Frank Hampson often used models to help him illustrate produce his pages, sometimes making friends or family dress up and pose as the characters of Dan Dare. When he was tasked with illustrating The Road Of Courage on the back page of Eagle comic Max Dunlop, a sculptor at the Dan Dare studio, crafted him a life size head of what he believed Jesus would look like. Frank could move this around and draw it from different angles so his comic strips had a better sense of realism.
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| The actual sculpture, next to a panel drawn at a similar angle from a January 1961 copy of Eagle. |
The head is now up for sale on ebay with a starting price of £260, but so far has failed to attract any bids. It is a heavy piece so is only available to buyers in the United Kingdom who can pick the head up from it's current home in Devon.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Frank-Hampsons-Dan-Dare-Studio-Jesus-Head-from-Road-of-Courage-Eagle-TO-COLLECT-/321325649010?pt=UK_Books_comics_Magazines_UK_Comics_ET&hash=item4ad0804c72
5 comments:
Do you have a link, George?
Jesus as a white, anglo-saxon male? I'm surprised that Frank Hampson, in his quest for accuracy, didn't make him more Jewish-looking.
I think there's a link on the downthetubes site for those who might be interested.
Oops - I thought I'd added a link! Never mind, here it is, and I've also added it to the post:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Frank-Hampsons-Dan-Dare-Studio-Jesus-Head-from-Road-of-Courage-Eagle-TO-COLLECT-/321325649010?pt=UK_Books_comics_Magazines_UK_Comics_ET&hash=item4ad0804c72
Looks kind of Greek.
You know what's interesting about this, you see that divot at the left extremity of lips. That's an artefact from the technique modellers use to add expression to a face. The sculptor has left it a little exaggerated here and if you have look a the drawing, Hampson has rendered it as seen. For me that gives this find a compelling association with the artwork.
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