Jun 06
Click for full imageSergio Comments: Here’s a space gladiator about to snatch his colt against an alien scarecrow/ostrich ready to throw his deadly and shiny bowling ball! (With a backdrop of pyramids of course…)
Published 1974
(Average: 8.14 out of 10)
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(9.25 out of 10)
Lastest Tweet
June 6th, 2013 at 10:41 am
Where do we go from here? Darling, I enjoyed our date, but I don’t think a green beak, pointy forehead, black fringe and red glowing eyes do it for me, really.
June 6th, 2013 at 10:50 am
Which will be the best defence against a bird with a glowing orb? My karate chop, my helmet’s horny spike, or my laser-powerd six-shooter?
June 6th, 2013 at 11:22 am
ok human, ready? ready? ok, fetch boy, fetch
June 6th, 2013 at 11:34 am
“Hokay, just hand me the power up pill and we can both get on with our lives…”
June 6th, 2013 at 11:55 am
Where do we go from here? Book 2, I suspect.
June 6th, 2013 at 12:35 pm
“For the cover I’m picturing an alien that looks like a cross between a space chicken and Sonny Bono facing off with a spaceman with a shark fin backpack and half a Viking helmet worn sideways… oh and have the spaceman wear knee breeches and a pair of house slippers. Now get busy, these covers aren’t going to paint themselves!”
June 6th, 2013 at 12:40 pm
The spaceman in knickers is stunned and astounded when his alien caddy finds Alan Shepard’s ball in the pyramidal rough. Ninety years later, the spaceman’s elderly granddaughter will tell the story of the ball’s discovery on Antiques Roadshow. “I would estimate an auction value of half-a-million galactic gorznuks!”
June 6th, 2013 at 12:46 pm
I know where you go; this looks like it was done by the same graffitist who did the Sarnath cover I turned in. Anyone have an answer to this? Would be amusing to find out just who was responsible
June 6th, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Isaac Asimov presents Son of the Rocketeer versus Dr. Seuss in Space.
June 6th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Good question Sarah! We’re actually wondering if it was done by the great Joe Petagno, heavy metal artwork legend, and he of Motörhead mascot fame. The other Petagno suspect on the site is Travelling Towards Epsilon.
This is all based on the collection of Flickr user Mavmaramis.
Our usual go-to, ISFDB, can only confirm one of the five Flickr covers as being a true Petagno. If you’re there, Sergio, can you help us?
June 6th, 2013 at 2:16 pm
Hmm. Petagno’s work is characterized by an extensive use of glow effects. Much more than just an aura around a ball. And his rendering of figures is more skilled than this. So I’d be surprised if the cover was verified as his.
June 6th, 2013 at 2:26 pm
Hey, I’m loving the various interpretations people are coming up with. Of course, this sort of deep thinking is what great art is all about! 🙂
@The Tag Wizard: I’ll check out my copy later tonight and I’ll let you know.
June 6th, 2013 at 2:55 pm
This artwork was tagged “Joe Petagno” on Tumblr:
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/joe%20petagno [admin edit – warning: host tumblr requires serious sheeping]
And a quote by JP from elsewhere:
“Yeah, I used to do a huge amount of sci-fi fantasy/fiction work when I lived in London during the 70’s. I think I did about 80 titles or something. “
June 6th, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Cheers Biblio, and to you too, Sergio! I’d be surprised for the same reason as you, Tom, but stranger things have happened.
June 6th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
@ Bibliomancer & The Tag Wizard. Ah, of course. If it’s Petagno’s, it would be an example from early in his career. But then again, his cover for The Silver Locusts (Corgi SF Collector’s Library) appearing just a year later (1975) looks leagues beyond this. So I remain at least slightly skeptical.
June 6th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
And that was the last time I bought an apple from a talking alien emu…
June 6th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
No Alan Parsons Project fans here?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0uSLZz8N10
Perspective looks screwy. Big bird could be as big as one of the kaiju from Pacific Rim for all I know.
June 6th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
@fred: I love Alan Parsons Project! ‘Turn of a Friendly Card’ is on my list of albums I cannot survive without.
I love Motörhead! They are my umlaut inspiration. I love Petagno’s artwork as well. If this book cover is really his, he advanced his skill and technique at a truly remarkable rate, considering the level of realism displayed in the artwork for ‘Bomber’ only five years later.(sorry no link to the art, my tablet goes into a catatonic state if asked to do more than one thing at a time)
I do not, however, love this cover.
June 6th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
Curses! It’s as if Isaac Asimov ANTICIPATED the coming of Good Show Sir, like a true visionary of the future, and ordered the cover artist:
“I want you to make a cover SO absurd that even those future folk who make fun of covers will be left speechless!”
I stand in awe.
June 6th, 2013 at 8:23 pm
Must be tough sleeping on your back with that jetpack there.
Also, I don’t think the alien emu is handing him a ball or a cherry bomb. I think he is handing the spaceman one of his eyes, probably the right one. As though to say, “You should see what you look like through others’ eyes. Pathetic, space boy.”
Of course the spaceman can justly reply, “Are you serious? With those hyperextended knees you’re making fun of how I look?”
@Fred—thanks for the excuse to spend 20 delightful minutes on youtube listening to Alan Parsons Project.
June 6th, 2013 at 8:51 pm
@B. Chiclitz — Mr Spaceman snores when he sleeps on his back. Mrs Spaceman bought him that backpack and makes him wear it every night.
btw, nice set of drumsticks on that space chicken.
June 7th, 2013 at 2:59 am
I feel as though the title is actually what Spaceman Finnyback is saying. It must be something like, “Okay, okay, Wackybird, I admit it. My zap gun and your cherry-glow orb are evenly matched. It’s a standoff. So…Where do we go from here?”
June 7th, 2013 at 3:37 am
Aha! The cover depicts Dick Jarvis and Tweel from Stanley G. Weinbaum’s A Martian Odyssey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Martian_Odyssey
June 7th, 2013 at 6:35 am
Where do we go from here? Anywhere with less-embarrassing cover-art.
June 7th, 2013 at 11:12 am
For what it’s worth the copy I have don’t have any cover credit.
The artist was probably thankful for that…
June 8th, 2013 at 12:20 am
‘Come out from behind the pyramid with your arms raised and your knees bowed! Good…now throw down your weapon, or I’ll turn my big sister on you!’
June 14th, 2013 at 12:24 am
“Halt, who goes there?”
“Really, Jim, again? It’s me, you know it’s me! I’m the only one who looks like this for 8 parsecs in any direction! You know I just stepped out to duck behind the pyramids, and I’ve got our super-techy toilet paper dispenser with me, which could only come from our ship. So shut up and let me back on!”
March 24th, 2015 at 10:20 am
“Hey you, chickeny thing! Where do we go from here?”