Science Fiction Cover Art

Speaking of Leo and Diane Dillon's work with Harlan Ellison...
 

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And their work for other sf and fantasy authors.
 

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Brett Davidson said:
This is Sunstone and some other video art from 1979.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMW15OajuKc
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I seem to remember a public television art series hosted by Jonathan Harris around that time.

Actually it was Canadian...
en.wikipedia.org

Hunger (1974 film) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I don't recognize the music...

More NFB
m.youtube.com

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View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9F2cubxJJ-I
 
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Artwork by Robert Petillo, while the specific publication is unknown the scene illustrated comes from 'A Martian Odyssey' (1934) a seminal science fiction story from the pen of the sadly short lived author Stanley G. Weinbaum, the first writer to succeed at John W. Campbell's challenge "Write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man.". The entity to the right of the human is Tweel, Weinbaum's answer to Campbell's challenge.
 

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John Berkey's cover art for the 1968 Ace Books edtion of Keith Laumer's short novel 'The Day Before Forever' paired with the short story 'Thunderhead' by the same author.
 

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Artwork for an unknown publication by Oliver Frey. A more recent take on 'that which drives men on'...
 

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Cover art for Laurent Genefort's 'Spire', by artist Manchu.
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The cover art by Lou Feck to the 1977 edition of Edward Byrant's, 1977 short story collection 'Cinnabar' set in a decadent far future city.
 

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Were it not for the artists signature, this artwork used on the cover of Fred Saberhagen's novel 'Berzerker Man' could be mistaken for that of Eddie Jones, it's actually Boris Vallejo....
 

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A quintet of images from one of the forgotten science fiction artists, Edward Blair Wilkins.
 

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Another illustration of a UFO by Walter Molino, probably from an Italian magazine. As to the inspiration, I'd say the 1964 Socorro Incident. Two other UFO illustrations by this artist can be seen in Post:#1,357
 

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The artwork by James Bama for the 1964 novel 'Countdown for Cindy' by Eloise Engle...
 

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Graham1973 said:
Artwork for an unknown publication by Ron Miller. The piece was clearly created post 'Star Wars' (1977)
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I'm pretty sure it was Starlog, a magazine devoted to sf film mainly but it ran a nonfiction sometimes. It did a series on the 'wonders of the solar system' or a grand tour according to what was known about them at the time. It was written in the manner of 'If you were to visit x, then you might see y.'

This is Caloris Basin on Mercury.

Here's another in the series of a visit to the rings of Uranus.

miller, ron tumblr_nsjxvxWdj11qztcdbo1_1280.jpg
 
Graham1973 said:
Artwork for an unknown publication by Bob Layzell dating from 2016.
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I think that was a personal work. Bob Layzell advertised paintings for sale in his later years and this was one of them. Some of the others on sale were revisons/sequels to earlier published work.

Sadly, I don't think that we'll see another generation of sf artists like these again - there's just no market for book covers any more. Jim Burns is still making a reasonable living from sales, but few are for book covers - most are prints of famous earlier works, commissions, or on spec. He does get illustrations jobs for prestige limited edition books. One recent one was for an edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

I hate to mention it, but much of the work these days by younger artists seems to be character and concept design for games. The quality is terrible - totally bereft of imagination and no sense of composition whatsoever. Admittedly the last is not required - concept art is ordered to show clearly what a character looks like in a neutral pose. Still, the result is a distillation of banality.
 
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Examples of Bob Layzell revisiting older works. These are unpublished and taken from his Facebook page. You can tell which are newer... er, because he painted the dates on them. Also because the photography is not professional, so the sharpness and colour aren't so good. The originals all appeared in Cowley's TTA series, though I think I saw the twin-nacelled ship on a cover for a Philip K Dick book, unrelated to content.
 

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The covers to the 1960 (US), 1978 (US), 1980 (UK) 1986 (US) and the cover art used for the 1993 (US) editions of 'Rogue Moon' by Algis Budrys. It's interesting to note that in at least three of the cases the artist may have read the book before starting work, as the author includes the restrictions that the 'Big Dumb Object' at the heart of the story imposes on space suit design and some of that is reflected in the cover illustrations.

Later: I've expanded the spacesuit restrictions quote to include additional information that shows that Carl Lundgren did read the book before starting work.
 

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These days, I prefer book covers without illustrations so as to not to taint my visual imagination.
 
The cover by Chris Foss, to the 1971 Mayflower Books edition of the novel 'Rockets in Ursa Major' (1969) by Fred & Geoffrey Hoyle, as far as I can tell it may be the only spacecraft interior in the artists output.
 

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