The images below represent only a small sample of the exhaustive reference material produced and accumulated during my father's career. Everything he did was meticulously researched and - aware as he was that his young readers would quickly spot any continuity errors - cross referencing was strictly adhered to in the studio. Even so, there were occasional failures (exactly how many windows were there in the spaceship Anastasia?).
Reference Material
Back ...and he will be!
The photographs above show my grandfather posing in a treen mask and a slightly unravelled studio model of a treen
A studio model of an elektrobot.
The same thoroughness demonstrated in Dan Dare is also visible in the work he carried out before embarking on 'The Road of Courage'. He travelled to the Holy Land to research landscapes, background, fabrics, styles of dress etc and then produced reference boards such as the one illustrated below before starting to draw the finished strip.
These loosely bound volumes of Eagle were kept as studio reference tools, and, despite the signed order pasted into one of them, often suffered from the studio scissors if a particular frame was needed for reference.
Studio reference board for Space Fleet ranks and insignia.
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