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Nov 05

See... you can't cut off my head! I'll just crawl back on.Click for full image

Bibliomancer Comments: Stop changing your mind and put your metal bra on. We’ll be late for the party.
Published 1973

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.00 out of 10)
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24 Responses to “The Chessmen of Mars”

  1. FeârofMüsïc Says:

    Okay.I get the red ’cause it’s like Mars and all, but after, uh what?
    Gosh, how did science~fiction not become the dominant…oh screw it. This is just way weird and sorta creepy.

  2. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    The original head crab?

  3. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I feel as if, if I were reading that on the trolley, people would come up to me, take it out of my hands, take a long look at the cover, shake their heads and hand it back.

  4. THX 1138 Says:

    “You’d forget your head if it wasn’t screwed on! Oh.”

    I misread this title as The Cheesemen of Mars. Boik.

  5. SI Says:

    How tiny is that man! Very that’s how!

  6. dpn Says:

    The population of Mars is going drop drastically unless they can find paper bags big enought to cover those heads.

  7. Tom Noir Says:

    Man, if ‘John Carter’ had been more like this cover it would have been… well, it would have been different.

  8. B. Chiclitz Says:

    Those heads seem to fit exactly into the cavity in the wall behind them. Don’t know what this means, just noticing. Leads to some nice visualization at least. I also love the fact that there’s a “detachable head” tag. Wiz, you never fail to impress me!

  9. StevenLP Says:

    The spider on the right has something of the Rodney Bewes about him.

    It’s kinda half a very creepy (in a good way) cover and half a silly one: a good idea badly expressed.

    Apparently the cover does reflect the book, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaldane a neat SF idea.

  10. fred Says:

    Alekhine’s Defence?

  11. Bibliomancer Says:

    A tip of the hat to artist Gino D’Achille for bringing the ugly rather than the traditional sword-fighting Martians on a big chessboard:

    http://www.russkirkman.com/erb/marscovers.htm

    ….knight takes pawn ….aaaarrgghhh!

  12. Rags Says:

    This is exactly what happens in the book and kudos to the artist for making this look so horrific!

  13. A.R.Yngve Says:

    It’s like Edgar Rice Burroughs… on acid!
    (Just kidding, LSD hadn’t been invented in his time.)

  14. Tat Wood Says:

    Nitty Nora used to warn us about head-lice, but if she’d shown us this picture we’d’ve listened.

  15. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @A.R. Yngve—maybe a bit too much of that absinthe?

  16. DaveFromGP Says:

    The interesting thing about this cover is that when I was a kid in a small Manitoba town they had this complete series in the sci-fi section (basically two shelves). This was the first one I really noticed. Over the last couple of years I have been trying to collect the whole series in this particular run of the ERB classic stories. The covers were all drawn by Gino D’Achille.

  17. Neal Says:

    Weird. I love the Gino D’Achille covers for this series. Can’t agree on this choice at all.

  18. Anti-Sceptic Says:

    “I chopped off her head, but it came back the very next day!”

  19. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Rush Limbaugh was very pleased with his new body.

  20. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @A.R.Yngve19—yes, but which is which?

  21. A.R.Yngve Says:

    BOTH!! (mua ha ha haaa!)

  22. JuanPaul Says:

    “Actually, honey, that thong does make your ass look big. Get up and check for yourself if you don’t belive me!”

  23. B. Chiclitz Says:

    “Makes my ass look big, eh? Well, at least I’m supposed to have girly hips. What’s your excuse?”

  24. JuanPaul Says:

    “According to my research humans find big hipped men attractive.”

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