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Dec 12

Doc Brown fires up the pleasure stimulatorClick for larger image

Marvin Comments: It’s the little things, like the crown over the K, that make this cover special.

Published 1962

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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22 Responses to “King of the Fourth Planet”

  1. A.R.Yngve Says:

    I predict a grandiose but dark future for the Burger King franchise.

  2. THX 1139 Says:

    “Bah, I’ll never get the hang of earbuds!”

  3. Bibliomancer Says:

    @THX – This is Apple’s I-machine. It uses brainbuds.

  4. fred Says:

    I have-never heard this particular ‘walk into a bar’ joke before, but I am sure the punch-line involves a -hyphen-.

  5. Francis Boyle Says:

    At first I thought John Wayne of Mars was wearing an eyepatch, but on closer inspection I decided that Doc Brown decked him one for trying to steal his I-machine*. (Yeah, Apple gets very lazy in the future with their naming.)

    *I-machine, L-machine – we may never know.

  6. NomadUK Says:

    Landru needs to stop surfing for porn.

  7. Verylatetotheparty Says:

    @Bibliomancer: There’s going to be a big product recall. He looks like he’s being electrocuted by his faulty I-machine.

    This cover would make me buy this book, the blurb too, and I really want to know what’s on the other side.

  8. Tor Mented Says:

    Did someone invent the smotherboard?

  9. Bruce A Munro Says:

    The I-Machine: self-actualization made easy!

    @VerylatetotheParty: that’s just Mad Scientist hair.

    If the guy with the spear is the man-wolf, I’m not particularly impressed: he looks more like a punch-drunk boxer. [1] He should at least have some facial hair. Is he doing the “surrounded by laser beams” thing? Or is he (looks more closely) surrounded by fierce oscilloscope displays?

    [1] Apologies if the term is no longer PC

  10. Ryan Says:

    Verylate, it looks like it was Cosmic Checkmate: https://www.amazon.com/King-Fourth-Planet-Cosmic-Checkmate/dp/B001OOE0LQ

    Another GSS-worthy cover, from the looks of it on the website.

  11. Verylatetotheparty Says:

    @Bruce A M: With all that electricity arcing around their laboratories, and also being a bit mad, maybe frequent electrocution is the reason Mad Scientists have hair like that.

    @Ryan, That’s an impressive B side.

  12. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @Verylatetotheparty: you may well have put your thumb on what the artists were thinking. Of that, and of Albert Einstein. https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,h_348,w_620,x_0,y_80/f_auto,q_auto,w_1100/v1555927466/shape/mentalfloss/einstein10_0.jpg

  13. GSS ex-noob Says:

    “That’s super early Sixties!” I thought, and yes.

    I think they used the Blurbinator (TM) to create that blurb

    I am firmly of the opnion that that’s an evil Doc Brown. Or possibly Peter Weller in a fright wig. Either one could have borrowed the hair from John Lithgow on the Buckaroo Banzai set?

  14. Verylatetotheparty Says:

    @Bruce A M: Albert’s hair must be the envy of Mad Scientists everywhere, but – aaw, he looks more like a design for a ‘My Little Mad Scientist’ doll than a proper Evil Mad Scientist.

  15. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Vlttp: Albert wasn’t evil, so he had Regular Mad Scientist hair. I wonder, did Mad Scientists have hair like that before him, or did he originate the trope

    Evil Mad Scientists have hair like the guy on this cover, and also the crazy eyes.

    @Bruce: Man-Wolf-Boxer looks to be descending a (sketchy) staircase into the EMS’ lair, maybe to stab him while EMS is distracted by the I-machine and/or the porn on it.

    Apparently we’ve all got the wrong end of the pole weapon from this, though!

    http://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2016/03/king-of-fourth-planet.html

  16. Bruce A Munro Says:

    Huh. If he were a Martian it might be explicable as Martian hair, but John Rolf – only one “e” away from Pocahontas’ husband – doesn’t sound very Martian. I’m just going to go with “fabulous anime-inspired hair styles of the FUTURE.”

  17. Longtime_Lurker Says:

    GSSxn @15: that’s a fascinating page you linked to. I loved this bit: “all of the surrealism forced to stand in a straight line and act like a proper narrative.”.

  18. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @L_L: Exactly how I like my surrealism.

    If I ever come across this book/s, I’m picking it up.

  19. JJYoyo Says:

    A god-king, a man-wolf and an I-machine walk into a bar….

    Also, what is the difference between a man-wolf and a wolfman? Does the I-machine have the answer? The god-king?

    Also, if the king were such an awesome god, he’d come up with a better name for his kingdom than “the 4th planet.” Lame!

  20. Leak Says:

    I didn’t know they had tacky VST plugins and DAWs in 1962 – but that’s what I see on those tablets that the head is plugged into…

  21. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @JJYoyo: it’s part of a Prince-type rebrand. It’s now “The planet formerly known as Mars”, you see.

    Is a Sea Wolf just a Man-Wolf on a boat? Or does it require some sort of sailor licensing?

  22. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: And what of the Space-Wolf and Star-Wolf? Do they need astronaut training?

    (it is already established that a Wolfman is Lon Chaney, or else blasts the hits of this era from a Mexican station)

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