Sci-Fi-O-Rama

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.

A David Pelham Penguin cover for a 1976 edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s Novel “Cat’s Cradle”

Scan via Flickr User: Michael Bojkowski he’s also got a little selection of Illustrated Paperback cover’s here http://www.flickr.com/photos/mooski/sets/72157594314437849/

Also of note: check this excellent compendium of Penguin SF Book covers: http://www.penguinsciencefiction.org/ Many thanks to Thistle for that link!

Cat’s Cradle by the way is that game you play with string wrapped round your fingers… I couldn’t remember it either!