Coffee, Tea, and Drinks

This week's topic comes from this gorgeous illustration I stumbled on recently when it was posted on Twitter by @doberes. It's by Gage Lindsten, and it's actually from a 2020 book by Healing Tales. It looks straight out of the 90s, though! Love it.

It got me thinking about the various teas and coffees that I've seen in 70s-90s sci-fi art over the years, so I figured I'd round up my favorites. Top of the list has to be David Schleinkofer's 1989 cover for Nightside City, y Lawrence Watt-Evans.

Moody, detailed, and with the self-heating mug directly in the center of the frame: This couldn't be a better ad for the future of coffee if it tried.

I have to assume that the art director wanted this scene to be at night in reference to the title of the book, because check out how dismal and muddy the artwork was on the actual book cover. Yeesh.

Here's another illustration, by Gary Meyer, that used the same "contemplative view of a city over a cuppa" concept. I couldn't find a publication for it, but judging from the jokey movie title On Golden Pond: Part V, it must have been created in 1981 or shortly afterwards.

A friend group get-together is another good reason to feature some drinks in your sci-fi art: Here's Mike Gilbert’s 1971 cover to the Program Book for “Noreascon,” the name given to the 29th World Science Fiction Convention, held September 2–6, 1971, in Boston.

The guy in this Moebius artwork doesn't appear to have had his morning coffee yet.

The glass itself takes center stage for this 1973 cover art for Earth’s Other Shadow, by Robert Silverberg. It's uncredited – possibly Paul Lehr.

This one doesn't feature coffee, but I'm throwing it in because it was created as an ad for a Brooklyn coffee house, called Ground Zero. It's by Leo and Diane Dillon, 1969.

Ah, that classic third drink, after coffee and tea: Blood. This is Rowena Morrill's very first cover illustration, done in 1977 for Jane Parkhurst's Isobel.

Okay, I've put it off long enough. The truth is that, when it comes to drinks and science fiction illustration, most of them are alcoholic. I don't want this post to turn into nothing but bar scenes, since these illustrations alone could be a post or three, so I'll just include my favorite, this cool Jack Gaughan.

For non-bar alcohol scenes, I've arranged the next four artworks in order of least to most depressing. First, we have this uncredited Nov 1985 Yugoslavian computer magazine cover:

This January 1976 cover by David A. Hardy for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

This Alfred Kelsner illustration for a Perry Rhodan novel:

Mike Hinge's the final panel for “…Rears Its Ugly Green Head,” by Mike Hinge and Neal Adams, published in the July 1979 issue of Heavy Metal magazine.

Finally, we end on a return to the "contemplative futuristic scene" theme with this stately private commission by David A. Hardy. It's depicting a balcony on the planet Terminus, from Asimov’s Foundation series.

It's springtime, when a young blogger's fancy turns to thoughts of monitization. More specifically, I wanted to try something new and share an affiliate link to Nuts.com, a website that will mail a bunch of snacks to your door. Use that link and you'll get $20 off your first order of $59. It's a good deal if you're the sort of person who will spend $40 on snacks, and you'd be helping me get a $20 store credit.

It's US/Canada-only, but I've been using it for years and I genuinely recommend it. You might like the Burbon Street mix if you want something savory, but you absolutely have to try the S'mores Pretzels; they're incredible. Goes great with your future coffee as you stare out at Nightside City with your foot up on the windowsill.

Music recommendation: Head Trip - Lo-fi Psychedelic Bliss

Next Time: The Lookcaitlin Interview