McCall was an illustrator for Life magazine in the 1960s,[1] created promotional artwork for Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)[2] and Richard Fleischer's production Tora!

McCall was also production illustrator on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) [4][5] and Walt Disney's The Black Hole (1979).

[6] The character Commander William Riker expressed admiration for the work of "Bob McCall" in one episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

[citation needed] McCall's work can be found on U.S. postage stamps, and also NASA mission patches such as for Apollo 17.

McCall was also commissioned by The Walt Disney Company to do a painting called "The Prologue and The Promise" for the Epcot attraction, Horizons in 1983.