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Jan 19

Is that an alien turducken?Click for larger image

Ryan Comments: Is the first of the stories about restraining a gigantic alien and performing multiple amputations, in space?

Published 1987

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: 7.86 out of 10)
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19 Responses to “Sector General”

  1. fred Says:

    Don’t worry sir, just concentrate on the theme song until we can get this sorted out.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nArihv2PaP4

  2. Bruce A Munro Says:

    “It’s just a flesh wound!”

  3. THX 1139 Says:

    “I’ll get the main course, you get the greens.”

  4. A. R. Yngve Says:

    “I’m still President! I won the election! Best voting results ever! Fake news…!”

  5. A. R. Yngve Says:

    Somewhere — somewhere close — a cosplayer is thinking about how to pull this off.

  6. Francis Boyle Says:

    Looks like someone forgot their safeword.

  7. MakkaPakka Says:

    Good to see that future space-fashion includes Uggs with stiletto heels and natty button down flaps. I look forward to it.

  8. Bibliomancer Says:

    They sure sectored the hell out of that guy

  9. Cornelius Says:

    After Rainbow was cancelled, Bungle really hit the skids.

  10. Bruce A Munro Says:

    “Wonderful, grandpa is telling that ‘Spawn today have it too easy! I was stranded on a desolate planet and forced to eat my own tentacles to survive after my ship was overrun with space Kudzu!’ story again.”

    @THX 1139: it does look like they’re serving him up on a platter, doesn’t it? And the vegetation spilling out of the ship could be the Bed of Greens…

    @Cornelius: having image googled (I’m not British), I think I will sleep easier at night thinking Bungle is now an amputee. (Why are so many kid’s TV characters creepy-looking?)

  11. Matt Says:

    One of those stumps is not his leg…

  12. B. Chiclitz Says:

    I wonder what the appendage just below his navel originally was.

  13. JuanPaul Says:

    José Andrés is making a quick getaway in the spaceship with a king’s ransom in tentacle tapas.

  14. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Ryan: Actually, yes, it is. It’s in a proper hospital, though, not out in the hinterlands. I might be conflating a couple of the stories, though.

    This was a good (as long as you overlooked the fact that there was apparently only one woman in the entire medical corps), long-running series, which usually appeared in much more attractive covers.

    Looks like a bit of the title had to be amputated to fit on the cover too.

    @MakkaPakka: Not actually stiletto, just very padded moon boots.

    @BC: Who says that’s his navel? Or that he’s a he?

    @ARY (4): GSS!!!

  15. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @GSS ex-noob: it’s a giant space station hospital floating in space, but they do a fair bit of travel to pick up patients and provide on-site help on planets. (In at least one case, because the patients are too damn large to fit in the hospital).

    It’s actually a fairly accurate depiction of several elements of one of the stories, IIRC, but frankly it’s a bit torture-porny in appearance. I mean, look at those meaty looking stumps – don’t they even have space-bandages?

  16. Tracy Says:

    I’d expect the patient to look like he was in pain, but instead he just looks mighty pissed the space EMTs didn’t get there quickly enough.

  17. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Bruce: They had Super Future Medicine on their giant space station, including spray-on bandages and proper Space Ambulance transport with correct species atmosphere for everyone on the ambulances and the hospital. Not a couple guys dragging a sliced-up alien on a stretcher with janky straps out of its piece of junk ship.

    This cover seems to be illustrating the alternate universe where the alien has no insurance and these guys are all he can get. He’s going to Sector Urgent Care Doc In A Box (off the Orion Expressway, two exits down from Discount Space Boots R Us).

    @Tracy: all of which explains the alien’s disgruntled expression.

    You think he’s going to get the finest surgeons and best tentacle replacements? No way. It should have listened to its parent and gone to a university, gotten a decent job…

  18. A.R. Yngve Says:

    Can you IMAGINE the editorial meeting where this cover was approved?

    “Technically, the art is spotless…”
    “Nice color scheme…”
    “It’s faithful to the story…”
    “A bit of nudity, but we can get away with that…”
    “I like how the artist covered the alien nipples with the leather straps… very tasteful…”
    “All good… but still something’s bothering me… can’t put my finger on it…”
    “A-HA!”
    “What? What’s wrong with it?”
    “There are no SAFETY RAILINGS near the open hatch on the spaceship! Look, the spacemen could slip and fall!”
    “I see… but let’s pretend we never saw that.”
    “Off to the printer, then!”

  19. Monty Says:

    “Is the first of the stories about restraining a gigantic alien and performing multiple amputations, in space?”

    Not the first, but otherwise, plausible — this was Space Hospital Drama. Details here

    https://lileks.com/misc/scifi/25.html

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