ORIGINAL ARTWORK 

GERALD G. SWAN

‘Crime On The River'. Used in FUNNIES ALBUM 1949.
Original pen and ink artwork. Complete Page.  

  SIZE 16 X 11 INCHES (approx. 40 x 30 cm)

by

William 'Ron' McCail. 

One of the PRINCIPAL creators of the SWAN  comic titles.

PEN & INK page one of more than one (4?)

GERALD G. SWAN was a street trader turned publisher who, from the late 1930s until 1960, issued scores of titles, many of them comics. Gerald Swan was born in South Tooting, Wandsworth, London on January 23 1902. In 1921 he borrowed thirty shillings (£1.50) from his mother to start his own market stall trading in books and magazines. For many years that stall was at London’s well-known Church Street Market; it was here that he stamped all his stock with the imprint of a Swan. 

WILLIAM (BILL) MCCAIL (1902-1974) (who signed himself ‘Ron’) was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham, on March 31 1902. When he left school he got a job on a tugboat, and then followed his father into the shipyard, taking evening classes in art. In 1925 he became a staff illustrator at DC Thomson in Dundee, working in the art department of their local newspaper,The Courier, following his older brother John ‘Jack’ McCail. He drew illustrations for Thomson’s boys’ story papers, including The Rover, Adventure and The Wizard, and the women’s story papers, Red Letter, Weekly Welcome, Woman’s Companion, and Topical Times. He also drew the title illustrations for the Dixon Hawke detective stories in the Sporting Post. Bill McCail left Thomson in 1940 and moved to London, where he and his brother worked on a freelance basis on comics published by Gerald Swan. The features Bill ‘Ron’ McCail wrote and drew for Swan included Back from the Dead, Headline Henderson, Old Hooky, Calling All Cars, Gentleman Jim and Red Martin. Bill McCail started his own art agency/studio in Dundee in 1944, which he named Livingstone Studios (later known as Strathmore Studios). He also founded the studio Mallard Features in Glasgow, which employed artists including Colin Andrew, Len Fullerton, Sam Fair, George Blow, Alf Farningham and Sydney Jordan. In the late 1940s Bill McCail developed an interest in drawing and painting horses, exhibiting his work at various galleries including the Royal Scottish Academy In 1949. One of his paintings was bought by the Queen Mother. He retired from the studio in 1962, and died on August 12 1974.