Sep 12
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageIt’s a Two-Fer Tuesday – Genus Homo Edition
Good Show Sir Comments:
1. You know, when you think about it, every morning we wake up and find ourselves the only human beings alive.
2. “Don’t shoot him! I was just lending him my eyebrow pencil”!
Published 1941, 1961
(Average: 8.14 out of 10)
Loading...
(9.27 out of 10)
September 12th, 2017 at 8:48 am
Other than the mystery hand, the second one is much better. It’s got lifelike colors, some dynamism, decent anatomy, reasonable clothing, as much realism as one could expect from a scene in which a gorilla’s got a big zap gun. Even the hand might belong to a body which has the head beyond the bottom of the cover.
But that first, later one. Oof. That’s just terrible. Garish colors, everything out of proportion in what I gather was supposed to be artsy but is just ugly and tacky (and garishly colored). Unnecessary dots and triangles. Colors that don’t go with each other and are perhaps the worst shade of each imaginable. And does it still count as “font problems” when the title’s been handwritten?
I would read the Super Science version on the bus. Not so the other.
In GSS ratings:
1941: 3, at worst
1961: 8.5 to 9.
(Special note to @Rachel J: the Mermaid Menace… In Spaaaaace!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZKS1D2/)
September 12th, 2017 at 10:33 am
1: I expect that monocle drops into a brandy glass with crushing regularity.
2: “It’s OK, we’ve only just taught him not to climb on the furniture!”
September 12th, 2017 at 11:16 am
1. I like Richard Powers but he just phoned in this one. Looks like a children’s book for Planet of the Apes.
2. “Cut! Genus Homo isn’t working. Let’s swap in the ape guy for the lion man. We’re re-writing the script and calling this King Kong now.”
September 12th, 2017 at 12:27 pm
1. “E = H2O +”? That doesn’t make any sense.
2. @GSS ex-podiatrist, I think that’s supposed to be his foot, and he has opposable toesies.
September 12th, 2017 at 3:01 pm
1) The missing piece of the formula is probably scotch. What did the wearing of a monocle culturally signify in 1961? Upper class twit? Evil Hydra agent?
2) ‘The right to bear arms against unarmed bear people shall not be abridged.’ has just been Super Scientifically proven.
September 12th, 2017 at 3:34 pm
1. 1986: Jeremy Corbyn is captured and humiliated by Young Conservatives.
2. “Keep Bungle away from the booze!”
September 12th, 2017 at 3:41 pm
I shouldn’t reveal this, but I actually like #1. Crazy primitivism, wacky but somehow appealing colors, the eye-drama going on between the ape and the guy, the goofy fig leaf, the swirling mandala-like patterns, somehow it works for me. I guess I like a cover that says “I’m not taking myself too seriously, are you?” Sorry.
#2 should be “Super Soakers Novels Magazine.”
September 12th, 2017 at 4:35 pm
#2 Life wasn’t easy for a ‘Dime-a-dance’ hall girl with the circus in town. “Get your damn dirty paw off me, ya great ape, I mean bear…”
September 12th, 2017 at 4:55 pm
#1 “Kneel before Grod.”
September 12th, 2017 at 5:11 pm
1. Is homo there eating a banana or a corn on the cob?
2. 1941? Then it’s a World War II metaphor. The American and the Russian ape are stopping the Nazi animal from raping lady Europe.
September 12th, 2017 at 5:14 pm
That second one gives me a Showbiz Pizza kind of vibe.
September 12th, 2017 at 5:17 pm
@Raoul—Let’s update that #2 to be the American and the European ape are trying to stop the Russian bear from violating Lady Trump.
September 13th, 2017 at 12:17 am
On cover 1 we have a sinisterly smiling simian mad scientist with an unwilling subject, done in the style of an elementary school art project with pastels.
On cover 2 we have a giant ape in a polar bear mask menacing an attractive woman in a red dress as a man and another ape, both wielding odd-looking guns, look on. Oh, and that disembodied hand is actually the mask-wearing ape’s foot.
I would have to say, cover 2 is somewhat more interesting, but only slightly
September 13th, 2017 at 7:35 am
@DSWBT: Ah, the critter’s foot! Makes sense. The shading just kinda failed there.
@BC: I think it’s more like the European ape and Justin Trudeau are trying to keep the Russian bear from violating America. Maybe the disembodied, unnatural hand is Trump, squashed under the Russians.
Or maybe, since the attacking critter has ridiculous hair and no discernible hands or manners, and is grabbing Lady America (Miss USA?), critter is Trump.
Yeah, I’m gonna go with that last one.
September 13th, 2017 at 8:20 am
Q: What is “Super-Science,” really?
A: Science with lots of ray guns, big rocketships, and damsels in distress.
Q: Huh??
A: You know… overcompensation.
September 13th, 2017 at 12:26 pm
Those aren’t ray guns. They’re shooting pub darts.
September 14th, 2017 at 4:59 am
#2 “honey, take my picture while I sexy-pose in front of this crazy mural!”
September 20th, 2017 at 5:27 pm
@GSS ex-noob. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE! THERE’S NO ESCAPE!