Colin Wilson, Frank Bellamy, and Dan Dare

 Evan Jenkins and Frank Bellamy's Dan Dare via Colin Wilson

Several years ago I had the opportunity to have a rummage through Colin Wilson's studio and amongst his fine collection of European comics and art I found a folder of clippings from Frank Bellamy's run on Dan Dare from the Eagle in the late fifties. Colin professed to being a big fan Bellamy's work particularly another serial from Eagle, Fraser of Africa.

Recently Colin was contacted by Evan Jenkins in New Zealand who had bought a residence Colin rented in the late seventies. Jenkins discovered a large mural on one of the walls of the house, a recreation of a panel of Bellamy's Dan Dare. Someone told Jenkins "some comic guy" did it and Jenkins liked the painting so much he had it removed when he sold the house and it now resides in his garage down the other end of the country in Queenstown. Colin remarked on the painting, " It's obviously me copying a Bellamy Dan Dare panel from Eagle - November 7, 1959 to be exact - but how the hell could I have done this and not remember anything about it? And it turns up 35 years later in some guys garage!"

 2012 Dan Dare commission by Colin Wilson