What is the Gun-Having But Sword-Waving Hero wearing, exactly? A leather muscle onesie? “Ay, tanner, make me a harness for my weapons that also covers my bits while at the same time will chafe my crevices like a mofo!”
Furthermore, the space between the nose and lips on the Big Head – doesn’t that seem like a LOT of space? If he grows a moustache, he will be more manly than Stacy Keach with that surface area.
That wonder gem (Gray Morrow took before he painted this cover) was the key to a world of adventure (6 decades later when Ryan shared said cover with the GSS gang).
Seriously tho, who doesn’t love a Gray Morrow cover? I would have totally bought this book for the cover.
I think we’ve seen this before – Scenery Face, in which part of the Floating Head becomes a window into some extra setting scenery/plot elements. Embiggening this, there appear to be two suns, some trees, and a rather flamboyant spaceship. The gem is a bit ambiguous: is it supposed to be on the Head’s forehead? Is it another plot element just randomly stuck in there? Or is the pale blue girl levitating it?
(Also, when embiggened, the girl on the right seems to have a rather bored pout.)
Pretty, but a bit cluttered in one spot and perhaps too much dirty-looking empty space elsewhere.
Embiggening it also reveals our gun-totin’ swordsman to be none other than Doug McClure, nearly a decade before he embarked on a career of drilling to the Moon in a U-boat.
A world of boring, blah adventure. And painful codpieces.
@Max: Instant flashback for me.
@Tor: Agreed. Especially when he might be fighting a giant head. Or, really, anything. Please see the memoirs of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. for a perfect example.
@Tat: I’m given to understand that efforts to get English people to speak Welsh often isn’t as successful either. But good on DDV for working on it.
I myself am currently brushing up on my Scottish Gaelic via DuoLingo, and the orthography and noises one has to make are… challenging. I will never get lenition 100% correct. Latin was much easier. And so is Spanish, but not Castilian, because I’m not gonna lisp and nobody this side of the pond talks that way, particularly my swell neighbors. (I’m not even trying my other neighbors’ Hindi and Mandarin.) I do my SG lessons just before bed, which means my dreams are filled with CH.
@Ryan: Agreed on both your points. Chafing was my first thought. Even if the puffy leather is smooth side in, yikes. It’s the realization of the leather jockstrap joke. Plus, look how low his gunbelt is. The naughty bits are in incredible pain, even if he’s like a Ken doll down there.
As for the giant head, it’s clearly not human, so huge upper lip area might be standard. His RBF isn’t helping. A manly mustache would let him be more terrifying and macho. Even Stacy as Mike Hammer would think twice (and then use his trusty revolver).
Is the green gem embedded in his forehead, orbiting him, or is it a gem-shaped beach ball that sitting bimbo is rebounding at a rock concert?
@Bruce: “Scenery Face” would include so many covers we’ve seen here. I agree about the cluttering vs. dirty grey space. The spaceship could be a fancy rocket, or it could be a gutted fish hanging up lengthwise.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story “Flash of Two Worlds!”
He also gets a mention as a bad writer in Nick Lowe’s legendary essay “The Well-Tempered Plot Device” (a must-read for all true GSS fans): https://news.ansible.uk/plotdev.html
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May 9th, 2024 at 10:42 am
Theft you say?
https://www.previewsworld.com/SiteImage/MainImage/STK463898
May 9th, 2024 at 11:58 am
‘Have you got a mirror? It feels like I’ve got something in my eye.’
May 9th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
The hero who has a gun but decides to use a sword is the universal symbol for “don’t bother reading.”
May 9th, 2024 at 4:00 pm
The next programme is in Welsh and on certain transmitters only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C63FUQkbI54
Attempts to get Americans to speak Welsh don’t always go this well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxih6CN62V0
May 9th, 2024 at 4:01 pm
What is the Gun-Having But Sword-Waving Hero wearing, exactly? A leather muscle onesie? “Ay, tanner, make me a harness for my weapons that also covers my bits while at the same time will chafe my crevices like a mofo!”
Furthermore, the space between the nose and lips on the Big Head – doesn’t that seem like a LOT of space? If he grows a moustache, he will be more manly than Stacy Keach with that surface area.
May 9th, 2024 at 6:23 pm
That wonder gem (Gray Morrow took before he painted this cover) was the key to a world of adventure (6 decades later when Ryan shared said cover with the GSS gang).
Seriously tho, who doesn’t love a Gray Morrow cover? I would have totally bought this book for the cover.
May 9th, 2024 at 6:47 pm
That is one grumpy looking Romulan.
May 9th, 2024 at 7:05 pm
I think we’ve seen this before – Scenery Face, in which part of the Floating Head becomes a window into some extra setting scenery/plot elements. Embiggening this, there appear to be two suns, some trees, and a rather flamboyant spaceship. The gem is a bit ambiguous: is it supposed to be on the Head’s forehead? Is it another plot element just randomly stuck in there? Or is the pale blue girl levitating it?
(Also, when embiggened, the girl on the right seems to have a rather bored pout.)
Pretty, but a bit cluttered in one spot and perhaps too much dirty-looking empty space elsewhere.
May 9th, 2024 at 10:21 pm
Embiggening it also reveals our gun-totin’ swordsman to be none other than Doug McClure, nearly a decade before he embarked on a career of drilling to the Moon in a U-boat.
May 9th, 2024 at 11:04 pm
@Tor: ‘…but NOT the giant head they rode in on.’ really would have been too much of a stretch I suppose.
May 9th, 2024 at 11:22 pm
A world of boring, blah adventure. And painful codpieces.
@Max: Instant flashback for me.
@Tor: Agreed. Especially when he might be fighting a giant head. Or, really, anything. Please see the memoirs of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. for a perfect example.
@Tat: I’m given to understand that efforts to get English people to speak Welsh often isn’t as successful either. But good on DDV for working on it.
I myself am currently brushing up on my Scottish Gaelic via DuoLingo, and the orthography and noises one has to make are… challenging. I will never get lenition 100% correct. Latin was much easier. And so is Spanish, but not Castilian, because I’m not gonna lisp and nobody this side of the pond talks that way, particularly my swell neighbors. (I’m not even trying my other neighbors’ Hindi and Mandarin.) I do my SG lessons just before bed, which means my dreams are filled with CH.
@Ryan: Agreed on both your points. Chafing was my first thought. Even if the puffy leather is smooth side in, yikes. It’s the realization of the leather jockstrap joke. Plus, look how low his gunbelt is. The naughty bits are in incredible pain, even if he’s like a Ken doll down there.
As for the giant head, it’s clearly not human, so huge upper lip area might be standard. His RBF isn’t helping. A manly mustache would let him be more terrifying and macho. Even Stacy as Mike Hammer would think twice (and then use his trusty revolver).
Is the green gem embedded in his forehead, orbiting him, or is it a gem-shaped beach ball that sitting bimbo is rebounding at a rock concert?
@Bruce: “Scenery Face” would include so many covers we’ve seen here. I agree about the cluttering vs. dirty grey space. The spaceship could be a fancy rocket, or it could be a gutted fish hanging up lengthwise.
May 10th, 2024 at 2:14 am
@Tat Wood: perhaps the artist was sure this would soon be a Major Motion Picture and was doing some fantasy pre-casting.
May 10th, 2024 at 2:32 am
@Verylatetotheparty: Yes, it would be. But I was tempted, sorely tempted.
May 10th, 2024 at 4:35 am
Cover of the first Llarn book. Hero upstaged by horse beast, film at 11.
https://goodman-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2-gardner-f-fox-warrior-of-llarn.jpg
May 10th, 2024 at 1:02 pm
@Fred: In that case …
Neither him NOR the horse beast he rode in on.
May 11th, 2024 at 2:01 am
@Tor: Nailed the perfect week! Point of order: that appears to be a zebra-beast, which really adds to the upstaging.
May 13th, 2024 at 4:49 am
Wait a mo.
Does Evil Floating Head with Jewel have a wing growing out of his one visible ear, or is that rocket exhaust?
July 15th, 2024 at 6:13 pm
Gardner F. Fox wrote a LOT. Quote from Goodreads:
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story “Flash of Two Worlds!”
He also gets a mention as a bad writer in Nick Lowe’s legendary essay “The Well-Tempered Plot Device” (a must-read for all true GSS fans):
https://news.ansible.uk/plotdev.html