One of the most difficult things when reading sci-fi is a question of visualisation. Depending on how good the story teller is and how colourful your imagination is, the experience can vary tremendously.Sometimes if I read a book it springs cinematically into my head, full formed and I can 'see' the settings, characters and ships in my head. Other times, its hard to visualise or imagine the more alien concepts. At such times, a little help is always welcome - something I found invaluable was 'Barlowes Guide to Extraterrestrials'. Published in 1979 by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Ian Summers, it documents a selection of great science fiction aliens with a full page illustration and a description and biological workup of each one and the story in which it appears.Its a beautiful and enthralling book - probably long out of print, but well worth looking for!
Ive scanned the 'index' sheets and comparative size chart which shows all of the entries as a big file, see how many you recognise!
Especially for Woodsy - No10 is the Overlord from 'Childhoods End'!
5 comments:
I would like to include this illustration on my Blog - to flesh-out my 40mm Flash Gordon project.
Would you mind?
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/
feel free tony - if you want a higher res version, drop me a line! W
Thank you
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/
I got this during a summer break and just read it over and over and over again. Just looking at this illo takes me right back to that time. And what a terrific guide it made to investigating all those classic stories!
Somewhat different, but related and very entertaining:
http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/2010/06/edd-cartier-1914-2008-travelers-of.html
Nice link, RAB!
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