Sep 19
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Joachim Comments: A robot with a rocket crotch — literally…
Published 1985
(Average: 8.63 out of 10)
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Click for slightly larger image
Joachim Comments: A robot with a rocket crotch — literally…
Published 1985
(Average: 8.63 out of 10)Loading...
(9.25 out of 10) (9.18 out of 10) (9.01 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.92 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10)
Lastest Tweet
September 19th, 2012 at 9:58 am
How dare you pretend Chris Foss’ work is anything less than perfect. 😛
I’ve loved his work since I was a kid, he’s the reason I’ve read so much scifi. Walking around bookshops with parents and seeing his awesome work would make me demand I have the book. My parents loved that this 8 year old was demanding hard scifi books. 😀
September 19th, 2012 at 10:21 am
looks like rule 34 again
September 19th, 2012 at 10:29 am
“I’ve finally found someone I can love – a good, clean love… without utensils.”
September 19th, 2012 at 11:47 am
The camp robot in the background’s certainly impressed. And at least the cover has included a robot in the cover, unlike Foss’s ‘The Caves of Steel’.
But yeah, Foss rocks.
September 19th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Actually, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Fortunate Son’ goes quite well with this cover.
September 19th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
But, but Chris Foss is awesome!
I have so many books merely bought because of his artwork!
September 19th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
If they’d just put pants on that robot they wouldn’t have to be covering it up with a spaceship!
He seems quite proud of whatever he’s got back there.
September 19th, 2012 at 4:08 pm
The Joy of Sun
September 19th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Also, check our that robot’s (ahem) ‘headlights’! Tits and Asimov!
September 19th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
@Tom, or, that is what he’s got….
September 19th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
Thrusters on full!
September 19th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Allow me to join in the choir of Foss fans: Apologize for this insult on the name of our Prophet, or we shall retaliate with beheadings and bombings, or worse: harshly-worded letters to the editor!
Also, I’m pretty sure this was intentional, like the scene in True Lies where Aziz takes off with the warhead sticking out between his legs.
September 19th, 2012 at 6:07 pm
@ Vigan, I’m sure it was intentional — but intentionally stupid is often just as funny as unintentionally stupid. The entire series Foss did for Asimov’s robot novels are just as hokey… There’s one where a robot is holding a HUGE rattle.
September 19th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Welcome to another episode of “Robots Behaving Badly”.
SUN! SUN! I said “Set the controls for the heart of the SUN”.
September 19th, 2012 at 8:14 pm
The Naked Sun? Frank Drebin’s finest hour? Oh, just one letter different.
I’m liking the robot in the background, who looks straight out of the Cadbury’s Smash adverts – but in the interests of robotic decency, that cover should have a C.S.Lewis fizzog or modesty sheep superimposed.
September 19th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Rather than Frank Drebin I’m now thinking Austin Powers.
September 20th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Yeah, baby.
September 21st, 2012 at 9:37 pm
What I immediately thought of when I saw this image was this video:
http://youtu.be/WhwbxEfy7fg (audio required, and NSFW)
(It’s D*** in a Box, if you don’t want to bother to follow the link. While there are 35 million + YouTube views, I don’t know how much attention this got outside the USA.)
September 22nd, 2012 at 10:03 pm
I hesitated about making any joke about a Chris Foss cover — I love his stuff, it appeals to my inner 10-year-old — but at long last, something has to be said about a painting of a giant robot with A WIENER IN A BUN.
What can one say?
– That it might also work as a geeky condom ad? “When You’re Hard As Steel, Use Titan Heavy Duty”
– That when the robots finally take over, they will spare Chris Foss?
– That John Major has a recurring dream where he’s a giant robot with spectacles who tramples London while sporting a massive steel schlong?
I’m stumped.
October 10th, 2012 at 10:42 am
you’re all perverts. Also it’s a terrible cover even without the innuendo; it’s the only problem I have with Chris Foss’ stuff – it sometimes looks like a load of random shapes, like he threw a pile of lego on the floor and drew that. He’s very very good at giving random shapes substance and detail, but it often just doesn’t look like it would actually work. This robot is probably thinking “WTF am i supposed to be?!” just before it tries to take a step and snaps in half. Now, Peter Elson…. drool. ;D
October 11th, 2012 at 4:43 pm
@chuffmunky “He’s very very good at giving random shapes substance and detail, but it often just doesn’t look like it would actually work.”
This! Foss exactly. I’ve always admired his work, even though I never knew how to describe its subtle wrongness. Thanks for articulating this.
That said, maybe his machines are just not supposed to have been designed by humans. That thing looks like a robot to us, but it could be an alien espresso machine.
November 12th, 2012 at 7:58 pm
Wow. Just wow. That is just so NOT suggestive. At all. No sirreeee.
January 2nd, 2013 at 1:36 pm
I never noticed the rather fastidious robot in silhouette at back right.
‘Um…ah…bless my soul…have you…er…perhaps they’re behind the counter… *sotto voce* have you any blue spacecraft? Ah, for sale, that is. I couldn’t help…em…notice that other fellow, and…well…I am a bit curious, I must admit…’
January 4th, 2013 at 12:17 am
It’s the annoying nail-eating robot from /Ulysses 31, except now it’s megalithic, and probably megalithicly annoying. might also have an appetite for oil refinery flamestacks.
February 4th, 2013 at 5:48 pm
HUMANS, flee before the awesome sight that is, my package!!
July 22nd, 2015 at 2:04 am
It’s a little-known fact that the screenplay for ‘American Pie’ was based upon an Asimov short story.
July 24th, 2015 at 11:01 am
I’d hate to be in that transport.
December 15th, 2015 at 12:34 am
The Fossians v. the Elsonians seems like the basis for a mighty work of sf.
December 15th, 2015 at 12:06 pm
“How’s the sunshine over there?”
“Needs more roblowjob.”
October 17th, 2022 at 4:37 am
This has to best the worst viagra advertisement ever. I meant to say, the best. Little blue pill indeed, the rocket ship you need.
October 17th, 2022 at 4:50 am
“Not being a fan of science fiction, Foss typically did not read the books he illustrated, preferring to paint scenes entirely from his imagination” – Wikipedia
October 17th, 2022 at 11:51 am
At first glance, I thought it was the censor-sheep.
October 17th, 2022 at 11:01 pm
@ Bruce: I guess that explains the constant WTF and inappropriateness (<– holy cow, that really is a word) of covers to books.
It also meant the publishers could just slap any old cover on any book. It might be full of Unicorns! or robots, doesn't matter.
Could be worse, could be this one:
https://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=10661
or indeed, any other of the bad covers for this book that have appeared here.