Raymond Sheppard and chimpanzees

Chimpanzees - watercolour by Raymond Sheppard

In the previous article (on Q-Ships) I glossed over another story illustrated by Sheppard in Lilliput of September 1957, "Ape for murder" by Pat Campbell.

In the introduction to this issue of Lilliput we are told "Pat Campbell, who writes the opening story in this issue, "Ape for murder" is a new name coming up fast both on paper and TV. He's a newspaperman and quite an expert on animals and animal-training."


I tried tracking down more about Pat but got stuck, especially as I kept thinking this might be Patrick Campbell, who was an Assistant Editor on Lilliput at some point! But he did another story in Lilliput
(December 1957) called "Claw for courage" (illustrated this time by Michael Leonard) about a tiger trainer, but other than that I don't know anything about him.

Lilliput Sept 1957, p2

Lilliput Sept 1957, p.11

The image above shows the opening page of the short story in which  some friends are chatting about the chimpanzee trainer when they hear panic as the chimp escapes. However everything is not all it seems. I'll say no more as you may want to track it down - Lilliput that is!

Original art for "Ape for murder"

The original art shows how Sheppard had to imagine the spaces to leave for headings and blurb as well as the initial part of the story. So easy to do these days with desktop publishing available to anyone with a computer but back then it was for the artist to do. The publisher would then typeset in the gaps. However, I do have instances where the Art Editor knew better than Sheppard and wrote over some of his artwork.

Lilliput Sept 1957, p.13

Original art for 2nd illustration

The original art of the second illustration shows the chimpanzee unlocking its cage. Notice the notations scribbled on the art board state this is "illustration no.3" but there are only 2 illustrations in the published version. 

SKETCHES


The troop of chimpanzees illustrated at the top of this page was displayed at the Cooling Galleries exhibition which ran from 6 July to 24 July 1953 and was reported on (and shown) in The Sketch 29 July 1953. For a history of the Cooling Galleries see the wonderful Artist Biographies.

To finish off here are some studies by Raymond Sheppard of chimpanzees

Drawing at the Zoo p.43

Drawing at the Zoo p.43 Original art

Drawing at the Zoo p.17 Original art

 Please forgive the quality of some of the following but I think they're worth reproducing as they are sketches and may assist studies on how to draw chimpanzees

Chimp lying down

Chimp reaches out

Chimp swinging

Looking up at chimp / arm and hand

Squatting chimp

Chimp standing and reaching

Shape of chimp standing

Outline of chimp

Chimp eating

And finally some studies of chimpanzee faces

With thanks to Christine Sheppard for permission to show these wonderful sketches and original artwork