Ian Albinson over at the excellent artofthetitle.com got in touch with me the other day asking me to help identify the original artists and books that were used in the title sequence of the 2009 Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) Comedy “Gentlemen Broncos“. You can view a movie of the the whole sequence here: http://is.gd/dbKfK

In total of 24 books were used by production designer Richard A Wright in creating the title sequence, and I’ve included a small selection here. A few of the designs look familiar, but I must confess I don’t actually know for sure and wondered whether any readers can help out?

Some notes on the featured images:

Top: This looks either like a Frank Frazetta or possibly Peter Andrew Jones – not sure though!

2nd Top: I was thinking this has an echo of Peter Elson ? looks like a 70’s cover

3rd Top: A really well rendered painting, an older cover I think – early 60s’?

4th Top: This reminds me somewhat of StarWars concept artist Ralph Mcquarrie – late 70’s?

5th Top: No idea here! cool though…

6th Top: Again this looks slightly older – a 60’s cover?

7th Top: I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this one browsing through the extensive Flickr Sci-Fi-Books Pool but alas I didn’t favourite it.

Please do post a comment if you are familiar with any of the covers featured above or from the movie.  Also, do make a point to check out Ian’s site – a superb read & inspiration resource: http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Finally here’s a link to the trailer for Gentlemen Broncos staring the excellent Sam Rockwell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdpFpfIBkXc

Just a quick post as a reminder that if you like reading Sci-Fi-O-Rama then definitely check out Jeff’s Skiffy Blog. It’s recently been massively updated with a large selection of super-rare new material, including this retro trading card from the 1960’s…

Highly Recommended: http://ski-ffy.blogspot.com/

The above familiar looking alien and font is the work of American Artist Norman Saunders (January 1, 1907– March 7, 1989) who was commissioned by Topps to Illustrate the original trading card series, dating from 1962….

Read a little more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Saunders

A further selection of the work of Mark Weaver, the master of found collage & montage…

Top image ‘Avenge’, 2nd image ‘Transmission’, 3rd image ‘Memory’, Bottom Image ‘1963′. All art is via Mark’s Flickr Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/markweaver/. Well worth following!

I recently picked up some semi-vintage Scientific/Natural History Books that belonged to my late uncle, loads of superb stuff that I’ll be posting over the course of the rest of the year…

Onto the first scan then – this amazing image is taken from the 1970 edition of the Time-Life International book “The Universe” and is by an artist I’d not come across before, Italian American Antonio Petruccelli (1907-1994) born in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Alas I’ve had to crop this as the painting covers the spread, it really has to be seen to be believed the colours are something else, and I’ve done my best to keep them intact here….

A snippet from the Illustrations accompanying text: “A Close look at the Solar Furnace”

The Sun’s vast sphere, 864,000 miles in diameter contains 335 billion cubic miles of violently hot gasses that weigh more than 2,000 quadrillion tons. Direct study can probe no deeper than the sun’s double atmosphere (the tenuous outer corona and the shallow, inner chromosphere) and it’s surface skin (the photosphere), because only the energy from these two zones reaches the earth after a 93-million mile journey  in the form of visible light or invisible radiation. Yet the density, temperature and composistion of gasses in the suns’s hidden interior have been calculated, and astrophysicists know the nuclear processes that make them burn…

Antonio Petruccelli was an extremely versatile Illustrator, a very capable space artist just one of his attributes – read a bit more about him at buttes-chaumont.blogspot.com

A selection of vintage Space Art by John Polgreen an American artist most prolific in the 50’s – a style akin to the work of Chesley Bonestell -  difficult to believe these beautifully rendered forward thinking scenes are 50 or more years old.  Perhaps then a shame that these depicted visions (simultaneous moon landings) haven’t quite come true yet.

Alas there’s not a raft of information on John Polgreen, best place to start is with Flickr User’s Curly-Wurly and Nick Derington who have both posted galleries set’s featuring more of his work.

Picture Notes:

Top: Astronauts surveying a Lunar Landscape via Nick Derington

2nd Top: Blast off from the Lunar Surface via Nick Derington

Bottom: A slightly different style (more painterly) via The Weird World of Winchell Chung / http://www.projectrho.com/ << now that’s a proper Sci-fi Blog to behold! some fantastially in depth stuff there – excellent resource.

Anyone with any more detailed info on John Polgreen, please post a comment.

A vintage Astronaut used as the cover of the 1958 first edition of Robert A. Heinlein’s book “Have Space Suit – Will Travel” art is by the late American Illustator Ed Emshwiller

Image sourced from Flickr User Glen Mullaly’s Flickr Photo Stream – http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenmullaly/ not just an avid collector of gorgeous vintage Illustration but a talented artist himself www.glenmullaly.com

– addendum

A little more on the book here: http://is.gd/Z9UF I’ve also added the B&W illustration, a fantastic costume design I reckon.

An amazing set of old Russian Matchbox Graphics celebrating early Soviet success in the space race. These wonderful images are taken from an astonishing selection of over 1,000 Labels !! all featured via Flickr User Mariad http://www.flickr.com/photos/maraid/sets/72157594234429063/. The majority of the labels are of Eastern European origin, and of course not all space related, Maraid has a also put together a feature on her blog here: http://is.gd/Tylc

A little more on each of the featured labels…

Top: Luna 1 (Mechta)
Launched in 1959 Luna 1 was the first Spacecraft to reach the vicinity of  The Moon and thus by doing so also become the first to fully achieve escape velocity from Earth… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1

2nd top: Sputnik 1
Launched in October 1957 the first man-made object in space was totally unanticipated in the West providing the spark the ignited the Space Race – Sputnik 1 spent 3 months in orbit emitting a radio signal for approx a third of that time… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1

3rd top: Sputnik 2 & Laika
Following on from Sputnik 1 came Sputnik 2 – the second man-made object launched to earth orbit, this time carrying “Laika” the first living animal to leave our biosphere and enter space – alas – of course never to return… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_2

4th top: Solar Distances
The relative distances (in Kilometers)  of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. Aside from measuring distance in light years, another major cosmic measuring unit is AU (Astronomical Unit) each AU is relative to 149 598 000 kilometers. To put that in context the nearest star to our Solar System is the Red Dwarf Proxima Centuri which is roughly 4.2 Light Years away, that’s 268 000 AU or 40 Trillion, 92 Billion, 264 Million Km’s away – at least that’s what Wolfram Alpha Says…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit

5th top: Luna 2
Luna 2 launched Sept 12th was first space craft to reach the surface of the moon when it was purposely crash landed after 33 .5 hours of flight. Also noteworthy for confirming the existence of Solar Wind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2

Bottom: Radio Telescope
Caption reads “Radio Telescope” (cheers Uisgea / Lionel )

Polish Graphic Art in the shape of a screen printed Movie Poster for the 1968 Original “Planet of The Apes” design by Eryk Lipinski.

Image originally featured through Flickr User Junkyard Dogs Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/36464802@N05/ some excellent Retro Sci-Fi, Movie and Video Gaming paraphernalia/visuals collected there, well worth a look….

Thought I’d do a another quick Omni Magazine Post as quite a few visitors have been searching for it…

This is the cover of the July 1981 edition of the classic SF magazine and is taken from a 25 piece set over on Eric Carl’s Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_carl/sets/72157616740741408/. Some superb examples old-school SF slanted Photomontage/Illustration/Design, some very much of it’s time, some still strikingly fresh, all still extremely cool – definitely recommended!

Art by Ute Osterwald – alas not much info on him other another than he produced 2 other Omni covers Nov 1979 & Jul 1980 – See these here: Omni Magazine Online http://www.omnimagonline.com/

A selection of Illustrations from Norwegian Comics Artist and Illustrator Thore Hansen. These Illustrations date from the 70’s and were produced for a Norwegian SF magazine, great colours!

Images sourced from a larger collection of Thore’s work; again these are via Flickr User gojira2012 who’s amassed a superb collection of Sci-Fi illustration / objet d’arte, definitely worth a look.