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Jun 26

Rowena's foot art again cleverly concealedClick for larger image

Good Show Sir Comments: I wouldn’t kill it while I was still 500 feet above the ground.

Thanks to J Greely for sending this in.

Published 1980

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: 7.14 out of 10)
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19 Responses to “Three from the Legion”

  1. THX 1139 Says:

    Tarzan and the Rampant Blancmange?

  2. fred Says:

    I think daddy is inviting him to a shotgun wedding.

  3. Francis Boyle Says:

    I can’t tell where the tentacles are gripping the guy. Except. . . Maybe they should just consider getting a room.

  4. Tat Wood Says:

    I never knew Les Dennis was so toned.

    Also: https://comb.io/RPhLan

  5. Anna T. Says:

    That guy doesn’t look too bothered by the giant spider-tentacle thing grabbing him, so I suppose he’s willing to be ravished by it, despite his friend’s obvious confusion.

  6. Bruce A Munro Says:

    That’s Curly with the spear: the guy being carried away by the BEM doesn’t look like Moe or Larry, so I guess he’s the one who hired them to fix his spaceship.

  7. Lillie Awesome Says:

    “That thing soitenly looks like it’s gonna make an aaaaaaawful mess if I poke with this pointy stick I have here. Nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk.”

    Rowena Morrill seems to have spent some time at the Georgia O’Keefe School of Painting things that Look like Lady Parts, but Aren’t, if the ravished dude’s neck is anything to go by.

  8. Lillie Awesome Says:

    @Bruce – an intraplanetary (unless you’re posting from off-world) alignment of thought!

  9. Tat Wood Says:

    Having trouble with the perspective (what with the author’s name obcuring any size-cues there might have been): is the thing directly below ravished Les a giant, spiky citrus-juicer and is that what Polly’s trying to do to him?

  10. B. Chiclitz Says:

    That’s one heck of a goosing tentacle # 8 is delivering to Muscle Boy. No wonder Big Brain seems to be laughing. Meanwhile Curly keeps hitting himself in the head with his spear, trying to shake loose a plan.

  11. GSS ex-noob Says:

    I actually bought this as a teen — the grocery store carried these Pocket Books reprints of older works. Having limited access to SF to buy (no car, no mail order, no Amazon), I wasn’t in a position to be too picky about cover art. I still have the book. I do owe Pocket a thanks for reprinting Jack Williamson, whose work I still enjoy. An amazing man — read the Wiki entry if you aren’t familiar with his life.

    All that said, I did NOT read this on the school bus. The picture here doesn’t convey the true gaudiness of the colors. It’s not a bad depiction of the characters (the guy on the left is a Falstaff type) but I don’t recall them taking on a beaked tentacle brain monster whilst nearly starkers atop a building. Nor any of the monsters being so… amorous.

    @Lillie: That neck is all kinds of wrong even without the lady-part analogy. Our Hero appears to have better cleavage than me, though, so…

    @Tat: eerie resemblance!

  12. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @GSS ex-noob: The monster looks like a case of artistic recycling: if you ask me that’s an HG Wells Martian dyed green and with a couple extra eyes slapped on.

    Looks more closely: are those it’s eyes at all? Looks like the earpiece of some sort of glasses to the left: perhaps the eyes and even the beak are the alien equivalent of Groucho glasses. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41AJ7WjfYiL._UX385_.jpg

    Hey! Maybe the blonde guy is Fred from Scooby Doo and he’s trying to unmask the “Medusan” as actually Old Man Phei’zn’in the janitor!

    I read it the first time in this somewhat classier hardback edition, courtesy of my public library.

    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f2/d5/a8/f2d5a80039694be796726459ea5fa2c5.jpg

  13. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: still an ugly cover. Looks like the book club edition.

    Your Scooby Doo postulate seems to fit the bill as much as anything. Old Man Phei’zn’in wearing a giant brain costume (handmade, thus the uneven dye pattern), with alien Groucho glasses on the front. He’s got levers in there to work the tentacles.

  14. Bruce A Munro Says:

    GSS ex-noob: Book “club”, eh? Took me a little while to get that one. 🙂

  15. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: entirely unintended! So kudos to you.

  16. Tracy Says:

    I’ve never seen this Rowena Morril cover before, either on a fan site or in a retrospective of her work. I can guess why!

    The monster looks like the AD&D monster called the Grell.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WOjsE3GALrQ/Un8oivG6-DI/AAAAAAAAC2s/uu4_Qy6Bujg/s1600/grell.jpg

    The victim in the drawing above looks way more terrified than the guy in Morril’s version.

  17. Tag Wizard Says:

    @Tracy – Nice catch!

  18. A.R.Yngve Says:

    This kind of pulpy space-opera was parodied in Harry Harrison’s hilarious novel STAR SMASHERS OF THE GALACTIC RANGERS.

  19. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @ARY: SSotGR is more directly a parody of Doc Smith, but all pulp comes in for a gentle roasting.

    (Gently roasting your pulp gives it a better flavor.)
    (I may be reading recipes in the run-up to Thanksgiving.)

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