Science Fiction Cover Art

[Graham1973]

A cityscape by Syd Mead commisioned by US Steel in 1968. The work is entitled 'Innovations'.

 

[starviking]

The cover by artist & author William H. Keith for volume three of the 'Best of the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society' a supplement for the Traveller RPG collecting articles from the magazine published by Game Designers Workshop.

And obviously derived from the foreground craft in this Panther edition of Trader to the Stars

 

[starviking]

A cityscape by Syd Mead commisioned by US Steel in 1968. The work is entitled 'Innovations'.

It’s quite trippy - appropriate to the era.

 

[Graham1973]

And obviously derived from the foreground craft in this Panther edition of Trader to the Stars

Great catch and a nice artwork by Peter Elson.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Tony Yates, to Laserburn a science fiction minitures combat game dating from 1980 by Bryan Ansell which is a distant ancestor of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K setting.

 

[Graham1973]

'Before The Golden Age' was an anthology edited by Isaac Asimov containing what he regarded as the best of the science fiction written before John W. Campbell Jr became editor of what later became Analog Magazine.

While the US editon comprised a single book, in the UK it was published as a multi-volume set by Futura in 1975 with republications by other UK publishers in later years. The attached image from my collection is of the cover of the third volume of the edition released by Orbit in 1978. According to the ISFDB (Where the full wraparound cover can be viewed.) the cover is by Colin Hay and was repurposed for the TTA series in the 1980s

 

[southwestforests]

According to the ISFDB (Where the full wraparound cover can be viewed.) the cover is by Colin Hay and was repurposed for the TTA series in the 1980s

ISFDB has incorrect date, was 1978, not the 1980s.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Paul Alexander for 'Isaac Azimov's Wonderful Worlds Of Science Fiction 2: The Science Fictional Olympics' a 1984 anthology edited by Isaac Azimov, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh. The cover is depicting the start of the solar sailing race in Arthur C. Clarke's short story 'The Wind From The Sun'.

I also have a small correction to make, the cover to the first volume in the series 'Intergalactic Empires' is the image that I showed in post 11 of this thread where I stated it appeared on the cover of one of the 'Best of Trek' anthologies. Paul Alexander did indeed do illustrations for the covers of the 'Best of Trek' series, but not the image I posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Sineva]

Just spotted this one on twitter/x

Vincent Di Fate cover art for "Mayflies" by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr., 1979

 

[Graham1973]

Courtesy of the Internet Archive, here are the covers for 'The Best of Trek' volumes 6, 8, 9 & 11, all of which were done by Paul Alexander. The cover to issue 11 features a 'The Black Hole' derived spacecraft that is a cousin to the ship that appears on the front cover of 'Isaac Azimov's Wonderful Worlds Of Science Fiction 1: Intergalactic Empires', that I posted earlier in this thread misidentifying it as a 'Best of Trek' cover

 

[publiusr]

I never got to see no. 11

What did the original TREK magazine covers look like.

 

[Graham1973]

I never got to see no. 11

What did the original TREK magazine covers look like.

I never saw them either. Some quick web searching did however uncover a Star Trek fan-story I read parts of when I was much younger.

The backstory is interesting. The third issue of a Sci-Fi Fanzine called 'Warped Space' featured an altered history 'Star Trek' tale entitled 'The Sixth Year' by Ed Zdrojewski.

This inspired author/artist Leslie Fish to write a sequel. A full blown fan-fiction epic entitled 'The Weight' which was published between 1976 - 1979 in various issues of 'Warped Space'.

In 1988 'The Weight' and other pieces of fan-fiction related to it were published in a volume entitled 'The Weight Collected & Other Stories', the cover attached was by Leslie Fish, who indicated that 'The Weight' was to have been part one of a trilogy, but the other portions never materialized.

 

[Graham1973]

The Paul Alexander cover to 'The Best of Trek' volume 10.

 

[Graham1973]

Here are the covers by British SF artist Eddie Jones for 'The Best of Trek' volumes 1-5 & 7. He was succeeded by Paul Alexander who's covers for volumes 6, 8-11 have been posted earlier in the thread.

 

[Sineva]

Here are the covers by British SF artist Eddie Jones for 'The Best of Trek' volumes 1-5 & 7. He was succeeded by Paul Alexander who's covers for volumes 6, 8-11 have been posted earlier in the thread.

I cant help but notice that the ship on the cover of tbot 3 bears more than a passing resemblance to the Starstreak from 1979s The shape of things to come.

Interestingly the saucer section could detach.

Its actually a pretty dreadful movie with nothing in common with the original 30s sf classic.

I can remember seeing the poster for it and thinking how cool it all looked only to be rather disappointed by the fact that the giant robots were in fact only human sized and there wasnt a blaster/laser gun/phaser etc to be seen.

 

[publiusr]

Jack Palance was in that IIRC.

Over at the Trekbbs, some folks have tried ship art based on those covers—Warped9 is a member who did some—my Google-fu is weak.

Some examples of his work

Unseen TOS....

This endeavour could be seen as tangential to my current thread TAS made real. There I am trying to reconcile TAS designs in a 3D fashion as they could have appeared as live-action miniatures in TOS. To some extent I made an effort to adapt or correct the stylized designs into more credible...

www.trekbbs.com

More

https://retroscifiart.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F628915609559810048

View: https://www.google.com/amp/s/retroscifiart.tumblr.com/post/628915609559810048/art-by-eddie-jones-for-the-best-of-trek-edited-by/amp

 

[Sineva]

Jack Palance was in that IIRC.

And Barry Morse as well [space 1999s Prof Victor Bergman]

 

[Sineva]

Art by Angus McKie

 

[Graham1973]

Two covers by Boris Vallejo for the Pocket Books 'Star Trek' series. Both stories are by authors known for their work outside 'Star Trek'.

Greg Bear's 'Corona' reputedly originated in a script the author had written for the failed 1970s 'Star Trek' revival.

Barbara Hambley's 'Ishmael' has an interesting backstory as well. Around the time the original series of 'Star Trek' was airing, another channel had a western set series called 'Here Come The Brides', several of the cast appeared on 'Star Trek' as Klingons, the series villain was played by Marc Lenard...

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Peter Andrew Jones, to the fourth gamebook in the 'Fighting Fantasy' series 'Starship Traveller', the first science-fiction scenario in the series.

 

[Sineva]

Tim White ‘Neuromancer’ (William Gibson, Panther, 1986)

naoyuki kato

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by British SF cover artist Terry Oakes for 'The Rings of Kether' the 15th 'Fighting Fantasy' gamebook and a later Sci-Fi scenario than 'Starship Traveller'

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Peter Ellson for 'Welcome To Mars' by James Blish, the British author who novelized the original series of Star Trek. The spacecraft depicted on the cover may have been partial inspiration for one of the ships on the cover of 'The Best of Trek, Volume 7'.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover artist who succeded Paul Alexander as the cover artist for the series 'The Best of Trek' was John Harris who supplied covers for volumes 12 - 16. I believe some of the images created for the series were recycled for other books.

 

[publiusr]

I have finally found images of the physical rotoscoped for the 1980 Filmation FLASH GORDON

Space Academy and Beyond — Filmation’s Saturday Morning VFX

In 1977 Everything Changed. Saying that Star Wars altered entertainment and society forever may not be an exaggeration. It’s hard for those not around in 1977 to understand the significant im…

agraphafx.com

More

Space Academy and Beyond — Filmation’s Saturday Morning VFX

In 1977 Everything Changed. Saying that Star Wars altered entertainment and society forever may not be an exaggeration. It’s hard for those not around in 1977 to understand the significant im…

agraphafx.com

 

[Graham1973]

The 'Best of Trek' series ended in the mid 1990s with two volumes, 'The Best of Trek' (the unnumbered volume 17) and 'The Best of Trek, Volume 18' both covers were by David Mattingly.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Geoff Taylor for 'The Rituals of Infinity' by Michael Moorcock.

 

[Rhinocrates]

There's an upcoming illustrated edition for David Brin's Sundiver from Phantasia Press. This is Jim Burns' cover art, which he's just posted on his Facebook page.

 

[Sineva]

I have finally found images of the physical rotoscoped for the 1980 Filmation FLASH GORDON

Space Academy and Beyond — Filmation’s Saturday Morning VFX

In 1977 Everything Changed. Saying that Star Wars altered entertainment and society forever may not be an exaggeration. It’s hard for those not around in 1977 to understand the significant im…

agraphafx.com

More

Space Academy and Beyond — Filmation’s Saturday Morning VFX

In 1977 Everything Changed. Saying that Star Wars altered entertainment and society forever may not be an exaggeration. It’s hard for those not around in 1977 to understand the significant im…

agraphafx.com

Awesome article.
I remember watching both space academy and jason of star command back in the day.
It also shows you just how incredibly expensive doing an sf show was prior to cg,the sheer cost of building models and effects shots would`ve eaten up a big chunk of the budget,so its not surprising that these tended to be reused over and over each episode.
You can really appreciate the skill and artistry involved on the part of the model makers and the special effects technicians who had to work for days to produce these shots which would often only appear for seconds on screen but were nonetheless critical to the finished product.

 

[Graham1973]

From my own collection, the cover by Keith Scaife for the 1996 UK paperback release of 'Shadow Hunter', author Will Baker's 1993 debut science fiction novel.

 

[Sineva]

Now THIS would`ve made an awesome TOS episode

If I didnt know better I`d swear that was the dinosaur fred flintstone operated at Slates quarry [I dont think it had camels ears tho...]

 

[martinbayer]

GIGO.

 

[martinbayer]

One man's fiction is another woman's nightmare.

 

[Michel Van]

the legendary Chris Foss about his work

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

 

[Graham1973]

In the 1980s Orbit books reprinted the fiction of James White. John Harris was the artist selected to do the covers. The attached cover is from my collection and is for 'All Judgement Fled' (1969), one of the author's non-Sector General novels.

 

[Graham1973]

Jack McDevitt's 'Alex Benedict' series (1989 - 2023) is a series of science fiction mystery stories. John Harris supplied covers for books 2 - 8. In my own collection I have the fifth ('Echo' (2010)) and sixth ('Firebird' (2011)) volumes in the series.

 

[Graham1973]

The cover by Dean Ellis to the 1970 American release of 'All Judgement Fled' (1969) by James White. Note that the tagline is different from the one used on the cover of the 1987 Orbit edition.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Original cover.



The one the author really hated because he thought it looked like “Robin Williams in a funny hat”.



Graphic novel adaptation cover.

 

[Graham1973]

Not cover art, but the moment of 'First Contact' in James White's 'All Judgement Fled' (1969), this image by Ed Morrow comes from the 1967/68 serial version published in 'If' (aka 'Worlds Of If') magazine and is an inversion of some classic 'contact' tropes...

 

[martinbayer]

Not cover art, but the moment of 'First Contact' in James White's 'All Judgement Fled' (1969), this image by Ed Morrow comes from the 1967/68 serial version published in 'If' (aka 'Worlds Of If') magazine and is an inversion of some classic 'contact' tropes...

Keep in mind that any aliens looking bizarre or even repulsive to us would most likely have the very same view of us. Look out for intelligence and intellectual openness, peacefulness, and friendliness, not beauty or attractiveness. Behavior is the top criterion, not looks. Also, spiders are (mostly) on team humanity/earth ecology...