EXTRACTS: Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood The Complete Adventures © 2008 The Book Palace (134 PAGES in Full edition)

6 FRANK BELLAMY’S ROBIN HOOD The scripts were by Clifford Makins, the 32-year-old assistant editor of Eagle . Makins, a former stage manager with the Travelling Repertory Theatre and the Ballet Negre, was, in 1954, working in the accounts department of Faber and Faber when he was introduced to Marcus Morris. He was soon employed as Morris’ personal assistant before joining the editorial ranks. For Swift , Makins had already penned “The Swiss Family Robinson” and “King Arthur and His Knights”, both drawn by Bellamy, whom Makins called “the best of colleagues and collaborators”. Makins appreciated Bellamy’s sensitive yet robust style and his fastidious attention to detail and the two would subsequently work together on the life stories of Winston Churchill, David the Shepherd King and Montgomery of Alamein. For his scripts for the Robin Hood series, Makins adopted Major Charles Gilson’s 1940 novel Robin of Sherwood . In this, Gilson had created an almost wholly original background: although the story was set at the time usually associated with Robin, with King Richard abroad and Prince John pretending to the throne, the supporting cast was of Gilson’s imagination. To seize control of the throne, Prince John had enlisted the aid of Robert Braisse-Neuve, a tyrannical Norman, also known as Robert the Wolf, Lord of Normanton. When Alfred of Sherwood (another Gilson creation), a Saxon lord with a castle at Newstead on the fringes of Sherwood Forest, denounces Prince John, the Wolf leads an attack during which Alfred is killed and his son, Robin, is forced to flee into the forest. Perhaps Gilson’s most intriguing variation to the legend is that Marian is Robin’s sister, kidnapped during the attack and her hand promised in marriage to one of the Wolf’s allies. With some minor alterations, this becomes the story related in Swift . Robin’s father is the Earl of Huntindon, to which position Robin ascends when his father is killed during the attack on Newstead Tower. In the strip, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Much the Miller and Alan a Dale are amongst those stragglers from the slaughter who escape to the forest; Marian, for the moment, is dropped from the story, although she was introduced later as a friend (rather than sister). As with Gilson’s novel, the Sheriff of Nottingham plays a rather minor role compared to his traditional position as Robin’s chief adversary. The strip retains Sir Geoffrey Malpert and Sir Stephen de Froy as part of the retinue of Norman baddies and much of the storyline, including the ending in which Richard Lion Heart returns and becomes involved with the outlaws. The use of Gilson’s novel was unacknowledged by the strip (Gilson himself had died in 1943) but the story is none the worse for being an adaptation. It’s unique take on the Robin Hood legend may have been forced upon the strip to distance it from the TV show which may have otherwise demanded a license fee. This may also explain why Bellamy chose to give Robin a more ‘classic’ look rather than have him clean-cut like Richard Greene. Bellamy’s Robin owed a debt to both Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn: his shirt, tunic and feathered cap were made famous by Fairbanks in his 1922 movie but his physique was more Errol Flynn. Bellamy’s virile hero would have done both actors proud. Frank Bellamy’s work on Robin Hood has become something of a legend in itself. Copies of Swift are no longer easy to come by, it’s more youthful audience perhaps not as insistent as their elder siblings who were allowed to hold onto their copies of Eagle . The strip was reprinted twice, in a bowdlerised version (discussed elsewhere) in Treasure (1966-67) and partially in Story Land (1985) which came to an end after only eight episodes. With that in mind, we are pleased to present for the first time the full, uncut version of Bellamy’s Robin Hood, over fifty years old but still an astonishing picture story lovingly crafted by one of Britain’s finest artists. Steve Holland , Colchester, 2007