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Feb 20

Okay Brain-guy, what's the plan?Click for larger image

Pam Comments: David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars bring Brain-Man down to Earth.

Published 1974

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: 4.64 out of 10)
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26 Responses to “The Secret Galactics”

  1. THX 1139 Says:

    “Dang it, we remembered the brain and forgot to buy milk!”

  2. DaveM Says:

    “Watch out, they’ve got pointy sticks!”
    ‘Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!’

  3. fred Says:

    How many Doctors does it take to wheel Davros down a ramp?

  4. Michael Says:

    I love this. I mean, I know it’s crap, but I love it. Looks like a Sun Ra album cover.

  5. Bibliomancer Says:

    Is this 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? I have delivery of one replacement brain for your leader.

  6. Ray P Says:

    Before teal and orange there was purple and yellow.

  7. Paul Says:

    “The *brain* man!” Oops. We brought the Muffin Man!”
    “The Muffin Man?”
    “The Muffin Man.”

  8. JuanPaul Says:

    Now that Brain Man has had his bouncy castle session, he is ready to take on the aliens!

  9. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Michael—kudos on the
    Sun-Ra reference! Possibly this is the image you had in mind. Saw him live once and have never forgotten it.

  10. daard23 Says:

    I remember the first time I used Photoshop’s Paint Bucket too!

  11. Tor Mented Says:

    “Somebody set us up the bombe.

  12. THX 1139 Says:

    “Hey, everyone, our big walnut is here!”

  13. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Tor M, @THX1139— GSS! GSS! 🙂 😉

  14. Tat Wood Says:

    You know, I quite like this one. It’s better than the book deserves.

  15. Francis Boyle Says:

    There’s a typo on the cover. It should read “Only the Brian May could stop the Earth’s take-over”. After all who’s going to defeat a psychedelic alien invasion if not* a prog-rock astrophysicist.

    *Well, yes, probably Sun Ra.

  16. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Brain-Man? Looks more like just a Brain, with accompanying Men.

    Blurb does say it’s a brain in a mechanical body, but only two humans?

    Seconding the GSS to Tor and THX.

    @Francis: I think to be safe, you might want Sun Ra and Brian May both.

    I thought the artist’s signature read “Chancre” at first glance, but no, it’s “Chance”. Make up your own joke to go with my initial thought.

  17. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @GSS ex-noob: that’s the sort of artist that can make you sore?

    The ship looks like a beehive (the well-guarded honeycomb hideout?)

    If it needs two guys to push it around everywhere, it’s hardly a “robot body”: barely makes it to “wheelchair body.”

  18. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: I guess “brain in a box on tea trolley” was too long and uninspiring to print.

  19. Tat Wood Says:

    Oh, all right…

    Unexpected item in bagging area

  20. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Tat: GSS! That explains the annoyed posture of the men. “We’re taking it out, dammit! Bad enough we had to scan this heavy thing.”

  21. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Oh, and as a callback to one of our favorites, namely
    http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=11153

    you can get it (on sale for the next 3 hours) in a single volume with another book by the, er, master.
    https://www.amazon.com/Two-Science-Fiction-Adventures-Six-Gun-ebook/dp/B008LPB532

    Dull cover, though. And it’s Kindle, so doubly safe to read on the bus.

  22. Bruce A Munro Says:

    _Neither_ of those settings make any sense.

  23. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Behold the awesome might of the Brain-Man on his brain-cart!
    Bathe in his splendor! Submit to it!

  24. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @ARY: It’s only a model.

    @Bruce: From what I’ve seen, pretty much none of his SF settings made any sense. That second blurb contains a contradiction in its first 2 sentences — they rode robot horses but wanted to escape technology?

  25. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @A.R. Yngve: he’s no Simon (The Living Brain) Wright.

    (I mean, did he get his own toy? https://www.lulu-berlu.com/upload/image/captain-future—professor-simon-wright—popy-germany-p-image-292007-grande.jpg )

    @GSS ex-noob: this statement

    In On Wheels, the United States has become so overpopulated that a tenth of its people have no home. Instead, they spend their lives on the highway. With all of the dangers of the road, dropping below forty miles per hour would mean certain death—even for men like Billy Spoiler. The clans of the open road spend their lives battling each other for control of the freeway, and the Spoilers are no exception. They never give up, never pull over, and never take their hand off the throttle

    raises so many questions that I am vaguely tempted to get the book just to see if the author answers any of them.

  26. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: Questions like — how do they refuel? What sort of arrangements for replacement parts, food and water, waste disposal, sleep, mating, and childcare* do they have? How do they get anything done if they’ve always got one hand on the throttle (in a car?) and presumably the other on the wheel?

    I would bet maybe 10% of the questions are answered. 25% at the outside

    *”If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes
    And other science facts…”

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