Science Fiction Cover Art

[Graham1973]

Artwork (Courtesy of Boardgame Geek) by Charles Hards for the cover and rulebook of the wargame 'Starship & Empire'

 

[Graham1973]

A Chris Foss Tryptich for the 2000AD comic series dating from 1995. Interestingly along with his usual watermark, Foss actually signed this one.

 

[Michel Van]

sadly another great illustrator lost
David Schleinkofer past away 20 April 2025 age 74

His cover for Thomas m. Dish novel 334

 

[Graham1973]

Syd Mead, for an unknown publication.

 

[Graham1973]

A nuclear powered(?) steam engine by Chris Foss, this was created as a poster in 1991.

 

[Graham1973]

Artwork by Gary Meyer for an unknown publication. Possibly dating from the 1980s around the time the film 'On Golden Pond' (1981) was released if what can be seen in the background is anything to go on.

 

[Graham1973]

Artwork by Chris Foss, for the 1980s UK release of the 1972 novel 'We Can Build You' by Philip K. Dick. It's a rare example of the author doing portraiture.

 

[Graham1973]

Courtesy of the ISFDB, the covers for the 1998 UK (Chris Moore), 2005 Spanish (Juan Miguel Aguilera) and 2011 UK (Chris Moore) edition's of Philip K. Dick's 1967 novel 'The Zap Gun'

 

[Sineva]

An anime inspired space battle scene by Syd Mead.

Its looks like its from the long running Gundam franchise.
Syd Mead designed the mecha for the series Turn A Gundam waaay back in 1999.
They were rather striking and unique compared to the previous designs.

 

[jeffb]

Some more from the outstanding Syd Mead


Blade Runner concept art by Syd Mead...

 

[martinbayer]

Its looks like its from the long running Gundam franchise.
Syd Mead designed the mecha for the series Turn A Gundam waaay back in 1999.
They were rather striking and unique compared to the previous designs.
View attachment 768641

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These utterly silly and preposterous pseudo robot (chicken?) biped monstrosity aberrations look pretty much all like the same regurgitated cheap lazy anime crap to me - I am honestly surprised, shocked, and saddened that a truly classic science fiction art designer like Sydney Mead would have wasted any of his creative talent on childish nonsense like that, but oh well, time marches on and maybe forgives all sins...

 

[Michel Van]

both from Classic artist
Richard Corben cover for Damon Knight collection of Short story.

 

[Justo Miranda]

both from Classic artist
Richard Corben cover for Damon Knight collection of Short story.

I remember this story. "To serve man" was a cookbook for gourmet aliens.

 

[jeffb]

both from Classic artist
Richard Corben cover for Damon Knight collection of Short story.

"It's a cook book!"

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-1

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-2

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-3

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-4

 

[Graham1973]

Courtesy of the ISFDB. A nicely baroque take on the title by Peter Andrew Jones for the 1975 (UK) edition of Philip K. Dick's 1967 novel 'The Zap Gun'.

 

[Graham1973]

Angus McKie's artwork for the novel Deus Irae (1976), a work started by Philip K. Dick, but completed by Roger Zelzany.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Adrian Chesterman for the 1979 UK edition of the 1952 novel 'The Space Merchants' by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth. This moody illustration is a personal favorite amongst Chesterman's work. Penguin Books also seems to have liked it, when they relaunched their science fiction line in the late 1970s, this artwork was used for the promotional poster, sadly I've not been able to locate a scan of that version, this was sourced from the ISFDB.

 

[southwestforests]

Post-4

Ohh, I do very much like that ship with its 'appliance handle' wings.
So, where are the 1/144 scale and 1/72 scale plastic models of it complete with interior detail and crew?

 

[Sineva]

The cover by Adrian Chesterman for the 1979 UK edition of the 1952 novel 'The Space Merchants' by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth. This moody illustration is a personal favorite amongst Chesterman's work. Penguin Books also seems to have liked it, when they relaunched their science fiction line in the late 1970s, this artwork was used for the promotional poster, sadly I've not been able to locate a scan of that version, this was sourced from the ISFDB.

This is a nice image.It hasnt quite yet reached the level of the dystopian cityscapes of bladerunner,it reminds me more of a night time view of the inner city from 1979s Buck Rogers.

Copies of the poster do exist online but they`re small low resolution ones sadly

 

[Sineva]

The cover by Adrian Chesterman for the 1979 UK edition of the 1952 novel 'The Space Merchants' by Frederick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth. This moody illustration is a personal favorite amongst Chesterman's work. Penguin Books also seems to have liked it, when they relaunched their science fiction line in the late 1970s, this artwork was used for the promotional poster, sadly I've not been able to locate a scan of that version, this was sourced from the ISFDB.

I`ve tried a couple of upscaling sites to increase the size and resolution of the poster,its not perfect,but not terrible either.

 

[Sineva]

These utterly silly and preposterous pseudo robot (chicken?) biped monstrosity aberrations look pretty much all like the same regurgitated cheap lazy anime crap to me - I am honestly surprised, shocked, and saddened that a truly classic science fiction art designer like Sydney Mead would have wasted any of his creative talent on childish nonsense like that, but oh well, time marches on and maybe forgives all sins...

Syd Mead mentions in the 1985 art book Oblagon that he did work for a proposed live action hollywood production of Gundam,this would`ve been back in the early 80s,
So it looks like syd,mobile suits and gundam go back further than I realised.

His work was very popular in japan with some of the best quality art books of his works being released there.The Kronolog collection is a great example.

 

[Graham1973]

The covers by Peter Andrew Jones, to author Mick Farren's 'DNA Cowboys' science fiction trilogy.

 

[Sineva]

I found this one,its an old commission of Mike Trims
"At all cost, save the World President!" Commission piece, 2007.

 

[Graham1973]

The covers by Josh Kirby and going on the artwork style Angus McKie (Someone on the ISFDB, speculated this was Peter Elson...) for the hardcover (1974) and paperback (1976) editions of 'Swampworld West', a science fiction Western by Percy A. Chapdelaine, an author who was active in the 1960s and 1970s, most of his output was short fiction, and two novels, this work and a 1977 novel entitled 'The Laughing Terran'.

 

[Michel Van]

Someone on the ISFDB, speculated this was Peter Elson..

he sign always his work with PE
here look on Asteroid left side
Cover for the Best of A.E. van Vogt Vol 2.

 

[Graham1973]

A quintet of UFO images by Chris Foss for the 1976 psudoscience book 'Visitors from Outer Space' by Roy Stemman which at least gave the artist the chance to draw some things outside his normal subjects, and provides another rare example of him doing portraiture in this case Charles Adamski and one of his 'Venusian Blondes'.

 

[TsrJoe]

Being a bit of a nerd, at the time of the Venus/Skyhook incident, 7 January 1948, Cpt. G.T. Mantell's Kentucky National Guard North American P-51D-20, NG869/463869, would have been in overall metal finish (to fancy tail marking) with prominent KY ANG titling on the fuselage, the wing starts and bar narking would also have the red stripe to the bars added in 1947

 

[Justo Miranda]

Being a bit of a nerd, at the time of the Venus/Skyhook incident, 7 January 1948, Cpt. G.T. Mantell's Kentucky National Guard North American P-51D-20, NG869/463869, would have been in overall metal finish (to fancy tail marking) with prominent KY ANG titling on the fuselage, the wing starts and bar narking would also have the red stripe to the bars added in 1947

The Skyhook balloon was flying at an altitude of 30,000 meters, but the reflection of sunlight on its metalized surface and the lack of oxygen above 3,000 meters made it difficult to calculate distances.

Mantell was a good pilot.

7 January 1948 | This Day in Aviation

 

[Justo Miranda]

A quintet of UFO images by Chris Foss for the 1976 psudoscience book 'Visitors from Outer Space' by Roy Stemman which at least gave the artist the chance to draw some things outside his normal subjects, and provides another rare example of him doing portraiture in this case Charles Adamski and one of his 'Venusian Blondes'.

I have references to four of the five UFO incidents depicted in the illustrations... Anyone have information about "UFO 02"?

 

[Rhinocrates]

I`ve tried a couple of upscaling sites to increase the size and resolution of the poster,its not perfect,but not terrible either.

I can't find a large image of the whole painting either, but I did unearth some partial images. It's by Adrian Chesterman.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Same artist.

 

[Rhinocrates]

A different edition of the Hoyles' Fifth Planet by David Pelham.

 

[Rhinocrates]

More Pelham, showing the pop art influence. He fitted in well with New Wave authors like Moorcock and Ballard but also did covers for Stapledon.

 

[Rhinocrates]

The cover for Ballard's The Drought is inspired by a work by the collective, Ant Farm, called Cadillac Ranch.

 

[Rhinocrates]

I found this one,its an old commission of Mike Trims
"At all cost, save the World President!" Commission piece, 2007.

 

[Graham1973]

I have references to four of the five UFO incidents depicted in the illustrations... Anyone have information about "UFO 02"?

I have vague memories of reading of it in a fringe book, but cannot remember the specifics.