Science Fiction Cover Art

[Brett Davidson]

More by Moore.

 

[Brett Davidson]

And this is what I passionately HATE about current graphic design. The book itself is great, I'd really recommend it. In terms of design though, there are the dumbest possible cliches by someone who didn't bother to read the content - and yet now, with digital media, the publisher providing content for the artist to refer to would be no problem. And we get this shit! It's an insult to the memory of the subject and to the buyer.

Keep on celebrating the best exercises of imagination and virtuosity in this thread!

(I used to teach in a design school, so I take this personally and professionally)

 

[Graham1973]

I've always had a soft spot for Simak. He was often dismissed as a 'pastoralist' as Wyndham's stories were dismissed as 'cosy catastrophes' (by Brian Aldiss, who I greatly admire). In reality, like Wyndham, he was a lot more challenging if you read him carefully.

Below: by Chris Moore, for Magnum. Most don't have anything to do with the content - artists were usually told, 'Give us a picture yesterday' with no chance to read the manuscript, or the publisher just took something via their agent. Only the covers for The Visitors, the one with two bug-like vehicles approaching each other for Cemetery World and the flying saucer by the cabin for Catface (also known as Mastodonia) have much to do with the actual stories.

I saw that you have two pictures of the same cover for 'Time Is The Simplest Thing' (1961)

 

[Brett Davidson]

I saw that you have two pictures of the same cover for 'Time Is The Simplest Thing' (1961)

Yes, different editions come out, and often not so many years apart, with someone in marketing picking a cover at random. Still, as you may see from my rant above, better some random art with real talent and craft behind it than lazy [bleeeeeeeeeeep].

 

[jeffb]

Here is Rob McCall's take on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

A couple more Star Trek themed paintings by McCall.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Speaking of Brian Aldiss, the covers for the first editions of his Helliconia trilogy. For those who don't know, you can read them as fantasy or as science fiction. The premise is that it charts the rise and fall of civilisations with the centuries-long seasons of a world orbiting a K-type star that has been captured in an elliptical orbit around an A-type giant.

If some organisation were to invest money in adapting it, they could do a lot better than nonsense like The Rings of Power.

Spring is a detail from Albrecht Altdorfer's magnificent The Battle of Alexander/TheBattle of Issus (my high school English teacher had a print hanging in his classroom). Summer is a landscape by Cornelis Saftleven, and Winter is by an anonymous artist from the 'Netherlandish School' - meaning, 'Huh?' (I can't find good copies of these online). They're all more evocative than literal in relation to the novels. The covers of paperback editions are literal and quite dull - monsters and castles. Yawn.

 

[martinbayer]

Ummm, well the sociology is pretty accurate.

It's called "SCIENCE" fiction, not "SOCIAL" fiction (which, if your analysis were correct, wouldn't even be that fictional anyway)...

 

[Graham1973]

'Space' was the series title for an ultimately 9 book series of science fiction anthologies for young readers edited by Richard Davis and published between 1973 and 1985. According to the ISFDB at least the first two volumes were republished in the UK by Beaver Books with Peter Elson covers. Only the cover art for the first appeared on the artists memorial website.

 

[Graham1973]

As mentioned in the previous post, 'Space' was a 9 book series of science fiction anthologies for younger readers edited by Richard Davis. It was published in hardback form between 1973 and 1985. Initially by Abelard-Schuman Ltd. (Books 1 - 4) and thence by Hutchison (Books 5 - 9). Cover art was supplied by the following artists.

'Space 1' (1973) - Unknown
'Space 2' (1974) - Terence Greer
'Space 3' (1977) - Unknown (But based on the art style/subject probably David Hardy)
'Space 4' (1977) - David Hardy
'Space 5' (1979) - David Hardy (Cover art is based off one of the stories in the anthology.)
'Space 6' (1980) - David Hardy
'Space 7' (1981) - David Hardy
'Space 8' (1983) - Trevor Webb
'Space 9' (1985) - Alan Daniels

Cover images have been sourced from both the ISFDB and Internet Archive.

 

[Graham1973]

As mentioned earlier the 'Space' anthology series by Richard Davis was being republished as paperback books by Beaver Books starting in 1979, the cover art for the first two volumes were done by Peter Elson. I've posted the artwork for 'Space 1' as published by Beaver Books in Post #1,688. Here is the cover of 'Space 2' republished by Beaver Books in 1980 which I found on Amazon. I've not been able to find the full artwork, nor have I been able to find out if anthology's 3 - 9 were republished by Beaver Books.

 

[Graham1973]

A rather familiar looking starship features on the artwork by Trevor Webb for the 1994 single release of the Blur song 'End Of A Century'.

 

[Graham1973]

Angus McKie's cover art for the 1976 Corgi edition of Robert Silverberg's 1974 anthology 'Sundance And Other Science Fiction Stories'. The artwork was reused at least twice, the first was in 1977 when it was used for the cover art of French author Piet Legay's novel 'Les sphères de l'oubli' and again when it was used in one of the TTA artbooks.

 

[Graham1973]

In 1979 artist Alan Gutierrez painted what he intended as a tribute to British artist Chris Foss in which he attempted to replicate Foss's style.

 

[Graham1973]

Tim White's cover art for Clifford D. Simak's 1952 story 'Ring Around The Sun' when it was republished in 1979 by New England Library. A modified version of the same artwork was used for the cover of a 1984 issue of Omni magazine.

 

[Graham1973]

The artwork by Chris Moore without titling for the 1978 Magnum Books edition of Clifford D. Simak's anthology 'So Bright The Vision'. I've always felt that the artist was taking his cue from WWII era United States Army Airforce markings when he painted these ships while the design derives from the XB-70 'Valkyrie'.

The cover art he created for the 1985 release of the Anthology by Methuen seems to take it's cue from the anthologies title.

 

[Graham1973]

'Starblazer' was a long running action-adventure comic book series. Sometimes the artists resorted to 'short cuts' to beat deadlines. One example of this can be seen in Issue 72 'Massacre on Thule' while the cover is an original artwork (Unless someone knows otherwise), a space combat scene on page 25 appears to have been based on the cover art by Peter Elson for the 1976 Arrow Books release of Philip K. Dick's 1960 novel 'Vulcan's Hammer'