Sep 26
Click for larger imageBellatrix Art Direction: “I told you over the phone the title was “The Big Guy”. Never mind. It’s easier to change the title than redo the cover.”
Published 1950
(Average: 8.27 out of 10)
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Bellatrix Art Direction: “I told you over the phone the title was “The Big Guy”. Never mind. It’s easier to change the title than redo the cover.”
Published 1950
(Average: 8.27 out of 10)Loading...
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September 26th, 2018 at 9:50 am
I think this may be a job for. . . Space Sheep.
Sheesh, women never know how to dress for the End of the World.
September 26th, 2018 at 10:43 am
The Goodyear Eye was never as popular as the blimp.
September 26th, 2018 at 1:59 pm
Back before the advent of digital cameras, you had to wait until your pictures came back to discover your image of breathless escape from big red eyeballs had been photobombed by aging actors struggling to make the transition to talkies. Tough times, those were. Tough times.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:30 pm
The old dude has a look that says he picked a bad day run out of Depends.
September 26th, 2018 at 2:34 pm
The frightened world seems to have skipped town. Somehow only these three missed the evacuation notice. Perhaps there is a subtle hint as to how they were otherwise occupied.
September 26th, 2018 at 3:27 pm
The Big Eye? Looks more like The Big Nip. I mean the one in the sky.
September 26th, 2018 at 4:03 pm
A smart and fast writer, stealing the descriptive phrase for the Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory which saw first light in 1949.
Excellent book on the subject,
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/534943.The_Perfect_Machine
I think Bow Tie Man should photobomb every GSS cover.
September 26th, 2018 at 4:22 pm
@fred – Time to introduce a new GSS character?
September 26th, 2018 at 5:09 pm
@Fred, @Tag W—I think you are onto something here. Maybe we should have a GSS Naming Contest, although “Bow Tie Man” might be good enough. If he showed up only on covers like this one, we could call him “Nip Slipper.”
Of course, Chinese GSS is sure to steal him and pretend they invented him.
September 26th, 2018 at 5:39 pm
I just got into New York on the red eye, and boy am I tired.
September 26th, 2018 at 5:44 pm
I’m calling it now: giant alien probe. Or a sick Atraxi.
Your choice.
September 26th, 2018 at 5:52 pm
@ B. Chiclitz #5
It’s been a looong time since I read it, but if I recall correctly, you’re not too far off the mark. And that a lot of the rest of the world took the opportunity to be “otherwise occupied” as well.
Mostly I remember that it’s clunky, preachy, anticlimactic, and that it went straight into the donation box as soon as I finished it.
Oh, and I hereby nominate the name “The Squat Bomber.”
September 26th, 2018 at 8:19 pm
@8 Tag and @9 B. – The GSS ‘man in the street’, who will occasionally be asked for the common mans opinion on a cover.
September 26th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
Both “Squat Bomber” and “Man in the Street” are good by me. I think Bibliomancer should be the judge 😉
September 26th, 2018 at 8:44 pm
Whatever you want to name the old man I think there should always be a speech balloon over his head saying “I’ve read this book and the cover is quite accurate”.
September 26th, 2018 at 9:04 pm
My good friend Bellatrix’s “The Big Guy” has its charm. He could also be the “The Corner Codger”. In fact, if the cover layout is right, he could sub for the space sheep like on this classic.
I’ll punt on naming rights until I get the sage counsel of GSS ex-noob.
September 26th, 2018 at 9:28 pm
It’s like the artist was caught up in drawing boobies, but when time ran short he decided to just colour the clothes on.
September 26th, 2018 at 9:58 pm
This is far from scientific, but having placed this guy on a couple random covers, I have to say that there is no artwork he can’t improve.
September 27th, 2018 at 7:25 am
Visine really blew it’s advertising budget on this one.
@7: “I think Bow Tie Man should photobomb every GSS cover.”
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your news letter.
September 28th, 2018 at 2:55 am
@Tag: I like the simplicity of “Bow Tie Man”. We have a lot of big guys here, though I do appreciate Bellatrix’ pun.
Who’s that photobombing your exciting scene? It’s BOW TIE MAN! Slower than molasses in winter, stronger than… nothing, able to shuffle into your photos in a single day. Strange visitor from another decade, it’s BOW TIE MAN!
His facial expression does seem appropriate for the covers we see here.
I hope the tower on the right is actually a giant-sized bottle of Visine to battle the peril.
GSS to all who’ve added him to a previous cover — it’s really what we needed. Bow Tie Man is indeed the man on the street with a strong opinion, and a great addition to so many covers. Long live Bow Tie Man. Or perhaps not, given his age. Unless he’s actually 26 and looking at too many covers has done him in.
I think he’s even better than the floating head of CS Lewis.
February 9th, 2022 at 4:23 am
On the downside, they look like they are being attacked by a giant plunger … from space! Before Marvel Comics, Galactus was an interstellar plumber?
On the upside, young guy’s suit is impeccable: look where the sleeve hits the hand – I envy his tailor! ….. who might the guy in the corner who has to wait another half century for Xanax.
February 9th, 2022 at 5:38 am
@JJYoyo—Thanks. Glad to have a chance to revisit this cover after lo these several years. Bow Tie Man in the Street still cracks me up. Funny to reflect that we were all so happy and chatty in those pre-pandemic days.
February 9th, 2022 at 6:25 am
Could be worse: they don’t have to deal with the annoying irony of a collision with the Happy Face planet. 🙂