Apr 05
Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: Space Ship X.S.22… that’s what this old boy is called? Well I don’t think we should have a space ship or in fact anything resembling anything sci-fi on there. That’s what they’d be expecting us to do. Just put a couple of boys carrying a machine gun while another gets chased by a bull!
Published 1966
April 5th, 2013 at 10:22 am
I think Michael Bay’s Armageddon taught us every spaceship needs a machine gun… no, seriously, they mixed the covers up, right?
April 5th, 2013 at 10:53 am
No.. wait… maybe the bull IS the space ship.
Also, that kid is so screwed.
April 5th, 2013 at 11:21 am
“I say, Martin, I think Alfie’s done for. That bull seems to be rather peeved about something or other. And gaining rather rapidly.”
“Well, Arthur, mother has always said that’s the sort of thing that happens to those who don’t attend a proper public school. Now help me set up this tiny Lewis gun so that we might repel the Huns.”
“Yes, well, wasn’t there mention, somewhere, of a spaceship..”
“The Huns, Arthur.The Boche?”
“Yes, of course Martin. Oh dear. That’s it for Alfie then.”
April 5th, 2013 at 11:35 am
Either they’re on a hill or it’s a sequel to ‘The Little Prince’
April 5th, 2013 at 12:32 pm
“We’re going to have a jolly good space adventure — our rocket is loaded with sandwiches, tomato slices, apple pie, and lashings of ginger beer!”
“Hurrah!”
April 5th, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Good science fiction should give the reader a sense of wonder.
I wonder wtf is going on with this book.
April 5th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Just realised some information by flicking through this.
* Victory Press is an Evangelical Christian publisher. Which would be why I couldn’t find much information about this.
* Book is clearly for children… all children are evil though!
* There is a minister in the book called Mr. Gay
* One of the characters is called Willie.. (*sound of school ground laughter*)
* The story seems to be about a small English town building a “space ship”
April 5th, 2013 at 1:49 pm
Little Jimmy was a cyborg with the strangest of implants.
April 5th, 2013 at 6:03 pm
Is that a Sun computers spare part on the desk?
April 5th, 2013 at 6:44 pm
Run Alfie, head for that keyboard!!! Bull’s have a primal fear of technology!!
April 5th, 2013 at 7:12 pm
Nice law and order cover from the mid 60’s. The boys have stolen apples from an orchard (check pockets) and are being trampled to death by a bull in divine retribution. Serves the little bastards right. Probably would have grown into pot smoking mass murdering hippies.
April 6th, 2013 at 12:00 am
and then the bull turned round and chased martin and arthur away from the sarnies and ginger beers and Alfie had a delightful lunch in the warm sunshine and was back home with mummy in time to establish an alibi the end.
April 6th, 2013 at 10:33 pm
Not only are their pockets stuffed with these obviously pilfered apples, but they appear to have them stuffed down their shirts as well! Fuel for the spaceship? Bribes for the bull? Gotta go with @Bibliomancer here, this is a truly wtf wondercover.
April 7th, 2013 at 1:25 am
@JuanPaul: Someone had to say it…you dirty boy, you.
@GSS Admin: I was surprised some years ago, when in the retail book trade, to find out how many juvenile publishers (in the US at least) were subsidiaries of religious publishing houses in the ’50s – ’70s. (One of the more prominent, particularly for SF/fantasy, was Westminster, which was an imprint of John Knox Press – but with few exceptions, there was never any explicit or even veiled proselytizing in their books.)
And on the whole, this should have been titled STALKY & CO. 1999!
April 8th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
It appears our Admin is using a SPARC chip as a coaster. Good Show, Sir!
April 10th, 2013 at 5:35 am
That one foreground kid seems very into the scene of the bull trampling the kid in the background.
August 27th, 2015 at 2:40 am
What gets me is their very nice jackets. It looks like they raided their fathers’ wardrobes.
October 14th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
“I’ll help you to a doctor, but this is the last time. Stop sticking your pecker in lead pipes.”
Tuvy Birdwad: Sex2Cash is P2P
October 14th, 2015 at 7:29 pm
“Lead pipe? What are you talking about? This is my pecker.”
November 24th, 2017 at 3:15 pm
This should be one of the Supermarionation TV shows from the 60’s like Fireball XL5 or Thunderbirds.
November 24th, 2017 at 4:02 pm
The lad in the blue jacket is a bit frightened to see that the book is by David W. Truby.
November 24th, 2017 at 9:54 pm
Acktually fotherington-tomas is worse than me he is navvigator and spend his time skipping about he sa Hullo clouds hullo sky hullo sun etc when huge bull chace chiz chiz.
November 25th, 2017 at 12:29 am
It looks like fun and games, but usually, when you get chased by a bull in field, it is not a comic situation. Alfie is totally f**ked.
November 25th, 2017 at 5:33 pm
and they are going to get murded by the PUKON and his TREENS …