Classic Cool

I usually try not to get TOO nerdy on the blog (false), but I loved these minimalist interpretations of planets from Star Wars. So simple and pretty! Artist Justin Van Genderen really captures the character of Hoth.




I think part of the reason I like these so much is that they remind me of the book covers of some of the old pulpy sci-fi classics I used to read. I stole a bunch of them from my Dad, I think, and spent a lot of time in used bookstores, back when they had those. Now it's just a crumbling empire of empty Borders, like something out of a T.S. Eliot poem (what I'm saying is that it's a Wasteland).

But anyway, those book covers were so cool! Here are a few of the ones I can remember:

Though this cover doesn't give a lot away in terms of plot details, it's about these children who have like, magic psychic powers, and are getting ready to take over the world, if I remember correctly. Kind of like X-Men! But creepier.

A classic! Look, you've got a bug in there, and a waterfall, and Ian McKellan's face. Mars! Ray Bradbury was never one of my favorite writers, because I felt his stories always had a whiff of sentimentality that I thought was lame as a child, but he is undeniably a giant in the field. Oh wait, according to the cover, he is the "World's Greatest Living Sci-Fi Writer!" There you go.

Make Room, Make Room is, of course, the basis for the movie Soylent Green, in which it turns out that Soylent Green is people AAAAAAHHHHH and Charlton Heston gets carted away to be made into beef jerky. Also, how sick is this cover? So sick.

Yes, awesome. Every science fiction book should look like this. I loved Robert Silverberg when I was younger, and I bought so many of his books, and the dude has published like THOUSANDS of books, because that's how they did it then. They would write a book over a long weekend.

As Liz Lemon would say, what the what? Although actually, at least there is something happening on this book cover, and not just like, a picture of a huge eyeball in space. I like this because of the pretty colors, and think it kind of looks like an oil painting that would be hanging behind a curtain in an old castle. Of course, Robert Heinlein is another one of those giant grand master dudes who had hugely popular and successful books like Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers (which you may remember from the movie), but I think my favorite of his is The Puppet Masters, which is about these space slugs that are stuck to the back of people's necks and control their minds and try to take over the world. Wait, was this also made into a terrible movie? Yes it was!

Obviously this was just an excuse for me to talk about old sci-fi books. Also, sorry I don't know who any of these cover artists are! That is pretty lame. But the covers are great! May your memories live forever in cardboard boxes in my parents' garage.

Minimalist Star Wars Galaxy Posters via Laughingsquid