Science Fiction Cover Art

[Sineva]

Heres an early 80s tv mini-series classic.
Imagine if a bunch of human looking aliens suddenly showed up wanting to be our friends & offering us all the benefits of their advanced technology...

......only to turn out to be a bunch of nazi lizards in disguise who want to take over earth & enslave humanity.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Heres an early 80s tv mini-series classic.
Imagine if a bunch of human looking aliens suddenly showed up wanting to be our friends & offering us all the benefits of their advanced technology...

......only to turn out to be a bunch of nazi lizards in disguise who want to take over earth & enslave humanity.

Reality surpasses fiction

 

[Graham1973]

Bruce Pennington's cover art to the 1976 Sphere Books edition of 'The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge' by Harry Harrison.

 

[Michel Van]

RIP Bob Layzell. May 4, 1940 - Jan 29, 2026.

 

[Graham1973]

Im Memoriam Bob Layzell (May 4, 1940 - Jan 29, 2026.)

 

[martinbayer]

I take these cutaways with a grain of salt. On the Cygnus drawing, the part shown as the “farm” is one of the two power centers for the ship. The crippled Palomino crashed into one, and the second one overloaded and blew up. I don’t think the designers were consulted for accuracy.

It figures...

 

[martinbayer]

Album covers are ok, yes?

View attachment 798146

One of my all time favorites!!!

 

[martinbayer]

Album covers are ok, yes?

View attachment 798146

I always loved the shuttle!

 

[martinbayer]

Heres an early 80s tv mini-series classic.
Imagine if a bunch of human looking aliens suddenly showed up wanting to be our friends & offering us all the benefits of their advanced technology...

......only to turn out to be a bunch of nazi lizards in disguise who want to take over earth & enslave humanity.

Oh no - it's Republicans trying to take over the whole World with Musk dork power...

 

[robunos]

Im Memoriam Bob Layzell (May 4, 1940 - Jan 29, 2026.)

Not sure where it was originally published , but it's in 'Spacewreck' , one of Stewart Cowley's TTA Handbooks . . .

cheers ,
Robin.

 

[PMN1]

Heres an early 80s tv mini-series classic.
Imagine if a bunch of human looking aliens suddenly showed up wanting to be our friends & offering us all the benefits of their advanced technology...

......only to turn out to be a bunch of nazi lizards in disguise who want to take over earth & enslave humanity.

Just keep any small rodents from them.

 

[Graham1973]

Frank Kelly Freas artwork. I'm guessing it dates from around the time of 'Star Wars'.

 

[publiusr]

Speaking of Star Wars—I seem to remember a documentary about sci-fi where Hamill did some narration/voice-over….and there was animation of a spaceship very like the one above…with a flaring, diaphanous exhaust plume….a bit like that of the Falcon rocket “squids.”

This was before Batman: The Animated Series. Serum Lake has nice essays about that program.

Hamill paints and did voiceover work in the 1970s.

For the life of me—I can’t remember the name of the documentary.

The painting above may have been one of the last fanciful spacecraft designs not inspired by Star Wars.

Nowadays, fictional spacecraft have the slab-sided Homeworld look.

More on the Cygnus
https://www.facebook.com/groups/61035896393/posts/10162219864931394/
For LISfans
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threads/lost-in-space-technical-handbook-2026-edition.366170/
Megastructures

Wizard

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aZJ16X58EDU

 

[Sineva]

Drunkard’s Walk 1978
The cover art by john harris for the 1st edition of Enders Game
The original artwork was auctioned for a cool GBP 504,000 [over 10 times its pre-auction estimate] at the end of 2024

The Age of Pussyfoot 1978
Cover art for Speaker for the dead,by john harris


A triptych for sir clive sinclair

 

[Graham1973]

Another cover of 'if their clothes move the right way' school.

 

[Sineva]

Another cover of 'if their clothes move the right way' school.

I think that one might actually be the tasteful or censored version of the pic.
Heres the version where her clothes seem to be either totally see-thru or invisible.

Looks like the artist is a big fan of the less is more school of art

 

[Graham1973]

An album cover by Tony Roberts, this one also appeared in the TTA book 'Spacewreck'.

 

[Graham1973]

A 1961 artwork, commissioned by an unknown publication/organization from Syd Mead, depicting the 'rush hour' of the future. As to the location it's somewhere in the Boston-Atlanta Municipal Axis (aka - 'The Sprawl'.)

 

[Graham1973]

The artwork by Richard Hescox to March or Die (The Fifth Foreign Legion: 1) (1992) by J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith Jr.

 

[Graham1973]

Richard Hescox depicting a moment of discovery in the cover art for 'The Outskirter's Secret' (The Steerswoman: 2) (1992) by Rosemary Kirstein

 

[Justo Miranda]

I think that one might actually be the tasteful or censored version of the pic.
Heres the version where her clothes seem to be either totally see-thru or invisible.

Looks like the artist is a big fan of the less is more school of art

It's clear to me that the girl dressed in green plays the harp, but I wonder which musical instrument the other one plays.

 

[Graham1973]

Artwork for an unknown publication by Ron Miller. The piece was clearly created post 'Star Wars' (1977)

 

[Graham1973]

Artwork for an unknown publication by Bob Layzell dating from 2016.

 

[Michel Van]

it sad to hear that Rob Grant past way age 70.
he was TV producer, comedy writer and co-creator of one most insane Comedy Sci-Fi series ever

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCbRn0YkPd4

 

[Brett Davidson]

Frank R Paul, a classic pulp sf artist. His paintings of huge cities and machines were almost certainly an influence on the likes of Robert McCall, Ralph McQuarrie, and Syd Mead.

Some might consider his colours lurid and flat but he was working to the limitations of cheap printing and paper, and the need to stand out on newsstands, not the Audobon Society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_R._Paul
Mentioned over here:

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/space-station-concepts.4117/post-884496
One as you see is for a reprint of Wells' The War of the Worlds - and the blue Amazing Stories cover illustrates 'The Crystal Egg' by Wells, a short story which is a kind of pendant to The War of the Worlds. It concerns a man who finds a crystal egg in a shop and arranging the lighting just so, he is able to catch glimpses of the Martian civilisation.

 

[Graham1973]

Ed Emiswiller's cover to the July 1957 issue of British Science Fiction magazine 'Venture', a clear case of a 'Macho Woman without a gun'.

 

[martinbayer]

Ed Emiswiller's cover to the July 1957 issue of British Science Fiction magazine 'Venture', a clear case of a 'Macho Woman without a gun'.

FWIW, the guy in the lower left hand corner has in my view an *uncanny* resemblance to current US HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which would make the apparent rage expressed by the female character on the right all the more understandable... Ed Emiswiller time travel evidence?

 

[Graham1973]

FWIW, the guy in the lower left hand corner has in my view an *uncanny* resemblance to current US HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which would make the apparent rage expressed by the female character on the right all the more understandable... Ed Emiswiller time travel evidence?

I'd say pure co-incidence.

 

[martinbayer]

I'd say pure co-incidence.

I feel somewhat embarrassed and slightly humiliated by the fact that I apparently have to clarify that I was purely joking about time travel, which evidently means my third language comedic phrasing is still utterly inadequate. Instead, I'd rather chalk the posting of this particular pulp cover straight up to synchronicity. To quote the Bard, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..."

 

[Graham1973]

Courtesy of the Internet Archive, Ed Emishwiller's cover to the first and last issue of 'Vanguard Science Fiction' (June 1958), despite an impressive lineup, including James Blish as editor, the distributor chose to pull out dooming the publication.

 

[Graham1973]

I feel somewhat embarrassed and slightly humiliated by the fact that I apparently have to clarify that I was purely joking about time travel, which evidently means my third language comedic phrasing is still utterly inadequate. Instead, I'd rather chalk the posting of this particular pulp cover straight up to synchronicity. To quote the Bard, "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..."

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Graham1973]

Ed Emishwiller again illustrating 'that which drives men on' for the cover of the July 1958 issue of 'Venture Science Fiction', the final issue of the magazine published in the 1950s.

 

[martinbayer]

Thanks for the clarification.

De nada.

 

[Graham1973]

Artwork for an Alcoa advert that appeared in a 1960s issue of Time magazine by Syd Mead.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Ed Emshwiller's style evolved quite a bit, from realism towards more symbolic/psychological representation with a looser brush technique. Towards the end of his life he even experimented with computer animation.

The realist style of the 1950s.

 

[Brett Davidson]

That seems quite straightforward, but he certainly had a sense of humour, seen in his Santa series for Galaxy and others.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Composition could be quite bold and dynamic.

 

[Brett Davidson]

In the 60s he tried a more painterly technique and complex, stylised compositions.

The blue one has a touch of Richard Powers, I think.

 

[Brett Davidson]

He collaborated with Harlan Ellison, doing interior illustrations for Again, Dangerous Visions (Leo and Diane Dillon worked on the first Dangerous Visions). Er, yes, that is what you think it is.

 

[Brett Davidson]

This is Sunstone and some other video art from 1979.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMW15OajuKc

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POfC-ubsBVU

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZo3xlszwLY