Worlds Beyond Time
Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A visual history of the spaceships, alien landscapes, cryptozoology, and imagined industrial machinery of 1970s paperback sci-fi art
In the 1970s, mass-produced, cheaply printed science fiction novels were thriving. The paper was rough, the titles outrageous, and the cover art astounding. Over the course of the decade, a stable of talented painters, comic book artists, and designers produced thousands of the most eye-catching book covers to ever grace bookstore shelves (or spinner racks). Curiously, the pieces commissioned for these covers often had very little to do with the contents of the books they were selling, but by leaning heavily on psychedelic imagery, far-out landscapes, and trippy surrealism, the art was able to satisfy the same space-race fueled appetite for the big ideas and brave new worlds that sci-fi writers were boldly pushing forward.
In Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s, Adam Rowe—who has been curating, championing, and resurrecting the best and most obscure art that 1970s sci-fi has to offer for more than five years on his blog 70s Sci-Fi Art—introduces readers to the biggest names in the genre, including Chris Foss, Peter Elson, Tim White, Jack Gaughan, and Virgil Finlay, as well as their influences. With deep dives into the subject matter that commonly appeared on these covers—spaceships, alien landscapes, fantasy realms, cryptozoology, and heavy machinery—this book is a loving tribute to a unique and robust art form whose legacy lives on both in nostalgic appreciation as well as the retro-chic design of mainstream sci-fi films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Alien: Covenant, and Thor: Ragnarok.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Rowe's captivating debut spotlights bizarre and breathtaking science fiction cover art from the 1970s and '80s—a "golden age" for the form fueled by increased numbers of titles and a shift from 1960s abstraction to representational art. Each bite-size chapter focuses on a creator or a motif (space elevators, skull planets, giant worms) and combines crisp reproductions of several works with critique. Among other artists, Rowe features Paul Lehr's lush, color-saturated dreamscapes; Jeffrey Catherine Jones's painterly illustrations; and John Berkey's "impressionistic works reminiscent of Claude Monet, but with his lily pond swapped out for attack ships off the shoulder of Orion." Rowe's sharp wit makes for zippy, fun reading, as when he quips that Dungeons and Dragons artist Clyde Caldwell specialized in "warrior women with more fortitude than clothes." The collection sometimes suffers from a lack of coherent organization—the chapters are broken into sections, though within them the order sometimes feels unclear; for example, proceeding from "Space Cats" to "Wayne Barlowe: Unnatural History Artist" to "Giant Worms." Still, Rowe's obvious love for the form animates the volume, and makes a powerful case for how this period continues to influence the genre's aesthetic. Sci-fi fans of all stripes will be delighted.