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Nov 24

This would make a great Nintendo Power Glove ad.Click for full image

Perry Armstrong Comments: “I searched to see whether this Sheckley cover had already been posted, and was amazed to find only – three – Sheckley covers thus far featured on Good Show Sir! Given the sheer awesomeness of numerous Sheckley covers, I find your lack of Sheckley covers disturbing, and hope this Sheckley cover goes some way towards rectifying the situation. Sheckley cover.
Published 1979

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: 8.62 out of 10)
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27 Responses to “The Status Civilization”

  1. Bibliomancer Says:

    Those heads, arms and legs in his fist don’t add up.

  2. Tom Noir Says:

    We’ve all had nightmares about Jeff Foxworthy, but they were never like THIS.

  3. Tat Wood Says:

    I think the face in the helmet is supposed to resemble Sheckley himself. The cover is one of a lot of self-consciously schlocky things Penguin inflicted on SF in the late 70s.

    The plot is a simple story of a prison planet where you climb the pecking-order to survive, so not really represented here. (Then the end gets all metatextual in a way that would become fashionable decades after the late 50s publcation of the original).

    This is about the best cover this novel got. (At least in English. I rather like the German Bruna one).

  4. Tat Wood Says:

    I also question the utility of spiked knuckle-dusters on a space-suit. Is he a wicket-keeper?

  5. THX 1138 Says:

    So he gives himself a four star rating? And that famous Siskel and Ebert one fist of naked people up?

  6. Bibliomancer Says:

    @Tat Wood – Well I suppose you might be right about the resemblance between the helmet face and the author.

    BTW, if anyone has that Sphere cover, send it in.

    @THX1138 – On this site, that’s a 4 out of 10. Not so good (bad).

  7. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Tat Wood 3โ€”the novel (or at least the cover) was also a pioneer in its use of gap analysis as a mode of representation.

  8. fred Says:

    In space no one can hear…..whatever is going on with this cover. And those baby tings should have been ramped up about 150%.

  9. A.R.Yngve Says:

    So in this “Status Civilization”, the sign of higher status is an armored suit that elongates your neck (like on some African tribeswomen)?

    Sociologically fascinating, but physiologically unsound.

  10. Anna T. Says:

    @Tat Wood: So this book isn’t about a giant cosmonaut who eats people?

  11. fred Says:

    GI Joes
    GI Joes
    Squish their heads into their toes
    On the land, on the sea, and in space

    I wouldn’t trust a helmet that appears to be attached with a belt.

  12. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Originally a cover for the more horrifying Chase and Then Ream Her. ๐Ÿ˜

  13. Jeff Vader Says:

    “The more you tighten your grip the more assorted rubbery body parts will slip through your fingers”

  14. Ray P Says:

    Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart goes mad and murders the UNIT staff using the Master’s tissue compressor. And strips the uniforms off their tiny lifeless bodies. Well, I said he went mad.

  15. Tat Wood Says:

    @Ray P: you’re saying that this is what Cyber-Brig looks like with the facemask off?

  16. Perry Armstrong Says:

    @Ray P/Tat Wood: I initially typed ‘I like these ideas better than canon Cyber-Brig’, then realised I’d just used the phrase ‘canon Cyber-Brig’ and felt sad…

  17. Perry Armstrong Says:

    Cyber-Brig gives small arms demonstration.

  18. Anna T. Says:

    @Ray P: I feel so disappointed I didn’t come up with that idea myself. Your comment makes me laugh.

    Although perhaps this is the Brig’s evil alternate.

  19. Tat Wood Says:

    @Anna T: Where’s his eyepatch?

    On second thoughts, I’d rather not know.

  20. SI Says:

    All I hear in my head is this big dirty english laugh. This cover is amazing.

  21. anon Says:

    @Anna T. ,Tat Wood: So, no more goatees or eyepatches for evil twins? Instead they have a Burt Reynolds mustache then, maybe? And a missing tooth and a spacesuit with studs on knuckles..?

  22. Tat Wood Says:

    “Ha Ha Haaa – with the hydraulic Cuban heels in this space-suit I will finally be taller than Daryl Hall!”

  23. lctwice Says:

    The love child of Stalin and Alfred E. Newman in his holiday spacesuit with tbe gold stars and red Christmas trees.

  24. anon Says:

    @Ictwice: “What me oppress?”

  25. GSS noob Says:

    Terry-Thomas TOLD them that doing a sci-fi project would drive him mad.

    And lo. Barbie and Ken were never the same.

    (Canonical Cyber-Brig.)

  26. A.R.Yngve Says:

    When Trump presented his new head of the CIA, people began to get seriously worried.

  27. L.B. Says:

    The status of civilization… I’ll get back to you.

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