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 topics is too vast to really be summed up easily. That makes them somewhat of a blind spot for this newsletter. So, for this issue, I'm just rounding up a non-representative grab-bag of some of my favorite landscapes, along with a few thoughts on what's so cool about them.
Let's start back in 1955 with Richard Powers' cover art for Hell's Pavement, by Damon Knight. Surrealism was huge in '50s science fiction covers, largely thanks to Powers' influence. When you're trying to build the iconography of modern sci-fi, you gotta start by throwing realism out the window.
Here's "Pluto and Charon," by Bob Eggleton. Early '90s, I think. Quiet, contemplative scene on the edge of the solar system.
Danny Flynn always packs a ton of detail into his art, which makes for lush landscapes. This one's 50% spheres.
Roger Dean is the GOAT of science fiction landscapes. With great effort, I'll withstrain myself to three examples here.
Here's one for my UK readers: Artist Gordon Archer did these six Doctor Who backgrounds specifically for the backs of Weetabix boxes in 1975. Told you this issue was a grab-bag.
Here's Jack Gaughan's 1978 dust jacket art for a series of Andre Norton books. Fun bold colors, a lone astronaut with an alien pet to serve as the spine of the book, and a spaceship and domed outpost that both look inspired by John Schoenherr's work.
A Jack Kirby two-page spread for Thor #133, featuring Ego the Living Planet.
A cool Paul Lehr artwork. It's titled "Rebellion at War Central" according to the MoonZeroTwo tumblr, but I couldn't find more info online.
Steve R Dodd's ‘The Beacon’ is another quiet outer space scene similar to the Eggleton above, but with the addition of one subtle sci-fi element. It was "originally displayed in NASA’s 25th anniversary art show, Cleveland Museum of Natural History (1980s)," according to Martin L Kennedy, who has posted a ton of unpublished artworks by Dodd on his tumblr over here.
Finally, here's Bruce Pennington's beautiful trippy landscape, "The Plains of Tartarus," as seen in The Flights of Icarus, 1977, by Donald Lehmkuhl with Martyn and Roger Dean. Endlessly fascinating subject matter here.
Fun fact: This image is actually the cover for my own art collection, Worlds Beyond Time! It's zoomed in and cropped, but if you take a look, you'll spot it.
Hey, speaking of my book, now's a great time to pick up a copy for your holiday gift buying! There might be a bigger, more diverse retro sci-fi art book that came out in the past two years, but if there is, I haven't heard of it.
Next Time: Angus McBride.