EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 28 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

96 From The Inside: The Winged Avenger Remember that episode of ‘The Avengers’ where they met a comic book superhero turned villain? Norman Boyd shares with us the truth behind the comic book shown in the TV series. In one of the episodes of the popular British TV series ‘The Avengers’ we find Emma Peel and John Steed confronting a different kind of villain. Businessmen are the target, and they’re turning up in pieces—almost literally. Suspicions fall on a large bird of prey owned by an author wronged by a publisher that is being whittled down, one partner at a time. But our heroes find a comic book near one victim, and the adventures of its avenging superhero tie in a bit too closely with real-life situations to be a coincidence. But where did the images of the comic book shown in the episode come from? Frank Bellamy, best known for his comic bookwork on ‘Thunderbirds’ in TV21 — where he drew and coloured at least 2 pages every week for nearly four years, ‘Dan Dare’ in Eagle (for one year), various illustrations for the Radio Times including his famous cover of Jon Pertwee and the Daleks, and his five-year stint on a syndicated comic strip ‘Garth’ in the Daily Mirror . In November and December of 1966, Bellamy was involved in the TV series ‘The Avengers’.The programme, titled ‘The Winged Avenger’ was broadcast in February 1967 and was instantly memorable due to Bellamy’s work including 30 colour illustrations, not all of which were in the final cut. The programme was particularly interesting due to dissolves between images drawn by Bellamy (or Arnie Parker, the artist creator of the Winged Avenger in the show) and actual events. But frustrating for us fans was that it’s obvious that some drawings are pasted onto comic pages to give the impression of a ‘Winged Avenger’ publication and we couldn’t identify them. After much detective work we have now identified both modified comic panels that appeared in the episode. ● ● Read more on Norman’s story of tracking down the comics used: http://frankbellamy.blogspot.com/2018/05/ frank-bellamy-and-avengers-part-two.html andNorman’s scans of all the art seen in this extraordinary episode: https:// www.frankbellamy.co.uk/notes/mediaWA.htm TOP: Blackhawk No. 223, (cover dated August 1966 and on sale in the USA in June 1966). BOTTOM: Image from the show. TOP: Tales to Astonish No. 84 (cover dated October 1966 but on sale in June of that year). BOTTOM: Image from the show. © DC Comics © Studiocanal © Studiocanal © Marvel