A selection of differing illustration styles all linked from my Flickr Favourites – I figured that rather than post these one at time It’d be better to pack them into groups as a kinda round up. So here’s the notes on the images:

Top: Ejection “Captain Lockhead and The Starfighters” – A 7″ single sleeve, in a style somewhat reminiscent of Barney Bubbles though it is in fact the work of Rodney Matthews. Love the plum and salmon pink colouring here… Image via Flickr User Daevideo

2nd Top: This is one I spotted a while back via Will Schofield’s amazing A Journey Round my Skull. This cover is from a 1975 Estonian Childrens book “Panga-Rehe Jutud” by Jüri Arrak – a typical of the rare, outlandish source material Will so often posts…

3rd Top: Another lift from “A Journey Round My Skull” this image comes via a special feature “Women Snakes and Stalkers – South Asian Book Covers”. Well worth checking out to see a really diverse range of Illustrative work – also check the source: http://www.womensnakesandstalkers.com/ superb stuff…

4th Top: So back to more SF orientated material, and here’s a cover for the 1975 Robert Silverberg Short story collection “Sunrise on Mercury” art by Peter Goodfellow. What actually caught me eye here was that this wild sunscape actually reminded me very much of the 1988 Sega arcade game “Galaxy Force 2″. Not sure if any of you remember that, it was kinda an evolution of sprite scaling tech used in Sega’s Outrun or Afterburner. Anyway the Coin-Op was pretty rare in the UK, expensive to play and not particularly entertaining. On the plus side the level graphics were pretty imaginative and considering this is a 22 year old game the pseudo 3d effect looks very advanced for it’s age! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLRLo2yB04. Image via Filckr user: Martin Isaac

5th Top: A 1963 cover for the John Wyndham apocalyptic classic “The Kraken Wakes” art by Denis Piper. Even though it’s over fifty years old (first published 1953) this is still definitely one SF novel I’d class as essential reading – a plot thats mirrors the plight face with potential global warming and rising sea levels – highly recommended! Image via Flickr user: metoikosdraig

Bottom: The final image is another classic penguin David Pelham SF cover. Here’s a link again to the Penguin SF Book covers gallery: http://www.penguinsciencefiction.org/ – this image is via Flickr user levar

An epic example of a fantasy landscaping, from Rodney Matthews. This was used as Artwork for a 1987 released Compilation Album from Brummie Rockers Magnum, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirador_(Magnum_album)

Cover Box art again from, you guessed it, the early 90′s. Transarctica was a 16-bit steampunk themed strategy/management game developed by now defunct French Software Silmarils. Interestingly the actual art “Heavy Metal Hero” was produced in 1985 by Britsh Sci-Fi & Fantasy Illustrator Rodney Matthews, the game itself features designs based upon that image, so basically Transarctica seems to have been envisaged BECAUSE of the Cover Art! Can’t imagine this has happened too many times.

More on the game here: http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/transarctica/screenshots

Rodney Matthews has had a long career in Fantasy and Sci-fi Illustration spanning several decades. Akin to Roger Dean he’s also produced a large body of work for the music industry being responsible for well over seventy LPs sleeves, his first commission was for Thin Lizzy in 1969. See his site here http://www.rodneymatthews.com/