S/D: Freaky/psychedelic pulpy book cover design

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I shop for lots of used books, and one of the thing I really enjoy about it is the enjoying the evolving design styles for books. Particularly among post-war sci-fi pulp novels, around from the late '50s til early '70s or so. But this also went for any genre fiction of the time. Printing technology and graphic design evolved to the point where some seriously freaky/abstract shit got published, stuff that far surpassed the relatively pedestrian stuff now.

So, post your fave book covers here, the weirder, the better

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:02 (sixteen years ago) link

I mourn that era.

― Abbott, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/519RAFA754L._.jpg

http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/beatingheart/blog/A-Scanner-Darkly-1.png

Tho the modern PKD trade paperback covers look like some halfassed photoshop abortion from 1995.

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:05 (sixteen years ago) link

i am a really big fan of the ultra detached style of late 70s bantam paperbacks.

it's like NASA SPACE ART meets THE DESOLATE SURREALISM OF DECHIRICO

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/7a/59/24e2b340dca0d7e305d27010.L.jpg

― moonship journey to baja, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:12 (sixteen years ago) link

oh far out, [Removed Illegal Link], a stockpile of JG Ballard covers.

http://www.rickmcgrath.com/jgballard/jgb_pix/voicestime_250.jpg

Richard M. Bowers is the artist.

Where most sci-fi cover art in the early '50s consisted of dryly literal representations of spaceships and other hardware (the "techno-realist" school), or else tentacled aliens, hard-bodied space heroes, and their curvaceous female companions (the "pulp" school), Powers' innovative covers emphasized atmosphere and mood, utilizing the fine arts techniques of surrealism, abstraction, and collage to explore the inner landscape of the human imagination. Psychedelic before its time and astonishing in its variety, it was through Powers' visionary work, according to The Science Fiction Encyclopedia, that "the packaging of SF could be said to have come of age..."

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:28 (sixteen years ago) link

dammit: http://www.rickmcgrath.com/jgballard/jgb_powers_covers.html

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:29 (sixteen years ago) link

fucking amazing - I posted these on some other thread I think

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Astounding! covers

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:39 (sixteen years ago) link

some Key covers + my personal favorite comic sci-fi master Kirby

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:40 (sixteen years ago) link

There was a thread celebrating 60s and 70s sci-fi covers but I can't find it now. This PKD cover blew my mind as a kid though (picture taken from this PKD book cover art gallery).

― a passing spacecadet, Friday, 11 May 2007 21:03 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah, here's a good one of Scanner Darkly, where we get to see the good AND bad sides of Ron Burgundy

also,

http://www.pktaylor.com/images/bodies.jpg

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 21:10 (sixteen years ago) link

Show me "nightmarish book covers owned by my former step-mother" for $1000, Alex.

― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 11 May 2007 21:52 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/bloodmon8.jpg

― remy bean, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:32 (sixteen years ago) link

wow I've never seen that one - that's like some sub-Choose Your Own Adventure shit!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:36 (sixteen years ago) link

That's the Dr. Bloodmoney edition I had. God, I wish I'd never sold any of the paperbacks I had from the 70s/early 80s.

My copy of To Your Scattered Bodies Go had the same art (Vincent DiFate, a deity to me) but slightly different title type.

― Rock Hardy, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:48 (sixteen years ago) link

God, I wish I'd never sold any of the paperbacks I had from the 70s/early 80s.

Seriously. You go into a place like Powell's and many of these suckers are in mylar comic bags for about $10/per.

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:52 (sixteen years ago) link

I have a few 80s reprints of PKD, before those shiny shitty-looking ones flooded the market. Sadly their cover art is not so hot, but I'm still holding on to them.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:02 (sixteen years ago) link

And not that reprinting the books is nec. bad, it's good to always have access to decent printings that don't fall apart when you finally discover them on your dad's bookshelf, causing him to yell when he finds that the covers and spines to his copies of "Stranger in a Strange Line" or "Starship Troopers" have finally disintegrated past the point of functionality.

But when you have a classic 150 page pulp that was first issued 50+ years ago, originally issued at 35 cents, and you blow it up to something running $8.99 new, and this isn't even the TPB printing, there's a problem.

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:08 (sixteen years ago) link

Wait are you guys talking about the Vintage TPBs? Cuz the covers on those are fine. Not as great as the originals in some cases, but nothing to complain about. I'm just glad that all/most PKD's books are in print now.

BTW has anyone read the PKD "fictional" biography [i]I Am Alive And You Are Dead[/i}? It's really good. I don't usually go much in for bios, but this is a great bio/lit-crit/shocking factoids/psychoanalysis.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:14 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/bloodmon8.jpg

i own this 1!

― jhøshea, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:16 (sixteen years ago) link

yeah I have I Am Alive and You Are Dead and it IS great and really well done but I have to admit I was super-depressed for weeks afterwards.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:20 (sixteen years ago) link

well well well, lookee who's finally getting his own "Library of America" edition, edited by Jonathan Lenthem. Amazon says it came out yesterday:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mcYyfS8IL._.jpg

and yes I mean the Vintage reprints. Bleah.

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:21 (sixteen years ago) link

Fucking weird cover:

http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/tspe.jpg

― Alex in SF, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:21 (sixteen years ago) link

Still, it's cool to finally have a single tome to shove on your friends(one that wasn't a short story collection).

"Dude, shut up and read this."

xp

― kingfish, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:22 (sixteen years ago) link

I just make people read either A Scanner Darkly, Ubik, The Martian Time Slip or really any of them actually.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 11 May 2007 23:51 (sixteen years ago) link

HA! I knew it:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GFS0MPTFL._.jpg

Publisher: Vintage (January 30, 1996)

photoshop abortions from 1995 indeed

― kingfish, Saturday, 12 May 2007 05:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Shakey Mo, those links are blowing my mind. Thanks!

― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 12 May 2007 06:00 (sixteen years ago) link

aww, man, this is the best thread idea in weeks. i'll have to dig around and see what i've got on my hard drive and post some.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Saturday, 12 May 2007 11:53 (sixteen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/rankingmonkey/ilx/chalkersmaller.jpg

i think my wife got this from the "FREE BOOKS" bin at micawber in princeton. neither of us has read it.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Saturday, 12 May 2007 12:01 (sixteen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/rankingmonkey/ilx/stasheff-warlockinspite.jpg

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Saturday, 12 May 2007 12:04 (sixteen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v252/rankingmonkey/ilx/asimovirobot.jpg

love that one, but don't own that particular cover.

― GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ, Saturday, 12 May 2007 12:14 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41S04XZDGPL._SS500_.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 13:57 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/f1/32/49d2225b9da094f03adbd010.L.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:00 (sixteen years ago) link

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/69/13/90dd225b9da08457cf352110.L.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:04 (sixteen years ago) link

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/40/9b/2eccb340dca01adffcb04010.L.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:07 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/doors.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:10 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/jccover.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:11 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/child.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:12 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.druglibrary.org/special/goode/goode.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:14 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Z6DBZ5G5L._SS500_.jpg

― m coleman, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link

cool thread!

― the next grozart, Saturday, 12 May 2007 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link

I spent some time this morning looking at Philip Jose Farmer's website and mourning all the lurid old editions I used to have. What the fuck was I thinking, etc etc.

Like this one:
http://www.pjfarmer.com/bimages/flesh3.jpg

― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 12 May 2007 17:41 (sixteen years ago) link

Haha, this is what came up for a GIS of 'psychedelic book cover':

http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/flintstonesjetsons4.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:20 (sixteen years ago) link

The Demolishe Man is my favorite book ever, btw.

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:21 (sixteen years ago) link

http://members.cox.net/sjrohde2/images/books_b/bester_starlight_put76.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:23 (sixteen years ago) link

http://members.cox.net/sjrohde2/images/books_b/bester_stars_sigs1389.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:24 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/511Q8VQEHJL.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:25 (sixteen years ago) link

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G0DY2DDXL.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:25 (sixteen years ago) link

http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/21/29/d48ba2c008a0d6e63b069010._AA240_.L.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:27 (sixteen years ago) link

C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet hardcover:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/notesfrombelow/Lewis-Out_of_the_Silent_Planet_3.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:28 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.lairs.com/pics/perel.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:29 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.lairs.com/pics/synapse.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:29 (sixteen years ago) link

I've always had a huge fondness for this one:

http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/ubik_f.jpg

― Abbott, Saturday, 12 May 2007 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link

After 5 years of hunting, I finally found a copy of this:

http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/F-series/F-139b.jpg

Which is about a guy who builds a rocket powered by beer.

I'm quite happy.

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Has anyone read this? It's great!

http://www.snowbooks.com/bookimages/3D9781905005352.jpg

― Neil S, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:47 (sixteen years ago) link

http://www.orionsarm.com/books/whip.jpg http://www.arrakis.co.uk/jpg/dosadi.jpg

― Laurel, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:53 (sixteen years ago) link

Something about Dosadi Experiment really hooks me, btw, something adolescent and fierce. I dig that book.

― Laurel, Thursday, 17 May 2007 15:56 (sixteen years ago) link

haha Abbot I recently ripped off one of those CS Lewis Out of the Silent Planet covers for some poster art...

and yes I've read Flint! Aylett's great, altho he can be kind of a grueling read.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah, I was torn between "this is great!" and "this is unreadable!", though the former won out in the end.

― Neil S, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link

I can't find the cover I used to have, but norman spinrod's the iron dream always used to have some variation of hitler on a motorcycle...

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/normanspinrad/irndream.jpg

― Edward III, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:18 (sixteen years ago) link

Some far-out 70s Marvel Comics design there. Capes w/ big Ghost Rider/Dr Strange collars

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:44 (sixteen years ago) link

this is more 80s style

http://www.tomandmaria.com/st197/images/miller%20cover.jpg

― Edward III, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:46 (sixteen years ago) link

Yeah, that one was funky, and a great precursor for what was to come(dig the painting year: 1979). The original one from the early 60s was a pretty stark abstract design.

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link

Check the Groovy Age of Horror blog for scads of outragous nonsense in this vein.

― Soukesian, Thursday, 17 May 2007 19:33 (sixteen years ago) link

y'know, I've never read Canticle For Liebowitz - is it worth reading? I don't find the basic premise all that exciting.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 May 2007 19:40 (sixteen years ago) link

I read it in high school, which was a looong time ago. I recall it being unique, which I guess is one kind of recommendation. how many satirical novels about postapocalyptic religious trends are there?

― Edward III, Thursday, 17 May 2007 19:49 (sixteen years ago) link

I didn't find it all that satiric; it's pretty much about taking the medieval monastery system and applying it to some atomic age post-apoc version.

I first read it b/c it was base of the source material for the first Fallout game; it's where they got the idea for the Cathedral.

http://www.gildia.pl/schron/fallout/fallout/grafiki_tekstow/opis_miast/12/*w/300

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link

part of the source material, rather

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 19:58 (sixteen years ago) link

I can think of quite a lot of post-apocalyptic sci-fi books featuring religious nuts (Lethem, PKD spring to mind - not to mention Battlestar Galactica more recently)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 May 2007 20:04 (sixteen years ago) link

I don't think the book is nec. about religious nuts, so much as commenting on mid-century Catholic politics.

― kingfish, Thursday, 17 May 2007 20:17 (sixteen years ago) link

Whoa. (Not the cover I was looking for but a good deal more freaky and psychedelic)
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4204/bokfsflx7.jpg
Hannes Bok, you are my new god.

― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 17 May 2007 20:38 (sixteen years ago) link

Bok is amazing, and his life story is tragic and fascinating.

― Soukesian, Thursday, 17 May 2007 21:00 (sixteen years ago) link

http://encyclopedia.quickseek.com/images/Arkadin.jpg

― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 May 2007 21:06 (sixteen years ago) link

hell yeah: now we're talkin'

http://www.pjfarmer.com/simages/fsfoct53.jpg

http://www.pjfarmer.com/simages/fsfjul55.jpg

http://www.pjfarmer.com/simages/fsiapr63.jpg

― kingfish, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 07:03 (sixteen years ago) link

Frightening
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/509078325_43735c5ab9_o.jpg

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 07:28 (sixteen years ago) link

Frighteningly bad, I meant.

― Ned Trifle II, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 07:29 (sixteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

http://members.cox.net/sjrohde2/images/books_b/blish_case_bal256.jpg

Jesuits in spaaaaaaaaaaace!

― kingfish, Saturday, 9 June 2007 21:46 (sixteen years ago) link

i recently picked up a christian sci-fi post-apocalyptic novel all about the survivors deciding how to set up a new church. it's from the 70's, i think. great cover. i'll try to remember to take a picture of it.

― scott seward, Saturday, 9 June 2007 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link

One of these days i'll start a thread about religion in sci-fi. Not the rightwing fundie Rapture Left Behind crap, but stuff where the author has some semblance of knowledge of theology, society & history, and brings them into play. PKD had plenty of early church/catholic bits in his later books, f'rinstance.

Are you thinking of A Canticle for Leibovitz? It got reprinted with that great cover in 1979 or so.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0553379267.01._AA_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

The more modern one doesn't look nearly as cool, but more like a Neil Gaiman book:

http://images.overstock.com/f/102/3117/8h/www.overstock.com/images/products/muze/books/0060892994.jpg

The image from a 1986 version:

http://www.peterthorpe.net/media/canticleartbig.jpeg

― kingfish, Saturday, 9 June 2007 22:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Great book, that.

― chap, Saturday, 9 June 2007 22:43 (sixteen years ago) link

The first edition, many of which had this weird orange tag overtop the artwork:

http://www.robertweinberg.net/gifs/rarebooks/leibowtz.jpg

how many book covers are nothing but plugs?

I like this fan-made one:

http://www.fwis.com/cerealboxes/images/cerealboxes/127.jpg

― kingfish, Saturday, 9 June 2007 22:48 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Bought this weekend. Much better than the Vintage version obviously.

http://www.philipkdick.com/covers/transmigration9.jpg

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 23:35 (sixteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

ick, no.

― Maria, Friday, 24 August 2007 19:14 (sixteen years ago) link

Another recently purchased fav.

http://www.jdbgrphx.com/brozbooks/images/covers/340brunner.JPG

― Alex in SF, Friday, 24 August 2007 20:28 (sixteen years ago) link

ick no what?

― kingfish, Friday, 24 August 2007 22:06 (sixteen years ago) link

just picked this up, Moorcock's book starring Hawkwind. It is amusingly bad.

http://www.blaskan.nu/Bilder/moorcock_butterworth_the_time_of_the_hawklords.jpg

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 24 August 2007 22:48 (sixteen years ago) link

two years pass...

sweet: http://www.coverpop.com/pop/visco/

― requiem for crunk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 10:15 (fourteen years ago) link

contrasted with:

http://thetorchonline.com/2009/06/29/crappy-fantasy-novel-covers/

― requiem for crunk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 10:18 (fourteen years ago) link

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/supaflisi/img024.jpg

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 23 March 2010 10:22 (fourteen years ago) link

ah the 60s:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2470/nb1889.jpg

― requiem for crunk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 20:55 (fourteen years ago) link

[nsfw] http://efanzines.com/EK/eI16/#wank

Apparently Harlan Ellison had a hand in these

― requiem for crunk (kingfish), Tuesday, 23 March 2010 21:09 (fourteen years ago) link

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