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Oct 06

Best... musical.... ever....Click for full image

GK comments: Donkey Kong meets Short Round.
Published 1983

Many thanks to GK!

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: 7.97 out of 10)
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20 Responses to “Wall Around a Star”

  1. SI Says:

    The back has flying fish!

    http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/1/13/WLLRNDSTRH1983.jpg

    I love this cover, it’s so busy. The man on the cover clearly had to choose a strange creature to take with him, so he choose the closest ancestor.

  2. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    Quite agree. I like the eyeball serpent with the fairy wings. She seems quite enthralled by the Comic Sans-type font.

    I think admin is right, this would make a phenomenal musical: “The wall around a star is tall; a smaller wall would fail and fall…”

  3. Evad Says:

    Big Eye creature wins my heart. But how does it get food to the tiny mandibles without bruising the eye? Maybe there’s hidden arms to match the hidden legs.

    Ape Lad’s outfit is so endearing – (Full disclosure: I wear socks just like those). And the way Our Hero comfortingly holds AL’s hand – shows strength and compassion.

    Classic Good Show – The Musical

  4. Brian B. Says:

    Okay then we must cast this musical! For the diva monster in the back it must be Diana Ross, or possibly Tina Tuner. Who else shall we cast?

  5. Evad Says:

    @Brian B.
    Although Charlton Heston is no longer with us – and probably wasn’t much of a crooner even when he was alive – I see him as the male lead here. Good experience with sentient apes – a big plus.

  6. Adam Roberts Says:

    I think the guy in khaki looks like a young Martin Landau. I also think that if he were to unbend his right leg and put his foot on the ground it would reveal itself to be ten inches shorter than the left leg.

  7. Tom Noir Says:

    Art direction: lots of weird creatures, aliens, eyeballs, etc. Make sure everything has wings.

  8. NGpm Says:

    Now for the big number:

    when you wall around a star, makes no difference *what* you are

    I can even hear that being sung in Heston’s “let my people go” neck straining delivery style!

  9. Morgan C Says:

    Hey Doctor Chimp is a great character and Ben Pertin isn’t bad either! This cover on the other hand…

  10. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Imagine the cry of agony from that one-eyed thingy, when one of the other characters just happen to kick up some dust…

    “AAAGGHH MY EYE MY EYE MY EYEEEE!!!”

  11. Herm Says:

    Wall Around A Star – The Musical? There’d better be a big number about Dyson spheres.

  12. Brian B. Says:

    Hmm, what rhymes with Dyson?

    Bison,

    Mike Tyson,

    License (sort of),

    My sin,

    I think this is shaping up to be an awesome number! Think we could get Helena Bonham Carter to voice the winged snake/tentacle thingie?

  13. Stuart Says:

    It’s Martin Landau’s Space: 1999 era haircut mixed up with Bruce Campbell’s chin.

    The rest of the face is still up for grabs.

  14. SI Says:

    Herm & Brian> “Don’t you Cry Son… you’ll get your Dyson”

    I should write musicals.

  15. Tat Wood Says:

    (To the tune ‘Bad Moon Rising’)

    I sing of Freeman Dyson
    I see a wall around a star
    Satellites are forming the horizon
    Sunlight can only get so far

    They’ll put out the light
    Solar power will fuel their flight
    There’s a barrier on the rise.

    Far off somebody’s got their eyes on
    Starlight that’s suddenly obscured
    Can’t stop astronomers surmisin’
    ET’s whole lebensraum’s assured

    Star went out tonight
    Dyson Sphere took all the light
    There’s a barrier on the rise

  16. Tom Noir Says:

    A bandanna AND a bib? This fellow must be a very sloppy eater.

  17. A.R.Yngve Says:

    Donkey Kong has really let himself go.

  18. Ryan Says:

    Donkey Kong’s suede loafers win my heart.

    But the striped knee socks, circus vest, and leiderhosen complete the ensemble to great effect when topped off by the handkerchief-under-Civil-War cap.

    Also, his expression and body language as he pleads with Martin Landau, “Oh, God! Why do you dress me like this?”

  19. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @Ryan: “We humans genetically uplifted you to give you the wondrous gift of conscious sapience. Therefore, it’s only fair we get to dress you in cute outfits.”

  20. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Ryan: those are cotton gym socks, for sure. Poor ape seems to be dressed from the lost and found box. I’m not sure why he’s got a French Foreign Legion hat on either. Or why his fur’s all patchy.

    Or what he and Martin Landau are doing in the company of demonic winged creature — who, judging by the figures on the left, is a flying monkey?

    Or how decorative-winged eyeball tentacle fits into it all.

    @Tat (15): Belated GSS!

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