Science Fiction Cover Art

[Graham1973]

Vincent DiFate's cover art to the 1977 anthology 'The Best Of Philip K. Dick'

 

[axlzed3301]

star citizen ship art by Gavin Rothery
Squadron 42 CitizenCon 2954 Live Gameplay Reveal

 

[martinbayer]

I would dearly love to see many more hard core science and engineering based sci-fi spacecraft designs, rather than ones purely driven by the rule of cool pseudo aesthetics of the day, like 80's hairdos (or rather hair dont's, by current standards, although I am fairly confident everything will come back to be fashionable again, barring a spontaneous global nuclear exchange, asteroid impact event, deadly bird flu outbreak, or some other such shenanigan).

 

[Rhinocrates]

Alas.

 

[Rhinocrates]

I would dearly love to see many more hard core science and engineering based sci-fi spacecraft designs, rather than ones purely driven by the rule of cool pseudo aesthetics of the day, like 80's hairdos (or rather hair dont's, by current standards, although I am fairly confident everything will come back to be fashionable again, barring a spontaneous global nuclear exchange, asteroid impact event, deadly bird flu outbreak, or some other such shenanigan).

Tell me about it. SF art and design, especially in film and gaming, has really got stuck in a rut. I like the colour and vigour of artists such as Chris Foss and Peter Elson which was fresh then while referring back to the pulps and their bold colour. Nowadays though there's a dreary groupthink that dictates everything must be grey (or if you're going to be flamboyant, maybe a blue stripe somewhere) and blocky and - ugh! - consistent to the 'canon' of the 'franchise.' In the case of 'canonicity', its absurdity insistently compounded upon absurdity for its own sake.

Oh, I'll throw in a few more words: stale, solipsistic, and the like. Contrary to their claims of being imaginative, the average Trekkies is the least imaginative and least curious.

Even some of the nerds get it:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardHumanSpaceship

Anyway, I have no time anymore for sf with FTL drives that purport to be more real than the Infinite Improbability Drive, artificial gravity from magic floors without centrifuges, power and propulsion sources that require no fuel or propellant - or cooling. Special relativity at least gives so much more of a challenge and therefore potential inspiration for a story than simply treating spacecraft as glorified Toyotas that have special light and colour effects once they get on the motorway.

'Canon' or 'in the future, they'll have sorted that out' is the kind of cop-out I find intellectually offensive when there is so much potential to be found in looking at the unique and exciting possibilities revealed by serious studies. The Firefly study a few years back came up with something that looked like nothing else (certainly not an Enterprise -A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H...) and yet had plenty of elegance and visual excitement.

I would expect real spacecraft of the next century or so to have a sort of Art Nouveau appearance, with slender hyperboloid curves having more structural and material mass efficiency than something that looks like a bulldozer that lost a fight with itself.

After that rant, I should have a cup of tea and a lie-down, but I'm afraid that I must exit pursued by hoard of pitchfork-wielding Trekkies.

 

[southwestforests]

I would expect real spacecraft of the next century or so to have a sort of Art Nouveau appearance, with slender hyperboloid curves having more structural and material mass efficiency than something that looks like a bulldozer that lost a fight with itself.

While I do not know how different people would interpret and create said styling, I do very much like the idea.

 

[Sineva]

a bulldozer that lost a fight with itself.

I seem to recall Angus Mckie quite liking that sort of thing.

 

[jeffb]

Alas.

View attachment 759088

Very sad, really one of the greats.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1889099860982342060

View: https://x.com/HumanoidHistory/status/1889099860982342060

 

[Charlesferdinand]

Another stab at the War of the Worlds. I imagine the conversation went a bit like this
editor: We need a cover for Wells's The War of the Worlds
artist: That is about an alien invasion, right?
editor: Yes, that is the one
artist: No problem, I'll have it done by Monday.

 

[Arjen]

To add insult to injury, 'Andor classics' below the cover image

 

[Graham1973]

Im Memoriam Chris Moore (1947 - 2025).

The cover is from my collection and is for the 1990 Pan Books edition of the novel 'Tjata Grimm's World' by Vernor Vinge.

 

[Sineva]

Soviet space art by Nikolai Kolchitsky, 1951.

 

[Michel Van]

artwork by Chris Moore

 

[Justo Miranda]

I would dearly love to see many more hard core science and engineering based sci-fi spacecraft designs, rather than ones purely driven by the rule of cool pseudo aesthetics of the day, like 80's hairdos (or rather hair dont's, by current standards, although I am fairly confident everything will come back to be fashionable again, barring a spontaneous global nuclear exchange, asteroid impact event, deadly bird flu outbreak, or some other such shenanigan).

Atomic rockets? Martin, Martin, where is your environmentalist side?

As for the hairstyles... mine has always been in fashion, if anyone is interested, I can recommend them to my hairdresser.

 

[martinbayer]

Atomic rockets? Martin, Martin, where is your environmentalist side?

As for the hairstyles... mine has always been in fashion, if anyone is interested, I can recommend them to my hairdresser.

I was referring to thermonuclear war, not nuclear rocket propulsion, so... ?

 

[Justo Miranda]

I was referring to thermonuclear war, not nuclear rocket propulsion, so... ?

Atomic Rockets - Atomic Rockets

projectrho.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(film)

 

[von hitchofen]

artwork by Chris Moore

I was saddened to read that he had died.




Thanks to AI, we shall not see his like again.

 

[martinbayer]

Atomic Rockets - Atomic Rockets

projectrho.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(film)

Still no connection or relation whatsoever to what I stated in my post.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Still no connection or relation whatsoever to what I stated in my post.

"although I am fairly confident everything will come back to be fashionable again,"

 

[martinbayer]

"although I am fairly confident everything will come back to be fashionable again,"

That was obviously stated in jest - or do you also expect black and white silent movies to make a roaring comeback on the big screen? But also, since to date there has never been a nuclear rocket engine with a TRL 9 in existence, let alone operation, there really is nothing to come back...

 

[Justo Miranda]

That was obviously stated in jest - or do you also expect black and white silent movies to make a roaring comeback on the big screen? But also, since to date there has never been a nuclear rocket engine with a TRL 9 in existence, let alone operation, there really is nothing to come back...

I joked too; it's always a pleasure to exchange a few witty phrases with you.

 

[Empire]

Hi All,
Not sure if this is posted but here is the original book cover for Star Wars published in 1976 a year before the movie came out. Part of my book collection.

 

[southwestforests]

Soviet space art by Nikolai Kolchitsky, 1951.

That brings to mind this from YouTube yesterday,

Feb 10, 2025
China's Shenzhou 19 recently set a up a dart board on the Tiangong Space Station and celebrated the Chinese New Year.

and that humanity seriously needs at least one of those rotating wheel artificial gravity space stations so we could compare dart flight paths on Earth, in orbital microgravity of current space stations, and in rotating wheel style station induced gravity.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Sayeth Jim Burns.

Back in 2017 at the request of Pat Robinson I was asked to create a few sketches based on Game of Thrones characters...he suggested that I do a version of Ser Barristan from Game of Thrones and I thought to use my old chum Chris Moore as the model - utilising a random photo I found of him ....

 

[Antonio]

Game of Thrones

That's an outstanding artwork and I love it, but this time we're going out off topic.

 

[axlzed3301]

Star Citizen Drake Corsair
by Paul Jones Jim Martin

 

[axlzed3301]

Jim Martin Participate in works
Star Trek
Starship Troopers
The Matrix
Star Citizen
Superman

 

[Rhinocrates]

Chris Moore's cover art for Stephen Baxter's Voyage. A somewhat realistic spacecraft to boot - based on Apollo technology and set in an alternative 70s/80s.

 

[publiusr]

Hmm, maybe just a coincidence, but there's a similarity with a lander proposed by Lockheed to service their 'Mars Base Camp.'

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/lockheed-martin-adds-lander-picture-future-journeys-mars/

Starship for folks who don’t have delusions of godhood

 

[Rhinocrates]

Starship for folks who don’t have delusions of godhood

Starship, in anything like its current form, is not going to be able to aerobrake in the Martian atmosphere. Voyage itself proposed a lander based on the North American MEM design which was essentially a scaled-up Apollo capsule that we now know would not have been able to enter without leaving nothing more than a crater. Art by Robert McCall.

Compare with a concept informed by later understanding of the atmosphere.

 

[publiusr]

OTVs were to be similar—that’s what I loved about side-mount concepts—you could have very wide payloads. But nobody ever listen to Zathrus…

 

[axlzed3301]

Fantastic Four​

by Jim Martin

 

[Graham1973]

Peter Elson's cover to Philip K. Dick's 'Dr Bloodmoney'.

 

[starviking]

The cover art by Colin Hay (an artist who's work has been confused with that of both Chris Foss and Tony Roberts.) for 'Tjata Grimm's World' (1987) by Vernor Vinge. The novel itself was a 'fix-up' combining several stories set on the same world published between 1968 and 1986.

Actually, this is the cover for “Grimm’s World”, published by Hamlyn in 1978. “Tjata Grimm’s World” is a later edition.

 

[Michel Van]

From if Worlds of Science Fiction
vol 7 no 4, June 1957. Cover by Mel Hunter titled “Kodachrome from Files of First Mars Expedition.”

 

[Graham1973]

The pulpy cover to the 1952 novel 'Earthbound' by Milton Lesser. If you look carefully you can see headgear that resembles that featured on the cover of the various issues of 'Spicy Adventures' I posted earlier in the thread.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover to a 1950s issue of 'Amazing Stories' by Ed Valigursky.

 

[Sineva]

The pulpy cover to the 1952 novel 'Earthbound' by Milton Lesser. If you look carefully you can see headgear that resembles that featured on the cover of the various issues of 'Spicy Adventures' I posted earlier in the thread.

It looks like capt kirk beating up some unknown redshirt while buck rogers [or his french cousin] looks on in shock.Meanwhile tom corbett space cadet [oddly chained up to a globe of the earth] is trying to signal the crew of the landing rocket ship.
Or something like that.....

 

[Graham1973]

The cover image by Angus McKie for the 1976 Corgi edition of Anne McCaffery's 'Restoree' (1967).

 

[Michel Van]

Peter Elson cover for Harry Harrison delightful The Stainless Steel Rat