The Bodley Head. He also sold the idea for an animated series of 'Captain Pugwash' to BBC Television. His animation technique was innovative, using painted backdrops and cut-out, two-dimensional figures with movable limbs and mouths, made from painted card and held together with paperclips. Levers allowed him and his assistants to manoeuvre the figures and their expressions for real-time animation - and live transmission! A pilot production was so successful that it resulted in 1957 in a series of 58 black and white episodes, and for eight years he drew a weekly 'Captain Pugwash' strip for Radio Times. A 'Captain Pugwash' strip also appeared (briefly) in Swift (1958) and Playland (1974), also written and drawn by John. 'Sir Prancelot' (from another TV series) appeared in Playland in 1972. From 1963, for 43 years he drew weekly cartoons for The Catholic Herald, but it is for his children's publications and programmes that he is most fondly remembered.

In 1969 he created a 13-part series called 'Mary, Mungo and Midge' for BBC Television. He followed this with 'The Adventures of Sir Prancelot' (32 episodes), and in 1974 he returned to 'Captain Pugwash' again, producing a new series of 30 colour episodes. In the 1980s 'The Ark Stories' (on ITV) featured John Ryan in his studio to introduce each of his stories of animals from Noah's Ark with a sketch.

John and Priscilla moved from Kensington to Rye, East Sussex, in 1988, and John continued to work until shortly before his death in Rye hospital on 22 July 2009. It was at Rye that John was an Eagle Society guest of honour for our annual gathering in 1993. John allowed us a visit to is home and studio, provided us with a tour of Rye and joined the "Eagle Society Players" for a play reading of 'Harris Tweed'.

The illustration by John Ryan is from the Spring 1993 edition of Eagle Times

Obituaries:

• Steve Holland's Bear Alley (also contains a comprehensive bibliography)
• Links to various newspaper and magazine obituaries
  

Channel 4 newspiece on YouTube:

For other Captain Pugwash clips on YouTube Click Here

For an interactive storybook of Captain Pugwash and the Sea Monster click on the graphic below:

Eagle Times Vol 22 No 2

Summer 2009 contents

• Tom Adams, Fine Art Painter - a review of the work of the illustrator of 'Soldiers of the Queen' and many 'George Cansdale' nature strips which appeared in Eagle from 1954 to 1959
• The Rivals of Jeff Arnold, part 1 - 'Rex Keene, Texas Ranger' from Junior Express 
• Frank Hampson and Ronald Searle - comparisons of the careers of two 1950's "icon makers"
  
• 'Operation  Saturn' Revisited - commentary on Dan Dare's fourth adventure in Eagle, following the revelations of the story's original outline
• An obituary of Giorgio Bellavitis, architect and former comics illustrator, whose work in Eagle included 'Mark the Youngest Disciple'
  
• Report of the 23rd Eagle Society Weekend at Muswell Hill, where the guest of honour was Charles Chilton, writer of Eagle's 'Riders of the Range', and radio's 'Journey into Space'
• Eagle Autographs - part 5 (Artists and storytellers, part 2)
  
• PC49 and the Case of the Murderous Mouse - part 2 of the story adaptation
  
• Eagle Club Holidays - a look at the adventure holidays organised for Eagle Club members (and Girl Adventurers) by the Youth Hostel Association 
• Free Gifts in Eagle, part 5 - the 1964 Olympic Games medals
  
• 'Heros the Spartan', part 3, concluding this series by way of the final Eagle story and the Eagle Annual stories
• 'The Man From Nowhere' remembered - a personal reflection on iconic moments from Dan Dare's 6th adventure in Eagle 
• The added or missing bar - some observations on changes to Sir Hubert's epaulettes during the 'Dan Dare' saga
• Pop Music during Eagle Times - 1965 
  

The cover illustration for this issue is by Tom Adams from the series, 'British Birds by George Cansdale', Eagle, Vol 7 No 39 (28th September, 1956)

Giorgio Bellavitis (1926 - 2009)

Giorgio Bellavitis  (1926 - 2009) was born and died in Venice, though he spent a number of years in England. Starting out as a comic book artist, but changing career to architecture, his reputation in his later years was for his contribution as an architect to the restoration of Venice.

After being held prisoner together by the Nazis during the Second World War, Bellavitis and his friends Mario Faustinelli and Alberto Ongaro later set themselves up as publishers and gathered more artists and writers to form the Grupo Veneziano (Venetian Group). Their first magazine, called Albo Uragano (White Hurricane), was later renamed Asso di Picche, after its lead strip, which was pencilled by Hugo Pratt and inked by Bellavitis and Faustinelli. After drawing the first episode of ‘Junglemen’, Bellavitis then drew ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ under the pseudonym George Summers. After 1948, when Asso di Picche folded, and until 1954, when he moved to England, he worked mainly on Il Vittorioso (The Conqueror). His strips in this period included ‘I Cavalieri del Corvo’, ‘Acqua Cattiva’, ‘Il Palio di Siena’, and ‘Amburgo 1947’. 

In England, he was instrumental in introducing the Italian illustrator Rimaldo D’Ami (Roy Dami, founder of the Damy Agency) to Britain, and was the first of many Italian comic strip artists to be published in Britain via D'Ami's agency.

Bellavitis’ first English strip was ‘Paul English’ for Swift. He then drew ‘Mark, the Youngest Disciple’ to a script by Chad Varah, for Eagle. Bellavitis stood in for Richard Jennings on two complete ‘Storm Nelson’ adventures (which were was later reprinted in Italy as 'Kid Tempesta'), 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.

For many years, and until his death, Professor Giorgio Bellavitis was actively involved in the conservation and restoration of Venice, advising UNESCO and other bodies. Giorgio Bellavitis' projects in Venice included 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 wrote and co-authored a number of books and articles, including ‘Venice: a City in the Sea of History’, which prefaces the Heritage Guide to Venice published by the Touring Club of Italy. His death was reported on 21 May 2009 in Venice, the city that inspired him.

A fuller obituary and bibliography can be read on Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog.

Previous posts on eagle-times:

•  Regarding Giorgio Bellavitis
  
•  Eagle Artists - Georgio Bellavitis
  

Photo of Giorgio Bellavitis: Il Gazzettino

Dan Dare: The Phantom Fleet

The latest in Titan Books' reprint volumes of the original Dan Dare series has recently been published. My copy arrived from Amazon.co.uk on 14th May, 2009. 

The full list of published Dan Dare titles can be seen at the Titan Books website. Although the 10th story in the Dan Dare series, The Phantom Fleet is the 11th volume in Titan's series since the first (Venus) story and 'Operation Saturn' were each split over two volumes and 'The Ship that Lived' was appended to 'Reign of the Robots'. This book also includes the Dan Dare story 'Operation Plum Pudding', which originally appeared in Eagle Annual No 5. Thers is an Introduction by Jeff Wayne (composer of the award-winning musical version of War of the Worlds), and an article on the life and work of Frank Bellamy (Frank Hampson's successor on 'Dan Dare,), by Paul Holder.

 

With echoes of the first Dan Dare story, 'The Phantom Fleet' opens with a spaceship awaiting take-off. But, rather than the terrestrial "Headquarters of the Interplanet Spacefleet some years in the future", the scene is now "Spacefleet Base on the Moon, some years in the future...'  On board is Dan Dare, Chief Pilot of the Spacefleet, making a routine check flight. Take-off goes well, but the ship has to return to the Moon in an emergency when all Spacefleet communications are mysteriously jammed. Dan and Co. investigate, and discover a race of highly intelligent aquatic aliens, the Cosmobes, who are intent on Earth colonisation. But it turns out the Cosmobes are fleeing a much more aggressive foe, from their dying home world...  

 

Die-hard Eagle fans may already have their collections of original Eagles and the Hawk Book reprints, but that shouln't stop them collecting these too! Beautifully produced in hardback with wrap-around dustjacket and in a convenient size, if you don't know what Dan Dare is about, or came to Dan Dare in one of his later incarnations, this series is the best place to start to find out about the original 1950s Frank Hampson creation. 

First published beginning 25th April 1958, the opening episodes of 'The Phantom Fleet' shows some of the Dan Dare production team's best work.  It's good to see this series continuing. Although I appreciate there may be formatting issues with some of the later stories, I can only hope that Titan manage to complete the reprints of the whole series, rather than cut it short as the Hawk Books series did. 

Although at a reduced size compared with the originals, with pages a little over A4 in size, this does make for a more handleable product. The more observant will notice that picture of Dan on the cover is different from that used for promotion before publication, which recycled an image of Dan from 'Operation Saturn'.