This is the first frame from The Road of Courage. It opened the story on the back page Eagle on 19th March 1960, and the strip continued for 56 episodes, neatly timed to end over Easter Week 1961. Frank said of his work: ‘Considering the Christian ethos associated with Eagle, The Road of Courage seemed almost a duty. I know I worked harder on it than on anything I’d ever done.’

‘At best one could only present one facet of a complex story. I tried to get away from the woolly never-never land of the Sunday School stories of my youth, and show the harsh political realities of turbulent, rebellious Palestine, when the Jews were seething with revolt against Rome.’ (We might note that at the time he drew the strip Frank was a convinced atheist; it wasn’t until much later in life that he turned to Catholicism, in search of an explanation and of meaning).

How it began

Marcus Morris began a script for The Road of Courage in the early fifties, kept it in a drawer and rescued it years later when clearing his Hulton office. Odhams agreed the story was appropriate, and said they would run it provided Marcus completed the script (at £20 per episode) and they could credit him as Reverend Marcus Morris.  He agreed to Reverend, paid Guy Daniels £10 to do the actual writing, and pocketed the rest. Daniels was happy (it wasn't exactly hard money) but Frank was miffed: he had to conduct his research in Palestine without a finished script. Peter Hampson believes Frank took a Bell and Howell 8mm cine camera with him, which was also able to take single-frame pictures. It helped to carry one camera which did both jobs. Peter is also certain there must have been many sketches, although none have survived. Later Frank told how Joan Porter sewed garments of the time, but they could only have been based on photographs or sketches made in a museum.

How other artists portray Christ

Leonardo da Vinci

Michelangelo

Raphael

Turin Shroud

Unknown

Frank sips Jericho Tea in Palestine

On 12th March 1960 Eagle ran a promotional piece telling readers to be ready for the Road of Courage in next week’s issue. They billed the strip as ‘the most wonderful story Eagle has ever told.’ While in the Middle East Frank drew himself drinking Jericho Tea with a hospitable sergeant of the Arab Legion while a camel train, led by a trader on a donkey, clumps, complains and farts its way past. Obviously Frank could find little visual evidence of the Palestine of 2000 years ago, but he discovered an ancient pavement where it's claimed Pilate once dispensed Roman justice. Later Frank wrote: ‘Suddenly you are overwhelmed by the realisation that on these very stones, which your hand is touching, was played one of the last acts in the greatest drama in the history of mankind. Here Pilate washed his hands of Jesus, and sent him forth on the last cruel mile of his Road of Courage, along the Way of Sorrows to Golgotha.’

Scanned from Frank’s original art

The three art boards shown here are scans of the originals, forwarded courtesy of Peter Hampson, who still has most of the original art. A finely produced edition in soft and hardback was printed by Dragon’s Dream in 1981, and copies do come up on the internet. Dragon’s Dream show the complete work, excellently reproduced, with details clear and distinct.

Frank must’ve worked with
a magnifying glass

I wrote somewhere that the first episode of The Road of Courage was drawn half-up (can’t remember where I got that) and given the intricate detail you’d suppose the whole story would be created larger than life. In fact every episode but the first was drawn ‘same size’ as Eagle’s printed page, and if you browse over the frames, you’ll wonder how it was ever done. Visiting Hampson’s home I gasped ‘How on earth did he do it?’ at frames displayed on his living room wall. Dorothy raised an eyebrow: to say Frank was a genius with a paintbrush was so obvious. Using tiny sable-hair brushes he could draw lines so fine they were hardly there.

Death did have some Dominion

Romans are speared, Zealots stabbed, throats cut, scores of rebels crucified; not quite the tone you find in most Eagle strips but integral to the story. Frank managed it all without ugliness or horror and with very little blood.