Eagle Crew Chief 'Off on a Comet'

ARTIST: William Louis ("Bill") McDonald

TIME: Christmas Holidays, 1975.

AGE: I was age thirteen and already SCUBA diving during the Christmas Holidays of my Seventh-grade school year in California. I attended Capistrano Valley Christian Schools in San Juan Capistrano, California that year.

MEDIA: Bic ballpoint pens, Pentel felt-tip colors, scrounged colored ink markers of every sort, snatched school supplies markers, and quill-point inks from the Dixi Hall Art Store in Laguna Beach, California.

SUBJECT: A comet imagined from Jules Verne's "Off on a comet," as well as from all those psychedelic planetscapes on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's "Space 1999" TV series, Year One. I had not yet imagined the concept of a dirty snowball that might be as black as a chimney sweep's broom. The Astronaut and the two Eagle Rescue/Freighter spacecraft were absolutely rendered by hand in inks.

NOTE: I was thirteen when I made this pen&ink drawing of a candy-dusted ice comet being explored by a landing Eagle and a nearby chase vehicle for any emergencies..

LOCATION: This drawing was completed at the formal dining room table in Monarch Bay Terrace.

INSPIRATION: The work of Derrek Meddings, Brian Johnson, Gerry ANderson and their entire effects and models, building team.