Weird Horses and Other Steeds
I love all the details in Richard Clifton-Dey's 1973 cover art for The Wizard of Venus, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The green-yellow gradient sky; those garbled, mist-shrouded buildings in the background.
But the creature design is the main attraction: The bug eyes, the endless scream, the dinnerplate feet, the oddly human-like hair. This alien steed is 90% horse – possibly the most offputting percentage of horse to be.
There are a lot of horse-like steeds in retro sci-fi art. This next one's sadly uncredited: Lookcaitlin surfaced it from a scan of LOGiN Magazine's September 1987 issue.
I don't speak Japanese, but this looks like a review of the multiplayer game M.U.L.E., with the illustration featuring the titular robotic beasts of burden, the "Multiple Use Labor Elements."
The illustration was likely done by a Japanese artist specifically for the magazine, since I don't see it on any of the game covers listed online. I also like this 1990 NES cover by Gary Ruddell, even if that particular beast looks a lot more like a mule than a M.U.L.E.
I love Frank Kelly Freas' surrealistic interpretation of Pegasus for the July 1973 cover to Analog.
Freas had already done a more unsettling horse for the same magazine's Feb 1968 issue.
And Freas did some particularly toothy horse-like alien steeds on the back cover of Galileo Magazine #14, in September 1979.
Whoever the uncredited artist was for this 1974 cover to Andre Norton's Star Gate, they nailed the "creepy slightly alien horse" mandate simply by adding another set of glowing green eyes.
I'm not quite sure if the steeds in Rodney Matthews' 1980 artwork “Obsidian Castle” are horses or not. I think they're wearing dragon-shaped armor.
Are mules and horse-aliens too normal for you? Try getting into more bovine aliens instead, like this gentle monstrosity by Tim White.
Or the warrior woman on this charging bull by Chris Achilleos, a 1989 revision of an earlier work from 1984.
Bruce Pennington has a fairly bovine alien steed here, but with sort of a lizard-like head.
Morris Scott Dollens' cover art to Spaceway magazine's May-June 1970 issue appears to be featuring a steed from Barsoom, judging from the six legs.
Dinosaur-like lizards are popular steeds, too. Here's a Moebius.
They're great for travelling through hellscapes, judging from this Den Beauvais art.
I included this beautiful big lizard by Peter Elson in my art book.
You can always saddle up your local gastropod, as Rodney Matthews illustrates for this 1976 cover.
Okay, I think a snail is about as far as I can go stretch the concept of a "steed."
Let's wrap up on a few more horse-like rides, starting with one of my all-time favorites: The eldritch robotic horse on this Roger Dean poster from the pages of Science Fiction Monthly. I tried getting this one in my art collection, but sadly wasn't able to get in contact with Dean.
Finally, check out Keith Robson's Starblazer #146 cover. Zebra unicorn!
Cool Links
How Bone got licensed in Disney Adventures magazine in the 90s - Sktchd
You guys should all read the Bone graphic novels if you haven't yet. I'm a little obsessed with them, so I enjoyed this story of how Disney Adventures was a big step on the way out of indie comics obscurity.
The History of The Onion You Didn't Know You Needed - Culture Study
And for the "interesting media history" double feature, an interview with the author of a book on satire news group The Onion.
Make that triple feature. This one's an interview with a guy behind an entire magazine issue on Disney plagarism. Yes, of course it contains the phrase "Disneyland memorial orgy."
Music rec: Anyone know any good all-bangers Spotify playlists? Reply to this email with a link and I'll check it out. Here's mine: Bangers for your next globe-trotting adventure
Next Time: Smoking in Sci-Fi