Speed & Power #1 (March 22, 1974) - Incident on Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke

The grails keep coming!

Typically action-packed illustration from the first issue of ‘Speed & Power’ magazine from March 22nd 1974. Published by IPC, Speed & Power was Look & Learn’s small boy-focused younger brother; ditching the history, and concentrating on planes, trains and automobiles, with reprinted text stories from the likes of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Instead of the relatively sedate ‘Trigan Empire’, the strip was the action-packed ‘International SOS’, a sort of Thunderbirds rip-off, drawn by Oliver Frey.

This illustration was for the Arthur C. Clarke tale ‘Summertime on Icarus’, first published in ‘Vogue’ (!) June 1960, as ‘The Hottest Piece of Real Estate in the Solar System’. It was subsequently re-titled as ‘Summertime om Icarus’, and further jazzed up by IPC here as ‘Incident on Icarus’.

From Wikipedia: ‘Engineer Colin Sherrard is on an expedition as part of the International Astrophysical Decade, which is intended to get a research spaceship within seventeen million miles of the Sun, shielded by the asteroid Icarus. Traveling in his one-man mechanical pod, he suffers an accident and loses consciousness. When he comes to, he is not sure where he is - nor are the explorers in the mother ship. His pod is damaged and his communications are unreliable. Just as he is about to fry in the heat of the sun, he finds that he cannot even commit suicide as the controls do not respond. With seconds to go, he is spotted by a two-man capsule sent out by the expedition, and which is shielding him from the sun's heat in its shadow. He is rescued in the nick of time, but admits that, even on Earth, he will never enjoy summer again.’

But, let’s address the asteroid in the room: Oliver Frey, you say?

Someone has written across the top of these two illustration boards: ARTIST: OLIVER FREY ILLUSTRATION OF AN ARTHUR C. CLARKE STORY. Well, this is clearly NOT by Oli Frey; the loose and impressionistic brushwork, the cheap unbranded art board, the upside-down figure, the yellow sun and dusty impact, these all point to another 70s illustration hero: action stalwart Graham Coton.

Just compare my additional images; Coton clearly painted part two of ‘Incident…’; his style is unmistakable. And Oli Frey did paint illustrations for subsequent serialised short stories for ‘Speed & Power’; but just look at the colour palette… and at that relatively early stage in his career ALL his work is clearly signed as ‘Oliver Frey’. Coton never signed his work, but would instead, as the fancy took him, conceal his signature amongst the machinery.

No sign of that here, but this painting is definitely by Graham.

As an action obsessed 7 year-old, I thought that this image was one of the awesomest things I’d ever seen, and ready the Clarke story kick-started by love of science fiction. And now this is mine! A bit battered, but mine, all mine!

Gouache on board
Each board: 38 cm x 49 cm

Additional images courtesy of Steve Holland at Bear Alley bearalley.blogspot.com