Science Fiction Cover Art

[Michel Van]

Though originally the cover for “The View from the Stars” by Walter M. Miller.

Some Publisher just recycle the Artwork for other Titels, to save Money...

A 'Star Wars' influenced piece by artist David Hardy, just which book, or books it was used for is unknown.

was cover of Book by David Hardy & Patrick Moor called The New Challenge of the Stars in 1978
A reedit of Challenge of the Stars from 1972.

 

[Justo Miranda]

The tittle and location of the thread is ok for posting art, regardless the more or less fantastic aspects. To me, that's ok.
May be another thread could be opened for hard science fiction art only?

The original science fiction of the Verne/H.G. Wells era required some scientific knowledge from the writer, but the publishers needed more material and little by little they opened the door to the fantasy genre (A Princess of Mars) and the horror genre (Frankenstein) for which scientific knowledge is not needed, an overdose of Artemisia absinthium is enough, or a winter depression.

 

[Graham1973]

An unidentified artwork dating from 1978, the unknown artist was clearly influenced by both 'Star Wars' and '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

 

[publiusr]

That I haven’t seen before—the X-wing of post 599–that used in a pinball machine?
I wonder how much art has been lost…

The FANTASTIC Paperback Cover Art of LOU FECK

THIS FANTASTIC illustration by Lou Feck was created to be the fold-out cover art on Kull The Fabulous Warrior King , a collection of short ...

paperbackpalette.blogspot.com

Lou Feck

Lou Feck

www.startrekbookclub.com

Image of the Week: Lou Feck

Plus.... a lot more Lou Feck

adamrowe.substack.com

Lou Feck’s Illustration for Star Trek 4

Visit the post for more.

startreknovels.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1220984965678223360

View: https://x.com/70sscifi/status/1220984965678223360?mx=2

 

[Graham1973]

That I haven’t seen before—the X-wing of post 599–that used in a pinball machine?
I wonder how much art has been lost…

No idea.

 

[Graham1973]

John Berkey's cover art for the novelisation of 'Star Wars' by Alan Dean Foster (Pen name: George Lucas)...

 

[Graham1973]

John Berkey's cover art for the 1972 reprinting of the anthology 'Star Science Fiction Stories Nº. 3' edited by Frederick Pohl.

 

[Graham1973]

From the 'Macho Women With Guns' school of art. Allan Anderson's cover to the 30th issue of 'Planet Stories'

 

[Graham1973]

An Eddie Jones image that was reprinted in 'The Space Warriors' (1980) by Stewart Crowley. It was clearly painted after the John Berkey cover to the 1972 reprinting 'Star Science Fiction Stories Nº. 3'. A quick look on the Eddie Jones fansite didn't immediately turn up where this was used before that, but the most likely origin is the work he did for German science fiction magazine 'Terra Astra'.

 

[Michel Van]

An unidientified artwork dating from 1978, the unknown artist was clearly influenced by both 'Star Wars' and '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

found this: Naoyuki Kato poster "sora ni yuku"
source:

Naoyuki Kato poster "sora ni yuku" 73 x 102 cm vintage | eBay

Naoyuki Kato poster "sora ni yuku" 73 x 102 cm vintage | Collectibles, Animation Art & Merchandise, Animation Merchandise | eBay!

www.ebay.com.sg

 

[Hicks]

An unidientified artwork dating from 1978, the unknown artist was clearly influenced by both 'Star Wars' and '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

It seems that it was meant as a LP Cover as shown in this auction :
https://www.ebay.com/itm/225373770590

Komatsu Sakyō - Uchū ni iku (Death in the cosmos ?) - KVX-1042

Details (work with google translate) :
http://hiptankrecords.com/?pid=100205129

 

[Justo Miranda]

From the 'Macho Women With Guns' school of art. Allan Anderson's cover to the 30th issue of 'Planet Stories'

Courageous girls always ready to exchange a few shots with some tough guy

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-2

 

[Justo Miranda]

Post-3

 

[Graham1973]

An attempt by myself to merge the font and back covers of the album Hicks discovered into the original image. It's the best I could do under the circumstances.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover to the anthology 'Critical Mass' (1977) by Frederick Pohl. This is a personal favourite amongst Eddie Jones's artwork. There's a powerful sense of place, but also of the 'energy' that was unleashed by the film 'Star Wars' without directly quoting it's imagery. It's an image that invites storytelling, who controls the settlement (castle?) in the background, whose ship is blasting off in the foreground and why are they leaving?

Later: Some searching found the full wraparound cover on the ISFDB. It is a true pity that no artbook was put together for Eddie Jones. From what I've been able to find out the closest thing to that is 'The Star Warriors' (1980) where around eighty percent of the artwork used was drawn from pieces Jones had created for the covers of 'Terra Astra' magazine and other German publications. The ISFDB also revealed that I was wrong about when the artwork was created, a much less 'brooding' version of the cover appeared on a 1975 Clifford D. Simak anthology.

 

[Graham1973]

A quintet of posters by South American artist José Luiz Benício da Fonseca for the South America Insurance Group. Not sure when these were done, but I'm guessing the 1960s...

 

[Graham1973]

A trio of John Berkey pictures created for adverts, all appeared in 'Future Life' magazine in 1979/80. Two have been identified as coming from a series commissioned by the Otis Elevator company, the other was from a unidentified textiles firm that wanted to promote 'space-dyed yarn technology' whatever that means....

 

[Graham1973]

A 1979 image by John Harris inspired by the 'Cities in Flight' setting created by author James Blish.

 

[Graham1973]

John Berkey illustrating a different kind of 'Star Wars', for a 1985 issue of a magazine called 'Plain Truth'.

 

[Graham1973]

Kelly Freas's take on 'That which drives men on' on the cover of the final issue of 'Planet Stories' magazine. I remember reading a comment that this is the ultimate fusion of 'sex drive' with 'star drive'...

 

[Michel Van]

had we here Philippe Druillet ?
he made movie poster, book covers, furniture, comic...

 

[Graham1973]

An artwork by Tony Roberts that appeared in a 1974 issue of 'Science Fiction Monthly'.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover to the issue of 'Science Fiction Monthly' the Tony Roberts picture just posted was published in was by Chris Foss... three years before 'Star Wars' came out.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover Chris Foss did for 'The Bloodstar Conspiracy' (1978) by Stephen Goldin & E. E. 'Doc' Smith. Any resemblance to space craft appearing in the film 'Star Wars' is a pure coincidence....

 

[Aubi]

A cover to the Big Book of Comics, a colection of comics mostly from the legendary Czech children's and teenager's magazine ABC. The spaceship, taken from the comic Galaxia (1984), is obviously a completely original work. Also a first page from the comic named Vzpoura mozků, Rebelion of brains (1978).

 

[The K2]

I love the novelizations of the TOS Star Trek episodes by James Blish. The cover art of the earlier editions showed stuff not seen in the series. This is my favorite cover. Two of my favorite ships from TOS:

 

[Graham1973]

I love the novelizations of the TOS Star Trek episodes by James Blish. The cover art of the earlier editions showed stuff not seen in the series. This is my favorite cover. Two of my favorite ships from TOS:

That's one of the Eddie Jones covers for the Blish novelizations.

 

[Graham1973]

Artist Lou Feck was another who contributed covers for the James Blish 'Star Trek' novelizations. Here is his cover art for volume 8 of the Bantam release.

 

[Graham1973]

Cover artwork by Jim Burns for 'Star Trail' an 'off brand' 'Star Trek' game released in 1982, I wonder if the people at Paramount saw this one...

 

[Justo Miranda]

had we here Philippe Druillet ?
he made movie poster, book covers, furniture, comic...

Lovecraft?

 

[Graham1973]

These four images by David Mattingly graced covers of the novelisations by Alan Dean Foster of the 1970s animated series based on 'Star Trek', when they were republished in 1992. I've not been able to determine which cover picture graced which issue though.

 

[Graham1973]

Here are two more of the Lou Feck covers for the James Blish 'Star Trek' novelizations.

 

[Graham1973]

A moment in 'Star Trek' history. The cover by James Bama for the first of the novelizations by James Blish. It was a reworking of a publicity poster created shortly before production began on the series, this can be seen in the appearance of the characters who are dressed in the uniforms from the original pilot, as well as some rather intesting inaccuracies in Enterprise's propulsion system. The next two volumes used cast photographs before reverting to artwork covers with volume four.

 

[Graham1973]

The remaining Eddie Jones covers for the Bantam editons of the James Blish 'Star Trek' original series novelizations. He did completely different covers for the German language editons of the novelisations, but I've not been able to locate good scans of those yet.

 

[Graham1973]

A 'Star Trek' mystery. Corgi books in the UK used plain grey covers for volumes 1 - 11 of their initial printing the James Blish 'Star Trek' novelizations before using an artwork cover on the final volume, the artist is uncredited but something about it leads me to believe it's Tony Roberts, making the lack of an artwork book (or website) dedicated to him a real pity.

The next round of Corgi issues of 'Star Trek 1 - 12' used covers by Chris Achiellos.

Later: I found Tony Roberts website and it confirms that this cover image was by him and dates it to 1977.

 

[Michel Van]

Lovecraft?

His Own univers
or like he say:

One of you asked me where I get my inspiration from ?
My inspiration arises from the board itself.
I start drawing and approach the work somehow like an architect. I start at the top and work my way down.
I have an idea of the layout and the narrative, but I don't storyboard like some other comic artists do.
I rather get in a trance, and loose control...

Drawing is a battle between the hand and the brain

Philippe Druillet

site de l'artiste Philippe Druillet

www.philippedruillet.com

Phillippe Druillet in his atelier

 

[Graham1973]

A short diversion from artwork. 'Starship' (Also known as 'Lorca and the Outlaws') was a 1984 UK Science Fiction movie shot in Australia. Trying to ride the coat tails of 'Star Wars' and it's sequels the film suffered from a bad script and a low budget. It's one point of interest is that SF artist Tony Roberts was responsible for some of the design work and it represents the only time I know of his work appearing in this way. Two screenshots from a DVD re-release of the film are attached as are the credits from the DVD version of the film and the VHS version of the film both of which can be found on YouTube.

Later: I located a review of the film which broadly confirms what I'd already known about the film, but has an interesting quote on the effects work:

The film starts with passable promise. There are some decent model effects that at times give the feel they could have been modelled straight from the illustrations of Chris Foss.

https://www.moriareviews.com/sciencefiction/starship-1984-lorca-and-the-outlaws-2084.htm

Chris Foss!!?!!

 

[Graham1973]

A trio of Tony Roberts covers from the late 1970s/early 1980s showing the stylistic shift in his artwork.

 

[Graham1973]

Another trio of Tony Roberts covers, this time from the 1980s, the cover to 'Dealing In Futures' by Joe Haldeman is proof positive that the spacecraft in 'Starship' is indeed something that Tony Roberts came up with.