Surface Reflections

I wrote about space helmet reflections in this newsletter back in 2020, a topic that I later turned into one of my favorite sections in my 2023 art book Worlds Beyond Time.

However, seven years later, I still haven't written about other types of reflections in retro speculative art. The (mostly) flat surfaces in question tend to be bodies of water, metal, or mirrors.

Let's dive in with pools and pool reflections. Here's one of my favorites: Mike Hinge's Summer 1975 cover to Algol #24.

It's also hard to beat Mark Harrison's 1986 cover to Seamus Cullen's A Noose of Light, which uses the bathtub reflection as a storytelling tool to highlight the magical fantasy readers should expect.

And it's hard to go wrong when include a six-limbed alien tabby cat along with a pool, as George Barr does for this adorable 1979 print, "Quiet Muse."

Barr even includes a reflection of his own signature in the lower left-hand corner.

Shiny, polished steel and glass were common features in Syd Mead's artwork – partially because some of it was literally concept work for the company US Steel – so you can expect some reflective surfaces.

All the people in this Syd Mead scene are only visible as reflections in the burnished side of an entertainment deck (or fridge? unclear).

Mirrors are a simple way to introduce surreal elements into a painting by depicting two different versions of the same or a similar individual. Here's Leo and Diane Dillon's 1975 cover to Harlan Ellison's No Doors, No Windows.

Here's another Leo & Diane Dillon featuring a mirror – it's illustrating an enchanted mirror from "Catskinella," a story within a 1995 collection of African American folktales called "Her Stories" by Virginia Hamilton.

My favorite from the duo is this 1989 cover for Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West, by Morris Berman. I'm actually persuing this one for inclusion in my upcoming science fiction art collection – I think it's a great representation of the Dillons' beautiful, humanistic detail.

Don Maitz's 1980 cover for Tanith Lee's Day by Night includes both a reflective pool and a mirror (or perhaps that's a portal).

Even giant alien superstructures can be mirrors.

Here's a 1973 Dean Ellis cover depicting a few explorers grappling with "an enormous concave mirror built by unknown alien beings" on a rogue planet that enters the solar system in the titular short story from the collection The Men and the Mirror, by Ross Rocklynne.

Cool Links

You should check out City of God - Aftermath

Good movie rec! The 2002 gangster coming-of-age drama City of God has the juice.

A Short History of International SF Magazines - SF in Translation

Internationally focused science fiction magazines don't tend to last long, from Frederik Pohl’s International Science Fiction (two issues, 1967-1968) to Alex Shvartsman’s Future Science Fiction Digest (2018-2022).

Music Rec: Inkio - Yosemite (Song For The Ahwahnechee) Just found out about this artist and I like everything I've heard so far.

Next Time: Alex Schomburg (paid tier only)