Dec 21
Well it has come to that time of year again when we at Good Show Sir need to take a break to steal Christmas presents from children, eat an insane amount of other peoples food and of course, get stinking drunk and rant about book covers!
Not to worry though, we’ll be back first thing in the new year with a round up of the best of 2011’s covers!
Here we have some fantastic Hungarian covers sent in by Gabor and River, about 9 months ago! I appologise for keeping them hidden for so long but here they are, all six of them!
Have a great holiday! And again thanks to everyone who visits the site and all the specials ones who leave comments which brighten our days with witty banter!
December 21st, 2011 at 9:51 am
Some information: Mark Wilson and Steven Nicholas Moses are pseudonyms of Hungarian sci-fi authors.
In the 90s – early 2000s there are a lot of Hungarian covers like these.
December 21st, 2011 at 10:28 am
Second one: Vladimir Putin living out his 80s action movie fantasies?
December 21st, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Cover 2: Rambo 5 – Protect the trouser lizard…
Yep… *hangs head in shame* More Christmas alcohol!
December 21st, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Cover 2: those really don’t look like pectoral muscles. On the contrary, they look like the geezer’s shoulder blades are on backwards.
December 21st, 2011 at 1:14 pm
Who knew that Ursula LeGuin was a homeless woman?!
December 21st, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Is that a cursor icon on the Gibson title?! o-O
December 21st, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I *think* the Clarke cover must be Songs of Distant Earth but I’m not sure about the Harrison.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:12 pm
The Harrison must be Deathworld 2, but i read it as Halal Village 2 at first glance.
December 21st, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I get the Clarke and Harrison titles as Andy and Donald,more or less, with Google Translate. But Le Guin’s “Nothing out of the trained”?
Mark Willson’s “Happiness is a Sky Blue Monster” sounds like it needs to be translated now!
December 21st, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Le Guin’s “A kisemmizettek” = “The Dispossessed”
December 21st, 2011 at 7:57 pm
“Vladimir Putin IS Rambovsky.”
December 21st, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Are we to infer from these covers that…
A) Hungarian SF readers are mainly puny, emaciated males who dream of having big, beefy bodies?
Or…
B) Hungarian SF readers are mainly big, beefy steroid abusers?
Or…
C) Hungarian SF readers are on the average 12 years old?
December 22nd, 2011 at 4:58 am
Is there a law that all robot dogs must look the same?
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:23 am
Nice to see the Gibson girl has brought a bauble to hang on the Christmas tree. At least I think that’s where she’s going to hang it, she has other options.
December 22nd, 2011 at 6:16 pm
In the 4th book I think the human would win in an arm-wrestling contest against that robot. However, that other crab-arm above their heads I’m not so sure about…
December 22nd, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Taken separately I wouldn’t have made the connection, but the people on that first cover have to be inspired by Burt Reynolds and Lonnie Anderson.
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Yes, but what inspired their little Space Chihuahua?
December 23rd, 2011 at 4:01 am
Third cover:
“Look, I said I’m sorry I knocked your helmet off. I’ll find it, I swear on my momma’s grave.”
“You BETTER find that helmet, Frogman! This is some SERIOUS SPACE BULL**** going on here!”
Fifth cover:
“OK, icosohedron. Go walkies now?”
“GLEEEM”
December 23rd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Thanks, Jaouad!
December 23rd, 2011 at 7:09 pm
1: Burt Reynolds and Lonnie Anderson (thanks, Yoss) as the Doctor’s companions (with K-9) doing commercials for Colgate toothpaste in front of exploding kitchen implements.
December 23rd, 2011 at 7:16 pm
2: Bob Dole IS a disturbingly pot-roasty Rambo who, with his pet squirrellizard gets vengeance for the tin wind-up spaceship assembled from ladies’ razors.
December 23rd, 2011 at 8:54 pm
3: Vine-covered, oddly colorful ropy guy in oddly colorful landscape is menaced at disturbing codpiece level by oddly colorful fish-man. Perspective, especially of guy’s legs, makes no sense.
4: Chuck, the Human Pot Roast, thrusts his meaty, honey-glazed arm in front of Vaguely Bored Woman as they are menaced by a robot, a claw, and possibly a stick insect in front of the Blue Cantaloupe Planet. Or possibly not, since nothing in this painting has the same light source as any other thing. It could all be a big, hallicinogenic collage.
5: Grouchy homeless street elf has not yet lost his marbles.
I think this is a candidate for Airbrush Abuse.
6: Brilliant female computer whiz cleverly manipulates interspace with … eh, who am I kidding? Cyberbimbo plays air koto while baring all her easy-to-draw parts.
This is another candidate for Airbrush Abuse.
December 24th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
#2: Why is he holding his lasergun arm prosthesis with his other hand? That’s not supposed to be necessary to fire one of those things, is it? Otherwise, what would be the point? Or does he simply like to feel it throbbing in his hand as it discharges? The same reason he is pressing it against his midriff?
Man, that cover could only be more obvious if his trouser lizard had been looking at the veiny and bulging head of that spaceship, instead of the other way.
December 24th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
The guy on #2 looks like Buster Keaton.
December 26th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Hi everyone!
The Titles:
1) Skywalkers (obviously)
2) The Blue Monster of Happiness
3) Deadworld 2
4) Voices of the Distant Earth
5) The Dispossessed (thx Jaouad)
6) Idoru
A.R.Yngve: I’m Hungarian, and I think most of our readers are not in any of your categories.
This covers are ridiculous, I agree, but these are 14-18 years old. these times are gone. If you are interested in the current situation of Hungarian sci-fi (and fantasy), visit this site: http://sfmag.hu/category/english/
December 27th, 2011 at 1:13 am
Hello, acélpatkány. It sounds like #4 must be Clarke’s “Songs of Distant Earth.”
I think the posters made it pretty clear these are old covers, not indicative of the current state of cover art in Hungary. As your link shows, these covers are not typical any more, if they ever were. What I could see on the site looked pretty good.
Please don’t be offended. Here we celebrate the dreadful misfires of science fiction cover art, wherever and whenever they originate, out of affection for the medium and hope for better covers in the future (that’s my motivation, anyway). No blanket mockery of Hungarian books or readers was intended.
December 27th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Alessandra Kelley: Yes, Song! I didn’t remember (and I confused the anime Voices of a Distant Star) 🙂
I love bad covers and love this blog too, I follow it a long time ago. These books are my books, I send the pictures 🙂 I just wanted to say that not all Hungarian sci-fi covers are ridiculous (as not all american or brittish books). The bad commercial is a great commercial 🙂 In another site there are some pretty nice old and new covers (http://sfcover.blogspot.com/search/label/magyar). I know that the blog readers are like me: they love laughing about the horrible things.
December 31st, 2011 at 10:29 pm
The last one made me burst out into laughter.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:26 pm
@Tag Wiz: Cover #2 definite weird pecs candidate. Further discoveries I must leave to the sleuthing ability of Dead Stuff. My wife now refuses to even look at the screen when I ask, “Does this mans’ naked chest look odd to you?”
August 16th, 2015 at 10:27 am
Now I kinda want to read these books.
May 4th, 2018 at 12:03 pm
Six books and not one front cover blurb or font issue.
Harry Harrison must be a god of writing in Hungary to get the last name only treatment.
May 4th, 2018 at 1:50 pm
I thought my cursor was frozen on Idoru. Almost rebooted my computer by mistake.
May 4th, 2018 at 2:55 pm
#6 This cover makes me wonder how William Gibson avoided turning the Idoru, Rei Toei, into a digital sex toy. Kind of makes the core premise of the book unbelievable. This needs to be re-written by Piers Anthony.
May 4th, 2018 at 4:13 pm
Cover one: The new Space Roomba can clean up even in those pesky wormholes.
May 4th, 2018 at 4:58 pm
1. Nothing brings a smile to the face like a space dog hand puppet.
2. I think I’ve found the inspiration for this cover.
3. He’s using the back up ferret as a codpiece.
4. And here’s the inspiration for this one.
5. I think there is an angler fish embedded in his right shoulder.
6. She’s doing the möbius strip!
May 4th, 2018 at 5:56 pm
3. Harrison….2….swamp thing must be yelling ‘KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!”
May 5th, 2018 at 12:21 am
(2) “weird pecs” tag for sure.
(3) Are there any decent covers for “Deathworld”? I feel I’ve seen several at GSS. I have the SFBC cover, which is of course terrible. To be fair, this cover isn’t a bad representation of the environment.
(4) I’ve read “The Dispossessed” a couple times and don’t recall anyone like this.
The Hungarian UAI must have only had photo references of 1980’s US actors to work from — Bert & Loni, Sly. Can’t work out who the overly-swollen chap on the Clarke is supposed to be, nor what gives with his arms.
Not sure what the deal is with affixed weasels and parasitic fish either.
Hungarian bus riders must have put plain brown wrappers over these back in the day.
May 5th, 2018 at 12:30 am
@RachelJ and others regarding The Mermaid Menace and “is there anything people won’t screw?”
Answer: still no. Today’s proof — a high school Cinderella with stepsisters, love polygons between the girls, a merman and a vampire. There’s brooding and angst, surprise. Also fairies somewhere… IDK, the book description confused me.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079J57DVB
It’s the #1 best seller in Teen and YA Mermaid Fiction, after only 3 days.
Where are the were-Chihuahuas to combat the mermaids, I ask?
May 5th, 2018 at 4:19 pm
@GSS xn #37: The Clarke cover depicts Wings Hauser at the exact moment he realises he’s mired in straight to VHS Hell.
May 6th, 2018 at 2:15 am
@THX: And Hungarian straight-to-VHS at that.