Nov 21
Tom Noir Comments: It’s the little details that separate the good artists from the bad. For instance, notice the bit of man-bun sticking out from under this fellow’s fuzzy tutu. GENIUS!
Published 1984
Tom Noir Comments: It’s the little details that separate the good artists from the bad. For instance, notice the bit of man-bun sticking out from under this fellow’s fuzzy tutu. GENIUS!
Published 1984
November 21st, 2011 at 8:47 am
The giant strawberry in the background looks past its sell-by date.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:26 am
Is that a tongue that the cute little guy with the great furry bikini bottoms is standing on? And if it is, what is she squatting on?
November 21st, 2011 at 10:01 am
“I forgot my glasses – is the spider near enough to hit yet?!”
November 21st, 2011 at 10:18 am
Also, brilliant header: “Classics of MODERN Science Fiction”!
As you know, Bob, giant spiders and helpless half-naked women are a staple of modern science fiction.
November 21st, 2011 at 10:23 am
With a FOREWORD BY ISAAC ASIMOV, explaining why giant spiders are anatomically and structurally impossible.
November 21st, 2011 at 10:55 am
Speaking of little details: are those tan lines, on his buttocks?
Re: the giant sabre tooth spider and the dodgy strawberry – I’m sure these are actually regular size. The people have been miniaturised. Now THAT’S modern SF for you.
November 21st, 2011 at 11:39 am
THe more I look at the that spider the more I am convinced it has a beard!
November 21st, 2011 at 12:48 pm
There’s a picture of the first edition here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Forgotten_planet.jpg
Because no space adventure book cover should be without compass and slide rule.
November 21st, 2011 at 1:37 pm
>> SI: me too! A beard AND a piercing.
November 21st, 2011 at 3:04 pm
You’ll note the Vol. 6 on the bottom*. Doesn’t this cover make you want to run out and collect volumes 1-5???
* Of the cover! Get your mind out of the gutter.
November 21st, 2011 at 4:25 pm
What, no comments on the magnificent mane sported by our hero? (This is how Kenny Rogers pictures himself, I’m sure.)
Strange: the more a publisher tries to convince you that you are holding a “classic” or a piece of “connoisseur’s science fiction”, the more the art department try to prove otherwise.
November 21st, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Screw the spider, I want to see the creature that “spear” came from.
November 21st, 2011 at 5:49 pm
@ Phi:
I think it’s that the publisher is trying to compensate for the art department.
“This is a CLASSIC! I swear!!”
November 21st, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Oops my feather boa slipped…
November 21st, 2011 at 9:01 pm
“Now hold the spear so the shaft is precisely parallel to your arm and shoulder. Be sure to keep a little bend in your wrist. Chin up. Perfect!”
November 22nd, 2011 at 2:30 am
“Hang on, sweetie: I’ll get you that fur coat in just ooooooone second…”
November 24th, 2011 at 3:09 am
OMG. I just pulled this off my bookshelf, yep, you guessed it, it has this cover. Don’t guess I’ll be reading this one on the train….
November 24th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
The way the woman is posing, you would think that she is anxious for some spider meat.
“C’mon Jed, hit ’em right b’tween the (two?) eyes!”
January 23rd, 2013 at 1:35 pm
@Jaouad. No, it’s a giant spider and a giant strawberry. Not that I can recall any strawberries in the book, but giant cabbages definitely get a mention. The best part of the book is the preface wherein the author insinuates that the whole thing is really quite plausible, due to the fact that spiders *actually exist*.
October 18th, 2013 at 8:59 pm
Early cavemen surfers were hindered both by the appearance of ginormous aquatic spiders, and their un-aerodynamically shaped surfboards.
October 18th, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Oh, right, this cover. I’d forgotten it.
@RachelJ: I remember a rather combative blog entry by the scriptwriter for The Core many years ago, in which he made much the same arguments.
July 14th, 2015 at 11:37 pm
“Introduction by George Zebrowski”
“Foreword by Issac Asimov”
What, no preamble?
July 15th, 2015 at 9:46 am
I’d be having a poop too, if I came across that.
July 15th, 2015 at 11:27 am
@Dead Stuff. Just to be clear, though, Leinster does not straight out claim that everything in his novel is absolutely factually correct- because spiders!!! Nor does he heap scorn on “%%#%% ignorant” reviewers who may fail to follow this line of reasoning. So I wouldn’t say the arguments are quite the same…
February 20th, 2017 at 5:37 am
That is not so much a fuzzy tutu as a feather boa wrapped around. Which means that while we’re seeing just a soupcon of butt, the spider may be seeing a lot more. Might explain spidey’s expression.