PROJECT SWORD BOX ART: NEW RESEARCH - IN MEMORY OF ROBERT McCALL

In my ongoing quest to uncover the artistic sources of SWORD boxart I have made some recent and exciting progress. However, whilst researching this article over the last month it was with the deepest sadness that I learnt of Robert McCall's passing, so the article is dedicated to the memory of the him, the world's greatest modern space artist. We already know that he had a tremendous impact on the Nuclear Ferry but as I discovered, his influence stretched further. So in the light of his recent death it makes it all the more poignant to post this research tonight.

I shall first look at the Nuclear Ferry. We know from WOTAN's insightful posts previously that the SWORD box art was a copy of the Nuclear Ferry illustration that appeared in the British children's comic Look and Learn. I was lucky enough to recently acquire the particular edition No.169 10th April 1965. From the date we can immediately see that it appeared a good two years before the SWORD toy. The illustration is the highlight of the comic, a double-paged centrefold in the middle entitled "Machines of the Space Age -Part Two - Nuclear Ferry Bus to the Moon". The text is geared towards children and explains beautifully how the Ferry works, which for me was a revelation! Essentially, once in the moon's orbit, the tapered 'lounge' is lowered from the 125 ft. long nuclear body on 'tubular links' allowing a 'small spherical craft' to reverse-dock and load the passengers (i.e. the detachable onion-shaped front on the toy). This 'taxi-cab' takes the passengers to and from the surface, a 200 mile round trip. The text also states that it is 'now under study by an American engineering company'. But most exciting of all is that the illustration is signed 'McCall'. This facet of artists signing illustrations is significant and features heavilly in Look and Learn and indeed Robert McCall is listed on their website as a 'contributing artist'. Below is a rather poor picture of my own copy of  issue 169 (blue) along with 168. Below that is my comic opened out at the centre. Thirdly and under licence from the current Look and Learn owners is their professional scan of the same centre pages 14 and 15, the Nuclear Ferry double-spread, showing it in all it's glory with the signature clearly visible in the right-hand corner.

Taking inspiration from WOTAN's initial look at the Look and Learn (L&L) website and his discovery of the Ferry I decided to delve a little deeper. I was astonished at what I found next and completely unprepared for such a huge step forward. In the archives of the L&L website was an image entitled 'Saturn V' and immediately I realised that here unquestionably was the artistic source for the box art of the Project SWORD Cape Kennedy set, one of the 'holy grails' of the fleet and my personal all-time favourite SWORD box. Tracking through the reference on the site I discovered that the image appeared in Look and Learn issue No. 168, 3rd April 1965 and like the Nuclear Ferry one week later, is a good two years before the SWORD toy was in the shops. Again I was lucky enough to acquire issue 168, pictured above (largely coloured yellow with flags) with 169. Forming the first illustration for the two-part series 'Machines for the Space Age' the picture is a single page, page 22 and not titled as such, although the text makes it clear what it is when it says 'By 1970 America's Saturn-5 Rocket will emerge from it's factory biulding'. The most exciting feature again is Rober McCall's signature, 'McCall' in the right-hand corner. Below is a poor shot of my own comic on the relevant page and below that is again a professional scan from the owners of Look and Learn published here under licence.

I was over the moon with this discovery and it is a significant leap forward in establishing the origins of key SWORD box illustrations. I was happy enough at this point but it wasn't the end of the story by a long chalk. Whilst thumbing through issue 169, I noticed in the opening credits the following statement 'Illustrations on pages 14 and 15 are copyright 1965 Time Inc. All rights reserved'. I was gobsmacked! There was an even older source of McCall's paintings in print, Time-Life's weekly magazine. Using the power of the internet I was then able to pinpoint and purchase what turned out to be a single crucially important issue of LIFE, Vol.57. No.14 October 2nd 1964 with the cover story 'The Warren Report' as pictured below:

In this issue of LIFE we see what is probably the first printed versions of Robert Mccall's two paintings, which were to become SWORD box illustrations 3 years later: the Saturn V and Nuclear Ferry. Like Look and Learn a year later the paintings formed the glorious centrepieces of a special series called 'SPACE/Part 2: Visions of a Wondrous Technology'. Captioned 'Paintings for LIFE by Robert McCall' the issue contains four seminal paintings, with the SWORD art as  double-page illustrations: the Nuclear Ferry, which mentions a NASA study by Ling-Temco-Vought Inc. (see Wotan's 2009 post for more on this) and the Saturn V being the magazines's fabulous centrefold titled 'WHAT LOOMS AHEAD'. All four paintings are pictured below (all rights reserved Time 1964):

It is clear by the caption 'Paintings for LIFE by Robert McCall' that these four paintings were commissioned by LIFE magazine. Oddly and unlike the later LOOK AND LEARN re-prints the LIFE pictures are unsigned. Discovering the LIFE pictures I was intrigued as to how LOOK AND LEARN, published by Fleetway, acquired them and in turn CENTURY 21. How did this happen? I contacted the current Managing Director of Look and Learn Ltd., Mr. Laurence Heyworth, who, besides helping me with the image licences, observed that

"Fleetway/IPC had an active image licensing business, so may have supplied images to toymakers. It is possible that Steve Holland (Look and Learn Historian) – contactable through his Bear Alley blog – will know more about Robert McCall and his relationship with UK magazines'.

I then contacted the current owner of the Fleetway brand, Egmont, who replied as follows:

"Dear Paul, Regrettably there’s no one here who could answer this question relating to deals which may have been done 43 years ago! Sorry we can’t help".

Slightly disheartened I then made contact with  Mr. Steve Holland (Bear Alley), who very kindly sent this hugely informative reply:

"Hi Paul, I can only take a couple of guesses about this as none of the paperwork relating to any of the old Fleetway comics and magazines has survived the years.In the case of the Roberte McCall paintings, it seems clear that the three articles that ran in Look & Learn in 1965 were based on the feature that appeared in Life on 2 October 1964 and the artwork was probably originally commissioned by the publishers of Life. Fleetway would probably licensed the use of the artwork directly from Life.

I doubt if Fleetway ever saw the original artwork. They were probably sent a transparency and then had one of their regular writers or in-house staff write a new piece around the artwork. I've no idea who wrote the article -- which is definitely different to the text that appeared in Life -- although if I were to take a stab in the dark I'd guess at David LeRoi, who was the science editor of Look & Learn for a few years from 1961.As for how they came to be associated with Project SWORD, I've no idea. Fleetway would not be in the picture. You could almost imagine someone kept a scrapbook of nice space art that they dipped into every time they needed a spaceship of space scene. You'll know better than I whether the box art is a copy or not... but whether the box art was done by an artist commissioned directly by the toy manufacturers or the job was put in the hands of an agency I've no idea. The latter I would guess, making the name of the artist almost impossible to know.

You're more than welcome to use anything I said. Look and Learn didn't run any credits in the magazine. The only reason we knew it was McCall was because he signed a couple of the images. As for a transparency, they can be made quite big, anything up to 6 x 9 inches and perhaps even larger. I very much doubt if it still exists. If it existed in the first place because I'm only guessing, don't forget. Anyway, hope some of the above helps. Good look with your blog.

Kindest regards,
Steve"

Taking all this into account I believe that Century 21 Toys gained permission from Fleetway in the UK, as opposed to LIFE in the US, during 1967 for the use of their Saturn V and Nuclear Ferry images on Project SWORD boxes.

However the origin of the actual paintings by Robert McCall began earlier when he first put oil-paint onto canvas. The 'Nuclear Ferry' painting shown in LIFE was indeed painted in1964 but, as previously discussed on the blog, was originally entitled 'Earth to Moon Shuttle' by the artist (ref. McCall Studios). I contacted McCall studios earlier this year and they replied as follows:

"Hi Paul,

The painting you attached (Earth to Moon Shuttle) is currently in the collection of the University of Tucson. We donated a sizeable collection there several years ago.I’m sorry but it was never made into a print nor are we aware of any reproductions that were made. Thank you for your enthusiasm!
Catherine McCall"

The original oil on canvas painting now hangs, along with many other original works, in the University of Arizona Museum of Art, where I would dearly like to visit! When I contacted them I recieved this helpful reply:

"Hello Mr. Woods, Thanks very much for your inquiry. It is great to know Mr. McCall's work has made an impact on such a wide range of cultural subjects! Earth to Moon Shuttle is indeed part of the UAMA's permanent collection. We have it dated to 1963, so I may have to double-check that information. It is possible that we are talking about two different works, but I have attached a very poor photograph of it to make sure. Unfortunately the Saturn V piece is not in our collection. Thanks once more for your interest, and I look forward to visiting your blog. Sincerely,
Kristen Schmidt,
Registrar"

I believe, based on certain internet references, that the Saturn-V 1964 oil on canvas painting may have originally been called 'ROLL OUT" but as yet I haven't succeeded in locating it's current whereabouts. As a postscript to the Saturn-V section I was sent this excellent Vari-Vu postcard image from blog follower John Sisson of the excellent Dreams of Space site:

Sadly during my research for this article Robert McCall passed away. I would like to offer my deepest sympathy to his family and friends. His spirit lives on for us all in his iconic space art. The final words should go to blog reader Darth, who actually knew Mr. McCall and posted this wonderful comment, about the first time the artist saw the SWORD Nuclear Ferry toy, in the very first month of the blog way back in September 2008, 42 years after he first painted it!

"The Nuclear Ferry....It was designed by legendary space artist Robert McCall. I sent the picture of the toy to him and he was very surprised and delighted to see it." (R.Godwin, Apogee)