Jun 18
Tom Noir Comments: Rather inexplicably, the artist has chosen to sign this.
You might remember this from last Flashback Friday.
Published 1985
Tom Noir Comments: Rather inexplicably, the artist has chosen to sign this.
You might remember this from last Flashback Friday.
Published 1985
June 18th, 2018 at 9:40 am
“Ricicles?! I suppose you think that’s funny?!”
June 18th, 2018 at 11:11 am
He may never learn to really walk upright. But he has a career ahead of him as a baseball catcher.
June 18th, 2018 at 11:14 am
@Bibliomancer – Maybe the Detroit Tigers should draft him. He’s a natural.
June 18th, 2018 at 2:19 pm
@Raoul— 😉
June 18th, 2018 at 2:21 pm
Looks like that tiger’s holding an old 35mm camera. Are they eco-tourists or something?
June 18th, 2018 at 2:30 pm
If Tony the Tiger is the catcher, then the lady is playing “The Game of Umpire”.
June 18th, 2018 at 2:41 pm
I think her pose was cribbed from any one of 100,000 Pulp Western covers. Is she a descendant of Randolph Scott?
June 18th, 2018 at 4:31 pm
Opposible claws, so Diana can legitimately request: ‘Hold that, tiger’.
June 18th, 2018 at 6:34 pm
She fell in love with a starship trooper. But he didn’t like the look of her scary big pussy.
June 18th, 2018 at 7:05 pm
I get the impression there’s something off with her neck and shoulders, just a little bit. There is definitely something wrong with her left hand, though.
As for what happened to her shirt, maybe the tiger shredded it. The presence of a mutated tiger-person can easily be explained, though: it’s THE FUTURE.
It’s nice to know that both covers for this book seen keep to the theme of “woman and cat-man”.
June 18th, 2018 at 8:03 pm
GSS Tiger 1: Hey, did you see that cover for THE GAME OF EMPIRE?
GSS Tiger 2: Yeah, that guy needs a “weird tiger pecs” tag, for sure!
June 18th, 2018 at 9:17 pm
@Anne T – not to mention the theme of ‘refugee from the 70s disco’.
June 18th, 2018 at 9:18 pm
I love that the artist was thoughtful enough to consider an outdoor lighting solution in his fantastical world. That 100 watt floodlight above the tiger will brighten the place right up.
June 19th, 2018 at 12:42 am
I looked at the top half of this as it was loading and said to myself “SFBC”. And lo.
I… guess it’s better than the last one? Or not that much worse? It isn’t gold lame, and while she’s still in slutwear, there’s no white lace-up go-go boots. But kitty just looks ridiculous even if he’s not in a birdcage.
OTOH, the random background blobs don’t add anything but muddle and I don’t know what’s with her neck and left arm either.
It’s a toss-up. We may have the first-ever situation where the BAEN (etc.) cover is better. Or at least not worse and not as busy.
As I write, this one has 8.75, the other 8.55.
@2,3,6: GSS! (and lady)
@JuanPaul: It’s a different architect than the rest of the city — concave rather than convex.
At first glance, it made me think tigerman had wings.
@Tag Wiz: this edition isn’t from BAEN (etc.) it’s SFBC, therefore Doubleday.
June 19th, 2018 at 1:05 am
@GSSxN – Who says it can’t be SFBC and BAEN?
Here’s a copy up on eBay that has a photo of the title page.
June 19th, 2018 at 1:19 am
@Tag: Gosh! I never knew. I guess for the republishing of paperback originals, they still credit the original. Gotta slap their own cover on it, though.
A lot of books only come out in hardback thanks to the various book clubs — movie novelizations, for instance.
We belonged to SFBC for many, many years, and it was swell when they finally changed to NOT automatically sending you the book. We used to switch back and forth between our names every time we moved so we counted as a “new subscriber” and got the Lots O’Books For a Buck deal. We stopped when we realized neither of us had ordered anything for a year or so, and hadn’t moved in 5 years.
June 19th, 2018 at 1:51 am
Is there someone who comments upon video game covers like we do book covers?
Because I’ve found horrific font abuse, Sir Mix, Ting! and much more.
http://eschergirls.tumblr.com/image/174668606386
June 19th, 2018 at 2:44 am
Is that cat wearing a collar made of human molars? And I think that woman lost a horse somewhere. Those look a lot like riding boots to me.
June 19th, 2018 at 3:04 am
@GSS ex-noob: Wow, that art in your link just keeps on giving. At first it seems like a collection of random shapes, then they resolve themselves into forms that no sane artist would paint. I like the Norse god in the lower right wielding a tack hammer.
June 20th, 2018 at 12:03 am
@IB: I think you’re right about the collar and the boots. Her stance looks like she’s used to horse-riding too. Not in that outfit, I hope.
@Tor: I couldn’t make it out at first either. I had to go back and look in small glimpses, lest my mind rave at the eldritch and uncanny non-Euclidian forms.
I still can’t tell what’s the tattooed stuff under the bum of the girl at upper left. She has ridiculous thunder thighs? And I thought the Norse god was holding a meat tenderizer. The girl center left appears to have Space Sheep’ed herself.
Japan makes Baen look like the height of decorum.
June 21st, 2018 at 7:48 am
The tiger-man’s torso is way too long for a humanoid. And the woman is pointing a dagger! In a very wimpy, non-threatening way. “Will you give me five bits for this?”
June 21st, 2018 at 10:54 am
Non-Euclidean forms eh. Obviously
THE MÖBIUS THAT CAME TO SARNATH.
June 23rd, 2018 at 3:56 am
@Tracy: With the extra-long torso and the fact that his legs and arms don’t match in length, I don’t see how he walks at all, on two legs or four.
March 9th, 2020 at 6:54 pm
“Tom, I’ve got a special job for you. Could you paint a cover that would cash in on the current craze for that comic strip ‘Calvin and Hobbes’?”
“You mean a comic-book cover, Jim?”
“Nah. This Poul Anderson potboiler. Just get a talking tiger and his pal in the picture. Could you do that?”
“I could certainly try.”
March 13th, 2020 at 9:46 am
Seems legit, @A.R.
“Well of course I gave the tiger a gun and the human a knife: what with the claws and fangs, the tiger doesn’t need a knife!”