Nov 14
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Harry’s Art Direction: I know it’s a serious novel about a bunch of survivors on an Alien world. I know it’s written by Joanna Russ. Yes, Fred, I KNOW who she is, but portraying the heroine as competent won’t sell books. This is the 70s, man, so you just GOTTA stick her in a silver bikini and put her on a phallic rocket cycle – and don’t forget to make it a crotch shot.
Published 1978
November 14th, 2012 at 11:01 am
OYEEE! What are you doing with my soup ladles!?!
November 14th, 2012 at 11:07 am
Princess Leia’s Return of the Jedi line sold surprisingly well.
November 14th, 2012 at 11:48 am
Their covers for ‘The Female Man’ and ‘Picnic on Paradise’ were worse – the latter had a race-fail thrown in. Plus a big problem with the neck-armour meaning Alyx had to have had a dislocated shoulder http://queenofspace.tumblr.com/post/32040057319 http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/1369644021/ Methuen must have hired artists going through messy divorces for her books.
November 14th, 2012 at 2:06 pm
WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO SLAP OUR FOREHEADS…
November 14th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
…show off our cameltoes.
November 14th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
I do not think bikini tops work like the artist thinks they work.
November 14th, 2012 at 2:29 pm
I can’t even begin to fathom what is going on with the rocket… bike… thing. Apparently one handlebar is high up, the other is low enough that you can rest your latex space-boot on it. There appears to be a wing or an engine… but only on one side. And if I were that lady I would want more than a triangle of fabric between me and what appears to be the exposed, red-hot engine.
November 14th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
I honestly thought the bra cups were modesty devices added by Admin, replacements for the sheep and CS Lewis. They clearly aren’t functional, although I suppose they could be decorative.
November 14th, 2012 at 5:03 pm
If she’d arch her back and stick out her chest she wouldn’t get that pesky tan line in the crease of her stomach.
November 14th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
Why can’t the rest of her attire be made of the same translucent material as her plastic baggy biker boots?
November 14th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Wow, I had a copy of the Female Man for years meaning to scan it in to document the hilariously porny cover. I didn’t realise the publishers deliberately used the porniest artists whenever they could with feminist authors. I can’t find the one I had online, unfortunately.
November 15th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Is it just me, or does her entire torso (regardless of the improbable purple cones) look rather masculine?
November 16th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
@ Stevie T: that’s not chest hair, that’s shadow.
(An artist finally gets the shadows to line up with the light source, and see what happens?)
November 19th, 2012 at 11:24 am
We who are about to row salute you.
Although those look partly like a rowing machine and partly like something out of Doctor Suess.
Her nose is oddly short and the space between her nose and chin oddly long.
February 19th, 2014 at 1:51 pm
We who are about to totally buy this book and go blind staring at the cover.
October 2nd, 2015 at 7:50 pm
We Salute Your…
March 19th, 2016 at 5:39 pm
I’m quite sure that’s not the proper way to aim a howitzer.
March 21st, 2016 at 11:14 am
@DSWBT: Says who? If I had a howitzer, I would get a scantily clad woman to aim it like that. As far as I’m concerned that’s the only way to do it.
March 21st, 2016 at 5:04 pm
@anon: sounds groovy. ‘If I had a howitzer…I’d a-howitz in the morning…I’d a-howitz in the evening…with spoons on my tits…’
October 27th, 2023 at 3:36 pm
It could be the movie poster for a Golan-Globus/Cannon movie. Something that would appear 50 times a year on TBS orTNT.
October 27th, 2023 at 6:12 pm
From her intense look of concentration, I think she is trying to parallel park.
And that’s not easy to do, considering that she’s on a Peloton.
October 27th, 2023 at 6:17 pm
@Tor Mented: in retrospect, a flying exercise bike was a bad idea – especially making it rocket propelled.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:35 pm
She’s got a metallic bikini bottom on a literal crotch rocket.
This is me cringing and squishing my legs together firmly, in sympathy with her bare thighs.
And just imagine how many knots her hair is going to be in.
The pink teat shields are ridiculous, but the artist wanted to make sure you knew she was a woman. So, sure, put her in oversize baby bottle nipples.
@fred: By Jove, you’ve got it.
@Tor: I LOL.
My legs are still crossed.
October 28th, 2023 at 12:28 pm
At least it’s not Slim Pickins in a bikini.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snTaSJk0n_Y
October 28th, 2023 at 6:41 pm
@GSS x-n: Eh, you could do worse with less… (and I say that as a Luis Royo fan…)
October 29th, 2023 at 12:23 am
We who are about to… get bug-splattered.
I agree that the cover belongs in the GSS colletion – so much fun – but also pretty bad a$$.