Dec 16
Good Show Sir Comments: Look out Liz… it’s a cross between a zebra and a lion… a deadly zebon! Oh really Liz, that’s a stupid name? Well lets see how stupid that zebon looks with a laser in his back! HIIYAAA!
Published 1977
Many thanks to Erin for sending this to us!
December 16th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Seems the editor tacked on a coloring note to the printer… who then forgot to remove the note. Doh!!
December 16th, 2013 at 9:22 am
So first they invented the raygun, then used it to slay animals to get the pelts, in order to invent clothing.
December 16th, 2013 at 9:49 am
Some hero. “You should try this, luv, it couldn’t be simpler, just shoot ’em in the back as they run away!”
December 16th, 2013 at 10:47 am
We need ‘The left Hand of Sinistra’ just to balance things out. You know it makes sense.
December 16th, 2013 at 11:21 am
How the hell do these people keep managing to remember their laser pistols but forget their clothes??
December 16th, 2013 at 11:50 am
After the mushrooms had worn off they realized that their pretend game of sci-fi Adam & Eve had gone horribly wrong and they had gunned down all the friendly animals at the petting zoo.
December 16th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
At first I thought that was an alien horse lying dead in the foreground, but then I realized the artist just draws claws on everything.
December 16th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Do the Harlem Shake!
December 16th, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Our author is a linguist and literary critic who writes Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. G. Wells fanfic.
December 16th, 2013 at 1:33 pm
As I looked over this idyllic scene of technologically triumphant humans killing the evil carnivore for just doing what comes naturally, my eyes took in many wonderful sights. The abundant Earth-native looking fungi (probably brought here on the shoes/feet of visiting humans─can White-nose syndrome be far behind.) The agile hexapods cavorting in the clearing beyond. Certainly a beautiful place. Then I was startled by the nearly complete lack of green pigment in the picture.
I asked my self: “Self, how are the humans getting enough oxygen to breath?â€
Then I remembered that in our Earth-native Rhodophyta the pigments phycocyanin and phycoerythrin mask the green color of green pigmented photosynthesizing bodies. And I breathed a sigh of relief.
All is well.
December 16th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
So where does he holster his pistol? (Ba-Dum-Tss)
December 16th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
@AR, Kripslod: As far as blurbs go, ‘Colour This World Green’ isn’t bad. It might be more appropriate for Rachel Carson than Barsoom, but let’s let it be.
December 16th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
Hmmm…the dead horse thingys right rear leg is censoring the zebron…zebron tail is censoring the hero…hero arm is censoring the woman…if I can figure out what the butterfly is censoring I will die a happy man.
December 16th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
We’re quite sure it’s two humanoids and not conjoined torsos on one pair of legs?
December 16th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
A surfeit of limbs; a combination of two species; must be a distant relative of this creature, surely: http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2010/04/i-sing-the-body-electric/
December 16th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
According to the SF Encyclopedia, this novel covers “biological, religious and colonization themes in the story of the reconciliation between incompatible forms of biological organization on a planet whose human colonists are religious fundamentalists insensitive to the vital questions surrounding Dextra’s weird Ecology”.
I think it’s clear to all that the artist is illustrating this, with the ray gun as a metaphor for religious fundamentalism and the unclothed humans representing the naked agression of their worldview. Possibly.
December 16th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Well, what other hand could it be? “Dextra” just means “right” in Latin, correct?
Title was supposed to read “The Right Hand is Dextra,” I guess.
December 16th, 2013 at 6:27 pm
This is clearly the effect the art director was going for when s/he asked for a green world. Notice the similar large cat, underdressed lady, etc. etc.
December 28th, 2013 at 10:04 am
Dextra is a drug that makes your right index finger twitch, right?
Anyway, they’re one angel short.
December 30th, 2013 at 6:46 pm
What, do they just randomly slap these blurbs on books or something?
“Let’s see what the random tagline generator comes up with today…’Color…this…world…Green’ Great! Slap it on there and get it out the door!”
“But sir, there isn’t any green on–”
“I said Get it Out of Here!”
January 8th, 2014 at 3:35 pm
Is there a sequel out there with the name Left Hand of Ambi?
January 14th, 2016 at 9:24 pm
Christopher Robin took savage vengeance on Tigger for the killing of Eeyore.
January 15th, 2016 at 8:44 am
@Ray P: It turned out later that Eeyore had just been tripping from eating the wrong/right kind of mushrooms.
PS. I hope your name isn’t a description of your general behaviour.