September 2024 – Literary Art and Illustration

(Originally created in June of 2021, I’ve lightly updated – edited, really – this post.)

Paul Callé (March 3, 1928 – December 30, 2010) had a long and distinguished career in the world of illustration, his extraordinarily varied and productive oeuvre encompassing the design of postal stamps, “Western” art, and magazine covers, the latter particularly for Galaxy Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and Super Science Fiction.

Perhaps most notably in terms of popular culture, he designed postal stamps commemorating pivotal events in the United States’ space program: America’s first Extra-Vehicular Activity (“EVA”) – astronaut Edward H. White, Jr.’s, “space-walk” of June 3, 1965, during Gemini 4 (issued on September 29, 1967)…

…and the first manned lunar landing and EVA, during Apollo 11 on July 16 and 20, respectively (issued on September 9, 1969).

Stylistically representative of his illustrations for that magazine, Calle’s cover, rather then portraying a visually literal representation of (imagined!) space-suits, space vehicles, technology, and a planetary landscape, instead works on a much more direct, almost “mythical” level, making use of bold contrasts between light and dark, with conveying the essence of the story on a symbolic level. Calle’s other illustrations for Super Science Stories were (are!) equally striking. To me, his work has a very strong resonance with the black and white illustrations of Rockwell Kent.

The illustration below accompanies L. Ron Hubbard’s tale “Beyond All Weapons” in the January, 1950 issue of Super Science Stories (on page 71) which was downloaded from the illuminating Luminist Archive.

Here’s the magazine’s cover, by “Lawrence”: Lawrence S. Stevens.

References

Astronaut Ed White, at…

Wikipedia

Paul Callé, at…

Wikipedia

Postal stamp commemorating first American EVA

Paul Calle Space Art (Paul Calle & Chris Calle)

6/19/21 254

Created in January of 2020 (…is it that long ago?!…) I’ve updated this post to include two images of Grand Central Station.

Having previously presented an example of artist Paul Callé‘s work from the January, 1950 issue of Super Science Stories, here’s another superb example of his work: The illustration accompanying John D. MacDonald’s short (really short!) story “By The Stars Forgot”, from the magazine’s issue of May, 1950.

What’s particularly notable about the illustrations in Super Science Stories – at least, those issues from the early 1950s – is that they equal if not exceed in symbolism, visual power, and simplicity of composition art featured in more prominent and influential “first tier” science fiction magazines of the same era (primarily Astounding; the interior art in Galaxy was highly variable in quality in style, while The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction largely eschewed interior art except, for a brief interval in the 1950s). This is ironic, given that the magazine was not the most influential publication of the genre, albeit it did publish the work of prominent authors.

Like some other posts at this blog, this example of Paul Callé‘s stunning work was downloaded from the Pulp Magazine Archive and edited via Photoshop Elements, to create the image displayed here.

“A giant gets you by the ankle and throws you toward the roof…”

Manhattan’s Grand Central Station, central to MacDonald’s Story and a central element of Callé’s composition, closely matches this strikingly sunbeamed evocative photographic image of the Station from the 1940s…

(Getty Image 466275073)

Here’s another image of Grand Central Station. This lovely picture – photographer’s name and specific date unknown, albeit copyrighted by Corbis-Bettmann – was published as postcard AY129 by Graphique de France in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

The image is superbly composed in terms of balance between light and dark, with the angled sunbeams imparting an impression of transparent solidity. The attire of the men and women suggests that the picture was taken from 1940s through 1950s. And (minor point!), at least we can tell the time of day: 8:34 A.M., by the four-faced clock above the ticket counter.

The magazine also includes this wonderful Illustration by Virgil W. Finlay for Clifford D. Simak’s “The Call From Beyond” (pages 56-57), an example of how large-format pulps permitted the artist to display his singular talents to greatest effect. I’ve edited this image to remove its extraneous (digital) background and thereby enhance the illustration’s actual and most intriguing characters, creatures, and components. A close view of the drawing reveals that the its monstrous and mysterious denizens are all unique individuals: No two figures – whether alien, avian, vaguely earthly, or eerily ambiguous – are exactly alike.

As for the story itself? Subsequent to its appearance in Super Science Stories, it’s only been republished eight times, most recently in digital format at Project Gutenberg.