I splurged a little bit yesterday at the bookstore I work for on this beautiful 1st DAW printing of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly. Dick, drugs and Bob Pepper! How could I not?
Richard Powers was an artist to really make a shift in the SF cover art world in the early 1950’s by introducing a more surrealist look to the genre. Previously, the representation of spacecraft/spacemen/monsters on book covers was pulpy and very literal. Powers’ work isn’t necessarily always recognizable. During his extensive career (ranging from the 1950’s to the 1990’s) he played with many different styles including collage, comic illustration, woodcut, and watercolor. Powers reigned as Ballantine’s SF Art Director during the 1950’s and 60’s with total control of everything from spacing to wording on both front and back covers.
The TIFF Lightbox Theatre in Toronto is currently holding a retrospective on Soviet Sci-Fi films from the Cold War era. Some friends and I took a day to attend Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) and later, Stalker (1979). The retrospective is going on until April. I highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the Toronto area. If not, go rent Stalker.
David Pelham is one of the most instantly recognizable S.F. artists out there. He spent several years as Art Director for Harper’s Bazaar before carrying the same title to Penguin in 1968 for over a decade. On this move, he is quoted as saying “The fashion collections in Paris became very boring”. His iconic A Clockwork Orange cover (this version from 1982, revised from his original 1972 version) is probably his most famous piece.
Michel Houllebecq’s The Possibility of an Island is my favorite book I’ve read in the past year. It being another I picked up because of the cover. The strikingly pleasing cover was designed by John Gall who is also Vice President and Art Director of Vintage/Anchor Books. Chances are, you see a design of his daily on your commute.
The Possibility of an Island is a bleak, dystopian novel which includes a charming touch of misanthropic tendencies. It is based on the Raëlian Movement (which I was beyond excited to discover actually exists). This story offers everything I could ever want: immortality, clones, cults, and in true Houllebecq-style, gratuitous sex.
Iggy Pop told Houllebecq this was the only book he has liked in years, prompting him to base his 2009 album, Preliminaires, on it. I agree with Iggy in that it is an excellent book, but if it’s the only one he’s liked in years, perhaps he should be reading more?
Bob Pepper is one of my all time favorite sci-fi/fantasy artists. Using mainly charcoal and water colors, his colorful images are easily recognizable. I have never come across a cover of his without feeling a gravitational pull towards it. I will post a lot of Pepper covers, so I will keep this one post limited to these Bradbury titles.
And if you haven’t read Farenheit 451 yet now’s the time.
John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up is one of my favorite books I’ve read in the past year. The environmental dystopia offers a frighteningly believable and ultimately devastating glimpse into America’s future. Ballantine’s 1976 cover featuring the work of Murray Tinkelman might not be his most impressive work (check out his H.P. Lovecraft covers), but it did attract me enough to pick up the novel and bring it home.
I don’t know who made this video for Eric Copeland’s 2011 album, Waco Taco Combo, but it’s brilliant. This is what sci fi sounds like.
We were all uprooted
The earth was stolen from beneath our feet
We became a Diaspora
An unnamed nation of bastards
We channeled our roots to the pulse of light
deep within the galaxies of our mind
Our breath was the sky
Our dreams were water
We claimed the wilderness
We recognized each other
-Vangelis