70s Sci-Fi Art

Atlantis

Much like the Bermuda triangle, Bigfoot, and the psychic powers of plants, serious discussions of Atlantis seem to have dwindled down to nothing since the '70s and '80s. But maybe it would be more fair to say that they've gotten less fun because, much like any

Cloudscapes

Sweeping landscapes and planetary marvels are mainstays of science fiction illustration, so it's little wonder that clouds and cloudscapes are a reoccurring theme. Big billowing clouds can add depth and texture to any landscape, and in science fiction or space art, they're just as likely be

Trains of the Past

I wrote about the trains of the future last week. That post was originally just going to be about all trains in science fiction, but a strange revelation hit me during the process: There's a sharp distinction between future trains and past trains. Futuristic trains are all about

Trains of the Future

High-speed trains, elevated trains, magnetic trains – they're all cool concepts from a futuristic world that cares about the environment and efficient public transport. Plus, they just look good. Check out the "Moonline" here. Or the double-decker train in this artwork by Don Lawrence, commissioned in 1989

Chris Moore (1947-2025)

Science fiction cover artist Chris Moore passed away earlier this month. Moore's covers were a major factor in shaping the sleek, airbrushed spaceships that defined the science fiction genre in the UK across the '70s, the '80s, and the '90s. I post his artwork regularly

Bug Aliens in Love

It's Valentine's day week, and you all know what that means. That's right, we're talking about bug aliens. This issue, we'll be semi-debunking a popular Tumblr post about a human astronaut and his humanoid bug-headed girlfriend. It started back in

Sci-Fi Vikings

Today's theme is inspired by yet another request made to my Tumblr: Someone out there is looking for "an old image from a book cover of a group of 'Space' Vikings leading their horses of a ramp of a space-ship. It was from a science

The Peter Max Astrologicalendar

Peter Max: The groovy, cosmic, psychedelic icon who hit the counter-culture like a bottle rocket circa 1967. A scant few years later in 1970, he'd moved on from hippie flyers to entire exhibitions and Life magazine covers. And calendars. The Peter Max 1971 Astrologicalendar Calendar was printed up

Flasks and Test Tubes

I was just on a Helmut Wenske kick the other day – he's a groovy German surrealist who did a lot of album covers in the 1970s – and this one got me thinking about the humble flask. The "mad scientist" is among the once-popular science fiction tropes

Portals

I probably don't have to explain why portals make cool sci-fi covers. They're a fun visual, they invite the reader in with a story hook – what's through that door? – and, like space helmet reflections, they provide a simple way for an artist to depict

2025

What year would you pick when writing a science fiction story set in the future? Many writers want a relatively recognizable world, so they only go 30-50 years forward. As a result, we've been passing the dates of 70s/80s/90s-era sci-fi futures consistently for a while: 2015

My 2024 Christmas Gift: Desktop Backgrounds and Phone Wallpapers

Last year, I did a sci-fi-themed gift guide for the holiday season – you can check it out here. However, in all honesty, I'm not much of a physical gift giver, and it was hard work to put it together. This year, to save me from tears, I'

Spherical Red Aliens

I received one of my occasional requests a while back, from someone trying to track down a 70s paperback cover illustration. The description? It featured "creatures (Martians) in the shape of red balls with very long arms and very thin legs." I put out the call on my

Blue Skies

The alien planets that retro science fiction cover artists tend to feature in their landscapes are often weird colors: Trees don't always have to be green and water doesn't have to be blue. Other artworks, however, retain the comforting, natural colors of Earth. Sometimes, adding a

Gas Masks

Gas masks are pretty universally accepted as creepy. More importantly, they have a unique appearance, which is all a cover artist really needs to turn them into a visual trope. For science fiction in particular, gas masks tend to crop up in two main contexts: Protection in a post-apocalypse setting,

Medieval Computers

The kids are into medieval stuff these days. Memes, playlists, mall wizard tiktoks. A social media brand strategist just mentioned "medieval vibes" as a visual trend in a recent interview. A lot of those medieval vibes come with a little 80s-era retro flavor, which adds the extra candy-coating

Colorful Spaceships

I found this 1976 Tim White illustration the other day. It's called 'Enemy Within the Skull' and this particular image was scanned by my art blogger friend Martin L Kennedy, from the 1981 collection The Science Fiction and Fantasy World of Tim White. I was going

Angus McBride

Angus McBride's illustrations always go above and beyond. His subject matter is pretty standard-issue high fantasy and history – he's best known for his cover artworks for Middle Earth Role-Playing (MERP), the first officially licensed JRR Tolkien RPG. While I typically prefer my fantasy art to look

Alien Landscapes

The list of subject matter for book cover art that's universally acknowledged by '70s-'80s publishing art directors to scream "science fiction" is incredibly short: 1) spaceships 2) planets 3) alien landscapes As a result, the quality and volume of commercial illustrations for those

Break Time

In my last email, I said the topic for this next one would be "medieval computers" – I planned on showcasing a 80s/90s retro tech magazine illustration trend for combining the then-cutting edge personal computer with medieval and fantasy themes. But it turns out that I really needed

'Epic' Sci-Fi Art

As you might have noticed from the last few issues, I like using this newsletter to package up tiny, bizarre sub-sets of the much wider retro sci-fi art world. Challenging myself to spend an entire newsletter on something as silly as illustrations of giant teeth or fantastical crucifixions keeps me

Self Portraits

I really enjoy tracking down self-portraits from retro sci-fi artists. Plenty of artists get around to doing a self portrait. Many of these capture some subjective element of how the artist sees themself, or at least how the artist wants others to see themself. I just looked up the French

Giant Bees and Wasps

Someone on Tumblr recently asked me if I knew about an old sci-fi magazine cover featuring guys with guns riding on giant bees. They thought the artist was Virgil Finlay, and they were right. I had actually never seen this one before, but with a little research, I can now

Newsletter

The Adventures of Starbeem and Re-Koil

Here's one of the rare "semi-exclusive-by-virtue-of-obscurity" artworks that I can occasionally reveal in this newsletter. It's one of Edward A. Skrocki's 1967 illustrations for "The Adventures of Starbeem and Re-Koil," written by D. J. Donovan. Full image here: Someone I

Giant Teeth

When it comes to giant teeth in retro science fiction cover art, all conversations must begin (and will basically also end) with Piers Anthony's Prostho Plus. This 1971 comic space opera combines several magazine stories from 1967-1970, all featuring a dentist who does dental work for aliens. The