Back in 1976 the Viking 1 and Viking 2 orbiters were photographing and mapping the surface of Mars. On the 25^th July Viking 1 was surveying the area of Cydonia a region in the northern hemisphere which forms the borderlands of the great plain of Acidalia Planitia, where it marches with the cratered and volcanic region of Arabia Terra to its south and east.. Cydonia is a relatively flat area though some plateaus or “Mesas” are scattered about it. Of the eighteen photographs that this first survey beamed back to Earth , just one contained an image that appeared to show a huge humanoid face carved into the Martian rock. This first photograph was of poor quality but a second image was acquired 35 orbits later   under different light conditions and seemed to confirm the strange sculpted face . Although dismissed by Gerry Soffen, the chief scientist of the Viking mission as a “trick of light and shadow” the photographs were published in 1977, and for one brief moment of magic, before reality and common sense took hold, we could allow ourselves to conjure up ancient Martian civilisations and ruined cities . For an instant we could populate the red planet with Bradbury’s yellow eyed and graceful Martians , before subsequent photographs showing the Mesa to be nothing but a natural rock, swept these images away like the gold in fairy tales which turns to autumn leaves when the “glamour” is gone. Sydney wrote and drew a piece for the Daily Express on the Martian face in 1977, when speculation about whether it was artifact or nature, was still rife.  Skipper Prossit

As the JH strip developed over the years , Sydney began to change the appearance of the spacecraft in the strip. The classic cigar-shaped craft that we see  in SPACERIDER , DREAM PEDLARS and other early stories gave way to more modern and realistic depictions   that reflected to some extent the satellites and spacecraft that increasing filled our newspapers and tv screens at the time ,as the real space race got

underway.

We first see this new type of craft in OVERLORD where Hawke leads mankind’s first expedition to Jupiter in a fleet of five large ships , the Xenophon, the Bacchus, the Aristides, the Plotinus and his command ship the Aristarchus. All are of the same design and each consists of two spheres joined together with an array of scaffolding.

They owe something to the inspiration of Chesley Bonestell’s later designs but all-in-all have a more contemporary look. The first sphere houses the crew , living quarters communications etc while the other houses the nuclear motor. These ships are strikingly similar in concept and design to the Discovery , the spacecraft from 2001 a space Odyssey , also on a mission to Jupiter, though OVERLORD appeared eight years before the release of Kubrik’s great movie. Like the Aristarchus the Discovery comprised a large sphere which acted as living quarters, control and communications. Also, like the Aristarchus its nuclear reactor was housed in a separate structure which was connected to the command sphere

by a thin spine , along which were arrayed tanks of extra payload. The main difference between the two craft is that in the case of the Discovery the spine and attached tankage extended for 84 metres whereas the Aristarchus contained a more modest array of ten tanks , six large and two small.   Skipper Prossit

Here are  cards  11  to  15 in  the Jeff Hawke Spacegen series. In this sequence  we see some artists’ impressions of the Lunar and Martian surfaces and also a meteor storm, without which no 50’s sci-fi adventure would be complete   Skipper Prossit

1957 was a momentous year for both science and science-fiction . The prestigious World Science Fiction convention ( worldcon) was held in London in September of that year while just a month later the promise of real space travel was to be realised by the launching of Sputnik , the world’s first artificial satellite .

The 15^th Worldcon was held at the King’s court hotel in London, important because it was the first time that it had been held outsideNorth

America. Presiding over the event was John Wyndham ( Day of the Triffids, the Kraken wakes etc) and the convention attracted many authors whose names were well known or who would one day be well-known in the world of science fiction. These included Arthur C Clarke, Robert Silverberg , and Harry Harrison to name but three. And of course the convention was well attended by sci-fi fans and enthusiasts anxious for autographs and inspiration. Among this latter group was a young Sydney Jordan, who three years earlier had started the Jeff Hawke strip in the Daily Express. At the time of the convention he had seven Hawke stories to his name and was working on the eighth – Castaway. He had written and drawn all the early stories himself though with some informal help from his friend Willie Patterson. The convention was an opportunity to make contacts and perhaps obtain a collaborator. Sydney struck up a friendship with Harry Harrison , a kindred spirit who had also been  a sci-fi illustrator ,having started his career drawing strips for American titles “Weird fantasy” and “Weird science” but was now focused on writing. His first sci-fi short story “ Rock diver” had been published six years earlier.

Harrison had moved to the UK with his wife and young son earlier in the same year ,1957 ,which also saw the publication of his story “The stainless steel rat” .

Sydney asked Harrison if he might be interested in writing a storyline for Jeff Hawke and the latter expressed an interest. Within a few days of the meeting he produced the outline of “ Out of touch” , a story of a strange encounter with a huge alien craft in the rings of Saturn which is surrounded by a force field of anti-matter. Harrison provided an outline story and ideas but Sydney himself produced the detailed version that we read in the strip. However some elements in the story look very much like Harrison’s inspiration.      His    anti-establishment credentials were well known , both from the subversive themes in his own writings and from his own political left-wing leanings, and one is tempted to see the character of Krimm , the obnoxious and opinionated politician, sent to accompany Hawke on his expedition ,as one of his creations .       Skipper Prossit

In parallel with the Jeff Hawke strip Sydney Jordan also undertook some other drawing commissions , many of which had sci-fi as their subject. During 1960 and 1961, when Hawke had reached what many fans regarded as its “golden age” ,Sydney produced three full colour covers for the British magazine NEW WORLDS SCIENCE FICTION. This publication was a leading vehicle of science fiction in the UK at the time. It had started back in the thirties as a fanzine and although suffering several financial crises and changes of ownership , it settled down as a professionally published magazine after 1946. Each issue carried around four short stories and was printed in a paperback format very similar to the U.S. Magazine FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. It attracted many distinguished writers such as Brian Aldiss, JG Ballard and Arthur C Clarke. As time went on, many leading U.S. Writers in the genre also contributed. The cover art does not seem to tally with any specific stories in the magazines, but was there presumably just to attract the buyer. Sydney contributed three covers , all of which appeared in 1961 in the January , April and August issues.                         Skipper Prossit