Funny how just about everything on this cover is highly stylized, ornamental, symbolic even (maybe), except somehow that perfectly rendered realistic boob—even down to the delicate shading of the areola. Now this is art for you!
I think Juan Paul is right about there being two artists. One of them did the background and wanted to paint a crab cover. One of them did the legs and wanted to paint a carp cover. They pooled their talents for the top of the picture and painted…
I have no words to properly convey my astonishment at this tangle of humans, grape vines and aquatic life. Except this: Is that Michael Jackson trying to cosplay as the Seventh Doctor? Because we really did not need that mental image.
Well fun is fun but this cover really has some disturbing aspects. Like, at first you think the main figures are kneeling, and the fish heads are their knees, but then you realize they have no lower legs and in fact they are standing on the fish heads and this is very, very weird to try to visualize. I also just realized (a bit slow on the uptake), that their arms are not attached to their bodies!
The Final Programme is a fantastic looking film, if a movie could be made of GSS covers it would be that one. Trouble is, it’s not very good to listen to.
@THX 1138: the film isn’t good to listen to? It’s got Gerry Mulligan playing sax. Some of the dialogue’s quotable too. And it has lots of McVitie’s dark chocolate digestives.
@Ray P: ” It plays like Joe Orton meets Modesty Blaise in a mordant key.” You say that like it’s a bad thing. It’s a huge improvement on the book.
Well, I’ve known a few persons whose view of Mr. Moorcock’s prose was “The English assassin? Quite.” He aimed at becoming the latter day Meredith, Conrad, G. B. Shaw, Ronald Firbank with a slice of Wodehouse. Orton is a bit lower.
@Tat Wood: You know, it’s ages since I saw it, so my memory of needlessly obscure dialogue might be incorrect, but you’ve convinced me to give it another try. I do remember Jon Finch being pretty great in it. *Checks* It’s on DVD! Hooray!
Consider RachelJ. An anonymous person on an anonymous part of an anonymous network. She could be anyone. But RachelJ’s life has been turned down when she smells something fishy in her life. One she surfed from scene to scene, now she surfs to something piscine. For RachelJ is swimming in…The English Assassin Zone.
Leave a Reply
Send In Your Pictures
Please use our lovely submit page to send us your images.
(Remember to read the rules first!)
November 29th, 2016 at 12:12 pm
Those fish look like chubs.
November 29th, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Needs a sheep.
November 29th, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Putting the ‘ass’ and the other ‘ass’ in ‘assassin’, I see.
November 29th, 2016 at 12:50 pm
@TW: are those ladies cyclopses?
November 29th, 2016 at 12:55 pm
This has got to be a tale of two artists. The time lord looks like he was painted by an art school drop out.
November 29th, 2016 at 1:29 pm
That crab in the lower right corner looks distinctly depressed. His agent told him this would be a “classy” photo shoot.
November 29th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Funny how just about everything on this cover is highly stylized, ornamental, symbolic even (maybe), except somehow that perfectly rendered realistic boob—even down to the delicate shading of the areola. Now this is art for you!
November 29th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
@B. Chiclitz – Yes, he thought the art director sent out a call for crabs with good taste, but he really only wanted crabs that taste good.
November 29th, 2016 at 1:56 pm
I can lip read… they’re saying “Sh…” something, but whatever could it be?
November 29th, 2016 at 1:57 pm
By the way, is it Space Sheep’s day off?
November 29th, 2016 at 2:01 pm
The romance does begin with a salty mouthful. Have sex with this pair, end up with crabs.
November 29th, 2016 at 2:07 pm
As far as stylized nuclear mushroom clouds go this one is pretty good.
November 29th, 2016 at 2:28 pm
The depressed crab is reduced to reciting poetry to pass the time:
“I should have been a pair of . . . oh, wait a minute,
I am a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
November 29th, 2016 at 3:09 pm
Jerry Cornelius the Disney animated musical and Disneyland Paris attraction.
November 29th, 2016 at 3:33 pm
I think Juan Paul is right about there being two artists. One of them did the background and wanted to paint a crab cover. One of them did the legs and wanted to paint a carp cover. They pooled their talents for the top of the picture and painted…
November 29th, 2016 at 3:53 pm
“I’m a little teapot, here’s my spout.” The yellow man has a Willy Wonka look about him.
November 29th, 2016 at 4:31 pm
How could the publisher afford Salvador Dali??
November 29th, 2016 at 4:40 pm
I have no words to properly convey my astonishment at this tangle of humans, grape vines and aquatic life. Except this: Is that Michael Jackson trying to cosplay as the Seventh Doctor? Because we really did not need that mental image.
November 29th, 2016 at 4:52 pm
Well fun is fun but this cover really has some disturbing aspects. Like, at first you think the main figures are kneeling, and the fish heads are their knees, but then you realize they have no lower legs and in fact they are standing on the fish heads and this is very, very weird to try to visualize. I also just realized (a bit slow on the uptake), that their arms are not attached to their bodies!
November 29th, 2016 at 4:56 pm
Published 1973. The same year as the film of ‘The Final Programme’. And yet so few people went to see it.
November 29th, 2016 at 5:30 pm
Even Moorcock thinks the film crap. He likely warned people to stay away. It plays like Joe Orton meets Modesty Blaise in a mordant key.
November 29th, 2016 at 6:09 pm
The Final Programme is a fantastic looking film, if a movie could be made of GSS covers it would be that one. Trouble is, it’s not very good to listen to.
November 29th, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Weird Al’s album covers always go a bit OTT.
November 29th, 2016 at 6:44 pm
@THX 1138: the film isn’t good to listen to? It’s got Gerry Mulligan playing sax. Some of the dialogue’s quotable too. And it has lots of McVitie’s dark chocolate digestives.
@Ray P: ” It plays like Joe Orton meets Modesty Blaise in a mordant key.” You say that like it’s a bad thing. It’s a huge improvement on the book.
November 29th, 2016 at 7:09 pm
Well, I’ve known a few persons whose view of Mr. Moorcock’s prose was “The English assassin? Quite.” He aimed at becoming the latter day Meredith, Conrad, G. B. Shaw, Ronald Firbank with a slice of Wodehouse. Orton is a bit lower.
November 29th, 2016 at 11:20 pm
@Tat Wood: You know, it’s ages since I saw it, so my memory of needlessly obscure dialogue might be incorrect, but you’ve convinced me to give it another try. I do remember Jon Finch being pretty great in it. *Checks* It’s on DVD! Hooray!
November 30th, 2016 at 3:21 am
So, the element common to both versions is “fish”. More specifically, “fish replacing body parts”.
Hmmn….
November 30th, 2016 at 11:40 am
Consider RachelJ. An anonymous person on an anonymous part of an anonymous network. She could be anyone. But RachelJ’s life has been turned down when she smells something fishy in her life. One she surfed from scene to scene, now she surfs to something piscine. For RachelJ is swimming in…The English Assassin Zone.