Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: A Selection of Elevated Cities Part I

October 14, 2011November 9, 2011 / Joachim Boaz / 12 Comments

(uncredited cover for the 1975 edition of Growing Up in Tier 3000 (1975), Felix C. Gotschalk)

“After a seven days’ march through woodland, the traveler directed towards Baucis cannot see the city and yet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise from the grown at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds that support the city […] There are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect it to much they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence” — Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities, 1972, pg. 77)

I’ve always been fascinated by imaginary and historical cities: the utopian (Tommaso Campanella’s 1602 work The City of the Sun), the allegorical (Calvino’s Invisible Cities), the multi-layered (Rome), the planned (16th century Palmanova), the decaying (Jeff VanderMeer’s Ambergris), the multi-tiered (Tolkein’s Minas Tirith)… Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Hoot von Zitzewitz’s Fantastic Flights of Fancy

October 5, 2011October 7, 2011 / Joachim Boaz / 9 Comments

(Hoot von Zitzewitz’s cover for the 1967 edition of The Winged Man (1966), A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull)

In the 1960s the sci-fi covers of the major publishers Dell, Berkley Medallion, Signet, Avon, Ace (etc) ran the gamut from Richard Powers’ avant-garde landscapes and conglomerate faces to the fantastic collages of a relatively unknown artist by the name of Hoot von Zitzewitz (Hubertus Octavio von Zitzewitz).

I’ve cobbled together a few bits of a biography (if any one knows some more concrete facts let me know). He was a fine arts teacher at Hofstra University and passed away around 2002. Hoot worke Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: A Selection of Vincent Di Fate’s early 70s Covers

September 26, 2011September 29, 2011 / Joachim Boaz / 18 Comments

(Cover for the 1972 edition of Plunder (1972), Ron Goulart)

The covers of Vincent Di Fate (1945-) often evoke a Terry Gilliam-esque romp — for example, Ron Goulart’s Plunder — a lone facade and a house dot a purple and green plain, mountains emerge in the distance, planets pepper the sky, a head floats ominously, a bizarre reptilian creature in a boatie rides an antique bicycle. I desperately want to know if it’s a scene from the book. If so, I’m tracking down a copy!

Vincent Di Fate’s work graced a few of the great works of the genre Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Art: Rampant Machines, The 60s Covers of Jerome Podwil

September 9, 2011September 20, 2011 / Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of A. E. van Vogt. A while back, having just finished his “masterpiece” The World of Null-A (1948), I headed to the used book store and saw Jerome Podwil’s cover for Vogt’s sequel, The Players of Null-A (1966) and had to pick it up. Simply put, it is a spectacular piece of art. Discovering Podwil’s Calder-esque machine extending its limbs across the plain made me pay more attention to the covers as art and the artists who made them. Hence this series of posts! (Adventures in Science Fiction Art Index)

(Are any of the books worth reading? What’s your favorite of his work (perhaps one I haven’t listed)?)

(Cover for the 1966 edition of The Players of Null-A (1966), A. E. van Vogt)

Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Art of Robert Foster, Part I

September 1, 2011March 7, 2013 / Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

Robert Foster produced only a handful of science fiction covers. The most inventive graced a span of Frederik Pohl novels and short story collections released by Ballantine Books in the late 60s. Sadly, I can find no information about the artist himself online (if you do please let me know). Here’s a selection of the most interesting, haunting, and spectacular…

Part II (here)

Mechanical man — a bedraggled simulacra. Nude woman — embodiment of flesh. A lunar landscape greets them…

(ranks among my favorite covers of all time)

(Cover for the 1969 edition of Turn Left at Thursday (1961), Frederik Pohl) Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Assorted 1970s Surrealistic Faces by Richard Powers

August 4, 2011September 5, 2011 / Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

This is the second post in a potential series of posts showcasing the science fiction cover art by Richard Powers (1921-1996). My first post discussed a few surrealist cityscape covers from the 1950s. Here I’ve selected a variety of surrealistic, composite, conglomerated, and masked faces from his 1970s covers.

A delightful green human shape — mouthless — replete with translucent hollows? emerging occupants or surfacing memories?

(Cover for the 1973 edition of All Flesh is Grass (1965), Clifford D. Simak)

The Eternal Frontiers utilizes another Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The 1950s Surrealist Cityscapes of Richard Powers

August 1, 2011December 11, 2016 / Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

Richard Powers (1921-1996) is one of my favorite science fiction cover artists. Heavily influenced by the likes of Yves Tanguey and Picasso, his delightful vein of surrealism graced the covers of multiple classics of the genre (for example, Simak’s City, Clarke’s Earthlight and The City and the Stars, Norton’s Sky Gate, Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan, Sturgeon’s More Than Human). His covers are unmistakable and extremely easy to identify. I’ve decided to showcase a few of his surrealist cityscapes.

(cover for 1956 edition of Reach for Tomorrow (1956), Arthur C. Clarke)

The cover for Reach for Tomorrow achieves a wonderful Continue reading →

(mini) Film Ruminations: The Tree of Life (2011), Super 8 (2011), A Serious Man (2010), etc.

June 15, 2011May 18, 2014 / Joachim Boaz / 39 Comments

I do not write reviews for the majority of films I watch. My reasons are somewhat nebulous considering it’s the summer and I certainly have time. I see my blog more as a way to re-examine and bring to the forefront sci-fi books and films generally more esoteric and infrequently reviewed. But certain winds shift direction for brief windows of time. So here we go, a rundown of the more popular films I’ve seen in theater or re-watched recently.

The Tree of Life (2011), dir. Terrence Malick, rating 7.75/10 (Good)

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) juxtaposes extensive sequences Continue reading →

Update: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. V

May 31, 2011October 7, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments

I promised not to buy any more books over the summer unless I ran out — alas, Memorial Day Sale at one of the best Half Price Books in the country (Austin) is a “bad” combination. I had to reduce my gigantic pile by half before I dared approach the buy counter….

I’m proud of this haul!

1. Hawksbill Station (1968), Robert Silverberg (MY REVIEW)

I’ve wanted to procure Hawksbill Station for quite a while — the premise is fantastic, five dangerous prisoners are held at Hawksbill Station located in the Cambrian era… One bizarre use of time travel! I hope Silverberg is at his best à la The World Inside and Downward to the Earth.