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Dec 07

I don't even want to think about Australia’s view!Click for full image

Tom Noir’s Art Direction: I want a naked man, and he’s playing with these two blue balls. No, no, I’m saying he’s handling two massive globes. Don’t make ’em the same size, one is bigger than the other. Have him straining, concentrating intensely. Look, I don’t see what’s so funny about this.
Published 1968

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.46 out of 10)
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27 Responses to “Echo X”

  1. Perry Armstrong Says:

    Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall.

  2. THX 1138 Says:

    Deh-neh-neh-neh-neh-neh-neh-neh Barzman!

    He may have forgotten all his clothes, but at least he won’t look ridiculous in the headband he remembered.

  3. anon Says:

    “He should be pulling them apart from each other. Just make it look classy. Why are you rolling on the ground? Does your stomach hurt?”

  4. THX 1138 Says:

    Alternatively: Don’t have a cow, man, do the Barzman.

  5. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I’m mystified, or rather intrigued, by the word ‘gormless’. I’ve intuited what it means through exposure to George Formby and his ukulele. But what’s the opposite of gormless? Gormy? Gormed? I haven’t a clue.

    Whatever it may be, this fellow has gorm, and he’s got a lot of it.

  6. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I conjecture he’s standing on the back of a turtle…

  7. Perry Armstrong Says:

    Australia must be getting quite an eyeful!

  8. Bibliomancer Says:

    Holding two planets while standing behind a galaxy. That’s some reach.

  9. fred Says:

    1962 cover. Don’t tell me the juxtaposition between that one and this one is just a coincidence.
    http://www.jumpingfrog.com/images/paperbacks01/pb0314.jpg

  10. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @fred: which direction do you suppose the blue ‘fluid’ flows?

  11. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @DSWBT 6—what’s the turtle standing on?

  12. B. Chiclitz Says:

    And so kids, you see here once again the power of Tesla coils—to vaporize your clothing.

  13. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @BC:…


    wait for it…


    It’s turtles all the way down!

  14. Tat Wood Says:

    The man with the planetary underarm deodorants looks rather like Australian actor Ray Barrett. He was the star of hit oil-drama ‘The Troubleshooters’ and a frequent guest-star on other shows, but for those of us who were kids in the 60s he’s the voice of Mighty Titan from ‘Stingray’.

    Now that I’ve seen this I will never be able to take the Aquaphibians seriously again.

  15. Anna T. Says:

    Who’s up for a rousing game of galactic strip billiards?

  16. anon Says:

    @Bibliomancer: Could be a helicopter..

  17. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @DSWBT13—I knew you’d get that! I am now expecting my check in the mail for serving as your straight man.

  18. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    @BC: I’ll send a turtle.

  19. A.R.Yngve Says:

    With a cover like that, the book actually might sell better with a zestier title like “The Leather-Clad Centurion”… “Sandals and Loincloths”… “Sweaty Gladiators”… or “Big Shiny Spears.”

  20. A.R.Yngve Says:

    “III HAVVE THE BLUE BALLSSS!!”
    [Masters Of The Universe theme]

  21. Tom Noir Says:

    @A.R.Yngve: I don’t see no loincloth! Big shiny spears MAY be involved, but I’m trying not to visualize them.

  22. Bibliomancer Says:

    Twin Earths in conflict – A starkers referee tries to separate them – SUPER science-fiction – more startling than regular science-fiction – read it on the bus – if you dare!

  23. L.B. Says:

    Massive spheres, massive nudity… massive reason for me to skip it.

  24. Tom Noir Says:

    “And that shape in the sky is the constellation known as ‘the Big Dipper’.”

  25. Emster Says:

    @Tom – belated GSS on both the cover and the art direction. I was going to say that it was probably in the era before they realized they could make more sales to pimply teens if they had put a nekkid lady on the cover, but @fred’s link still works, so it seems they did make an attempt with that “scandalous” (zzzzzz) ’62 cover.

  26. Ryan Says:

    One of the highlights of the GSS site, combining hilarious cover and commentary.

  27. Longtime_Lurker Says:

    Is this the young man of Devizes?

    … whose balls were of different sizes.
    The left one was small —
    It was no ball at all;
    But the right one won several prizes.

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