Extended Edition: Alien Nightfall
![Extended Edition: Alien Nightfall](/content/images/size/w2000/2023/10/tumblr_0b3618c15e8c15aac3ca24659e1244bc_708d1173_1280.jpg)
Here's another entry I cut from my art book, and the first one to be about an entire theme rather than a specific artist. Somewhat ironically, I opened this write-up by talking about how rare scenes set at night were, and that same rarity is why I wasn't able to find replacement artists when the ones I wanted fell through for a variety of reasons.
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Nighttime is a rarer concept on ‘70s science-fiction covers than one might think. Perhaps publishers’ common mandate to keep things colorful dissuaded artists from the idea. Maybe it was confusion over whether “night” even exists on a planet where rotation speed, light sources, and atmosphere don’t match Earth’s. Still, it’s easy to see the quiet beauty in a silent alien night, when what you don’t see matters as much as what you do.
The domed outpost, always a popular motif, looks even more vulnerable in contrast with a beautiful but inhospitable darkness, as Steve R. Dodd and Alfred Kelsner both know.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/AHCT3.jpg)
Alien nights also justify flipping on the spaceship searchlights, increasing the exploratory mood, as in Chris Foss’s 1973 art for Isaac Asimov’s Earth Is Room Enough.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/asimov_23.jpg)
Michael Böhme serves up consistently amazing nighttime images, plunging a scene in darkness while outlining a mountain range in dewy light blue or a domed base in warm yellows.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/xl015.jpg)
One work, Pyramidenstadt, brings a night to life with countless stars, glowing foliage, and the twinkling lights of a pyramid city.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_luvgp3BIgh1qdnejuo1_1280.jpg)
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That's all I wrote for that entry!
I cut for a lot of reasons: I was never able to get in touch with Alfred Kelsner, due to both a language barrier and the fact he has no online presence whatsoever; I dropped Michael Böhme because his body of work (mostly '90s-2000s) was too modern; and Chris Foss's licensing fee was one of the pricier ones, so I cut any images that I didn't absolutely need.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/l017.jpg)
I very likely could have gotten the Steve R Dodd, but (I believe) it was unpublished, as Dodd didn't have a long career, making his work a bit off topic for an art collection that aims to be a history of that era. I've linked to this in the past, but check out this short documentary about Dodd for more about him.
Even the one alternate image that I had thrown in – this stellar 1981 cover art by Ken Barr for Night of Masks, by Andre Norton – fell through when I couldn't get in touch with Barr's estate at all.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_59484f2c9ef143c2b5ecea540f99159a_866aeddb_1280.jpg)
There are a few more night-centric sci-fi and space artworks that I could have turned too, but very few that actually capture that "alien landscape" feel. Here's an interesting uncredited one, a 1983 cover for The Spirit of Dorsai, by Gordon R. Dickson:
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_pjwwjeoaq91sndzdgo1_1280.jpg)
This 1976 Don Davis NASA concept is half-nightfall – which highlights how mallable the astronomical concept of "night" itself is.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_cea0ae59f0b8d06c9a2a0623fa4899bc_8cfe2c3c_1280.jpg)
Perhaps this late-70s Battlestar Galactica concept art by Ralph McQuarrie points out why nighttime sci-fi art is rare: I love McQuarrie so much, but this particular piece strikes me as very muddy!
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_c1b44f7c8d84cfa4d87792252c9bdcf5_2b82ec8d_1280.jpg)
Finally, here's a fun, undated Chris Moore. This one's more of an eclipse image than a nighttime one – and eclipses honestly deserve their own newsletter.
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_oar7sxozBE1sndzdgo1_1280.jpg)
I have some more examples over on my "night" tag on Tumblr, if you want to keep looking at some great art. Just look how adorable this one is!
![](https://70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.io/content/images/2023/10/tumblr_4ca0774e0c552b9ae02c424fb155563e_cfb23cbe_1280.jpg)