A recent E.P Cover from Dan McPharlin the first in a planned series of three, lovely stuff as usual blurring the line between hard Sci-Fi and abstract geometric design/art, washed with a beautiful lime palette. The font used is the classic Serif Gothic looks great particularly in the heavier cuts.
Art via Dan’s regularly updated Flickr Stream http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmcp/
More superior 70’s retro book cover art via the fabulous Dean Ellis, really dig the spartan typography here. The font is ITC Busorama (thanks Eric/Martin/John!) nice and clean…
This cover has a suitably epic feel, similar in vein to the covers Dean conjured up for Larry Niven’s Ringworld series, I added a post RE those last year click here for a refresher…
Art via one my Flickr Favs: mystique123_2000
Super detailed draftsmanship from the absolute master of techno-Illustration; Katsuhiro Otomo, the Japanese Illustrator behind the legendary cyberpunk manga-fest “Akira”. This image is taken from the Epic Books Akira Collection “Part 10″ fairly close to the epic sagas end.
The Akira Manga ran from Dec 1982 through June 1990, and was the basis for the simply stunning 1988 animated feature film, although the story is only loosely connected. The most fasicanting thing with Otomos work is the unbelievable attention to detail, every element is impeccably fashioned and has function. take for a example the above Illustration, Otomo has not just drawn this fighter jet, it’s designed to be as realistic as possible, his take on exactly how a US Navy jet would look in 2019. For case in point note the tilting Canard Wing and airspeed pilot (thanks pete) at the front of the craft…simply amazing stuff!
Read more about Katsuhiro Otomo at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuhiro_Otomo and the Akira Manga: (Warning Spoilers!!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuhiro_Otomo
Lower B/W image via Flickr user: art_files
These powerful, minimal designs with a fauvist-esque palette are a small selection of the art of Eyke Volkmer a German Graphic Artist/Illustrator. During the 60’s & 70’s Eyke worked closely with publishing House Wilhelm Goldmann, and during this period produced a total of 162 airbrushed covers for the SF series “Goldmanns Weltraum Taschenbücher” and another 70 covers for the series “Goldmanns Zukunftsromane”, his publisher once remarked to Vokmer: “It doesn’t look like that in outer space.” but encouraged him to follow and develop his unique and prolific style.
You can see the full set of “Weltraum Taschenbücher” covers at covers http://www.weltraumtaschenbuch.de and there’s a full bio on Eyke here: http://www.weltraumtaschenbuch.de/pages/eyke_volkmer.html
Many thanks to Tommi Bren for getting in touch with the link, Tommi set up the aforementioned tribute site and also runs the excellent Sci-Fi book archive http://www.houdinination.com/ great stuff! check the Book cover Gallery here: http://www.houdinination.de/covers.html
Here’s something I’ve not featured for a while, a bandwidth-crunching animated GIF!
This frenzied loop is ripped from Neill Blomkamp’s magnificent “District 9” (2009), for my money the best allround, accessible Sci-Fi flick since Jim Cameron’s “Aliens” (1986). The great thing about District 9 is that it’s a Sci-fi film that spans way beyond the confines of just one genre, it’s an absolutely fascinating blend of docudrama, social commentary, cutting edge Sci-fi, and (sporadic) breakneck action – add to this the very finest Peter’s Jackson “splatterhouse” FX then lace with wry black humour – superb! I also think a very good indicator for it’s greatness is the fact that most of my friends enjoyed it, and (unlike myself) most of them aren’t geeks!
I’ll say nothing about the featured footage, just in case you’ve still not seen it! anyway you should – available at Amazon http://bit.ly/bwBWiO << treat yourself to the Blu-Ray I reckon….
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