Sep 04
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Click for full imageBibliomancer Comments: In the future everyone will wear soft, velour sweat-suits and spaceships will be controlled by recycled 1998 iMacs.
Both Published 1989
(Average: 7.78 out of 10)
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Bibliomancer Comments: In the future everyone will wear soft, velour sweat-suits and spaceships will be controlled by recycled 1998 iMacs.
Both Published 1989
(Average: 7.78 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)
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September 4th, 2013 at 10:17 am
The second one looks like a user’s manual. Maybe the first one does too.
September 4th, 2013 at 11:29 am
Whatever that first one is a user manual for, by the look on the woman’s face he’s doing it wrong.
Also, that can’t be his hand groping her, can it? Is Null-A the Art of Telescoping Arms?
September 4th, 2013 at 11:45 am
Second cover:
‘I wish he’d stop playing with that computer and start playing with ME!’
‘Just a moment, Rowena. My download of the Second Coming is 94.5% done…94.6%…94.7%…’
September 4th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
To qualify as a man or woman of the future, you must (1.) lack a distinct pubic region and (2.) have anatomically incorrect ears. Pilots, especially, must have ears that are (A.) very small, (B.) horizontal instead of vertical, and (C.) placed well forward on the mandible instead of behind it. All weapons issued will come topped with whipped cream and a bit of candied apricot.
September 4th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Addendum: No chairs will be provided for male pilots. Please inflate your own penis and scrotum until bright red and suitable for seating.
September 4th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
The Players cover looks like the perennial problem of men never asking for directions and women getting peeved by this.
What strikes me is that, for once, the wilder, more lurid covers we usually get here would be appropriate for the content, and instead it’s the illustrations for a 25th Century Ladybird book. The covers for ‘The Little People’ or ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ approximate to what passes for a plot in each book far better than this fuzzy-felt stuff.
September 4th, 2013 at 4:58 pm
Great. Now I’m going to have The Jetsons theme song in my head all day.
September 4th, 2013 at 7:14 pm
THE WORLD OF NULL-A is a science fiction classic! THE PLAYERS OF NULL-A is… no comment, apparently.
I’m still waiting for THE WORLD OF NULL-B.
September 4th, 2013 at 7:21 pm
@TH: that rust-red thing is the plant/cape/scrotum thing from yesterday’s cover.
The body language of the first cover is all wrong. Gunnar Päntönnesson is trying to abduct Celia Shading but is caught in the act by THE MOON.
September 4th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Did they deliberately shoot for the cheesy self published look? If so, bullseye! Well done sir or madam art director.
R. I. P. Frederick Pohl. Mayhaps in heaven every cover is a masterpiece. Or perhaps it doesn’t matter anymore. Godspeed good sir.
September 4th, 2013 at 9:40 pm
Blimey. They look like they were done using potato printing.
September 5th, 2013 at 2:47 am
Red-haired man with glue gun glares at title. “From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee, A.E. van Vogt.”
September 5th, 2013 at 4:30 am
Somewhere, this artist’s mother has the original artwork for these covers framed and labelled “Baby’s first airbrush art”
September 5th, 2013 at 7:21 am
It’s outsider art, a la Henry Darger. Only not good.
September 5th, 2013 at 8:21 am
B. Chiclitz is on to something here — and it may unnerve you to have it spelled out, but the whole theme of this website confirms it:
SF book covers, as such, ARE a form of Outsider Art.
September 5th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
@A.R.Yngve—I never thought of it before, but I think that’s why I love this site. It allows us to revel in the Realms of the Unreal. Fie on laws of perspective, assumptions of coherence, organicism, sense itself! Just give me those leering blue dryer balls and people sitting in chairs that are sewn onto their suits . . . .
September 5th, 2013 at 7:09 pm
Cover #1: “Curse them! They have designed the buildings in Art Deco! Turn away from their abomination, my love!”
Cover #2: “Yes dear, we’re going to watch it eventually. It’s not my fault that an episode of Game of Thrones takes 2 hours to download!”
September 11th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
maybe it’s imitating the art style of a lot of early video game box art – supposed to imitate the feel of computer graphics but without the blocky pixels? Or, author got his 12 year old nephew to do it and publisher was too lazy to argue.
September 15th, 2013 at 2:29 pm
I give the artist an “A” for consistency!
September 15th, 2013 at 8:07 pm
HOW TO CODE IN BASIC
WITH NULL-A
By A.E. Van Vogt
September 15th, 2013 at 10:14 pm
@AR: Goddammit, you’re brilliant. 🙂
October 9th, 2013 at 3:01 pm
The books look like the trials and tribulations of Captain Kirk.
The World of Null -A: “Scotty, beam me up. I’ve managed to secure the girl!”
The Players of Null -A: “So who was that girl you brought up? You think she’s prettier than me, don’t you?”
March 22nd, 2014 at 12:46 pm
So…men of the future will have double ended penises. Interesting.
By the look of her face, he has already slapped her with it several times.
August 25th, 2015 at 1:45 am
It really boggles the mind as to why the first book qualifies as a “Science Fiction Classic”, because the covers of both books make them look like badly-illustrated and badly-written kids’ books.
February 9th, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Cover artist Mark Peyton has some ‘splainin’ to do:
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=11072
February 9th, 2016 at 5:00 pm
Tracing paper used or sf art cliche?
The future never looked so exciting. “Hurry up and finish your homework.”
September 26th, 2016 at 6:32 pm
Now we see BOTH covers are cribbed:
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=11801
December 17th, 2017 at 6:05 am
THE WINTER PAJAMAS OF NULL-A.
December 31st, 2017 at 6:08 pm
#2 looks uncannily like a cheaper version of this: http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=11801
Maybe somebody didn’t like drawing chain-mail.
December 31st, 2017 at 7:17 pm
I look forward to someone remaking Baen covers with construction-paper cut-outs (and probably some Quality Street wrappers).
Or maybe ‘The Underpeople’…
January 2nd, 2018 at 10:39 pm
Cover artist Mark Peyton, Age 12 1/2.
@Tat: I should HOPE not! Impressionable youngsters should never be allowed to see Baen covers, let alone look at them long enough to attempt copying them. It’ll warp their little minds, both with the content and the bad art/perspective/fonts.
Frankly, no one should be allowed to see them. Though perhaps with a note from a psychiatrist, it could be allowed for women over 35 and men over 50.
August 18th, 2020 at 1:17 am
van Vogt – you just don’t get these pastel colours at all, do you?