scientific discipline fiction book covers of the 1960s and 1970s blast their elbow room onto your retinas like an acid trip from beyond the universe . They ’re more vivid , trippier , and often more nightmarish than today ’s cover . Here are some of the craziest .
We often look to Holy Writ covers of the 1930s , forties and 1950s for lifelike , pulpy imagery and weird Freudian symbolism — but the 1960s and 1970s provide a treasure trove of brain - melt weirdness that ’s hard to thrum . Just check out some of these insanely unearthly , and just manifestly harebrained , covers from the era when people still used electricity to try the acidity of their Kool Aid . And some of these incredible cover are bythe greatRichard Powers .
cover viaJason Ladell , C. Christy Concrete , Luis BlackallerandCovers Etc.on Flickr , as one by one accredit . They all have tons more cover charge in their Flickr streams , so check ’em out !
The Far - Out mass , via Conformer on Flickr . From the back cover : “ dream of human progress to boggle the mind . nightmare of human degradation to shatter the intent . Which fortune awaits human as he plunges into the twenty - first century and beyond ? The questioning authors in this volume bilk the frontiers of time and sweep the bounds of the human psyche as they ponder on life tomorrow with the far - out the great unwashed . ”
The Primal Urge by Brian Aldiss , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover image by Richard Powers .
The Trap!via Covers Etc . on Flickr .
urban center Of Illusions , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover art by Jack Gaughan .
On The Symb - Socket Circuit , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ The symb - socketeers were the elite of the galaxy . Traveling from satellite to planet , they worked for play and played for a living . Into this lap pussyfoot Matthew Wade , fugitive , x - king of the universe , a coord who had fled his citizenry . ”
The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick , via Jason Ladell on Flickr .
30 Day Wonder by Richard Wilson , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . natural covering graphics by Richard Powers .
moon Of Triopus by John Rankinevia Jason Ladell on Flickr . concealment graphics by Richard Powers .
Conditionally Human by Walter M. Miller , Jr. ,via Jason Ladell on Flickr . covert artwork by Richard Powers .
The Monitors by Keith Laumer , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . covert art by Richard Powers .
The Metal Monster by A. Merritt , via Jason Ladell on Flickr .
Operation Terror by Murray Leinster , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . cover charge by Richard Powers .
Genus Homo by L. Sprague de Camp and P. Schuyler Miller , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover nontextual matter by Richard Powers .
Beyond The Black Enigma , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ The Black Enigma could be anything from a bare vibration to the gaping hole of a hideous blank space beast . Whatever it was , Special Agent John Craig of the Alert Command had to destruct it before it pig the existence ! ”
The Guardians Of Time by Poul Anderson , viaJason Ladell on Flickr .
One Million Tomorrows by Bob Shaw , viaConformer on Flickr .
“ In the twenty-second Century , no one had to die of old age : an immortality drug was available to all . Its only drawback was the side - effect that terminate a human race ’s sex drive .
“ But Will Carewe became the first mankind to test a unexampled variety of the drug , one without any side - effects at all . The limitless futurity , a million tomorrow , stretched before him with golden Leslie Townes Hope … until a series of ‘ stroke ’ made him recognize that someone was trying to murder him . ”
The Curse Of Rathlaw by Peter Saxon , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ The anguished triple execration was as old as Evil itself … born in that dark and magical past , breathing through the century , it bristle now from the hideous lip of Fergus Trayle , anchorite of Black Loch , thwarted in his lustfulness for the beautiful maid servant of Sir Alistair Rathlaw – The sun would blot out , a kelpy would return to Scotland – and the Rathlaw kindred would fly from the earth ! ”
The Sleep Eaters by John Lymington , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ One Nox a piece named John went to bed as usual . But as he lie on the boundary of sleep , he received a telepathic message from a world leader , and a vision into the future .
“ He could n’t consider that his mind was a radiocommunication receiver from an invisible space foeman so he committed himself to a genial infirmary . after he attempt to separate the world about the coming distance encroachment .
“ But who would conceive an escapee from an institution ? ”
Time Is The Simplest matter by Clifford D. Simak , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . back art by Richard Powers .
Telepath by Arthur Sellings , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover by Richard Powers .
Six - Gun Planet by John Jakes , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover by Richard Powers .
Hard To Be A God , via Blackaller on Flickr .
Time Tunnel by Murray Leinster , via Conformer on Flickr .
Sirius by Olaf Stapledon , via Jason Ladell on Flickr .
“ One terminal was in 1964 – the other in 1804 . People could go both ways . So could … thing . For example , brand - new ‘ antiques ’ for the 20th century , and marvels of New industry for the Napoleonic epoch .
“ But you had to be careful – because what would happen to ‘ now ’ if you did something in 1804 that changed story ? It was unthinkable .
“ alas , it happened … ”
Trullion by Jack Vance , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ The Trill were a lackadaisical , easy - living slipstream – except for the planetwide game of hassade when a ferocious inherent aptitude for gambling drove them to risk all – base , friends , family , even life itself – on the teams that contested the water - checker board gaming fields .
A Plague Of Demons by Keith Laumer , via Jason Ladell on Flickr .
The Birds by Frank Baker , via Covers Etc . on Flickr .
Tiger By The Tail and other skill fiction story , by Alan E. Nourse , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover by Richard Powers .
Fritz Leiber , The Night Of The Wolf , via Jason Ladell on Flickr . Cover by Richard Powers .
The Witches by Carter Brown , via Covers Etc . on Flickr . What the heck is covering up her titty ?
Clarence Shepard Day Jr. Of The Womenvia Covers Etc . on Flickr .
‘ A distaff Prime Minister . . .human stud farms lam by womanhood . . .mass rallies at Buckingham Palace to celebrate the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the dominating cleaning woman . . .all this and more in a take over bid of the Seventies that turns to hight - heeled fascism , a dictatorship of unbridled power lustfulness .
A female elite has consider over England . leave by their ‘ female parent ’ , the sleek Diana Druce , they perform an economic miracle – and put the Hessian boot through the idea that adult female are the weaker sex .
Tiltangle by R.W. Mackelworth , via Conformer on Flickr . From the back cover : “ They had survive in the caves for a very long metre – for propagation of mind - numbing time . Only a few daring untried ones were chosen periodically to go out and get new supplies , and not many of them add up back . But some did , with enough food to keep the colony living . And breeding .
“ The frigidity numbed the head , too . Keeping body and soul together lead so much vigor that few ever opine to postulate any questions – like how had they got there ? When would they depart ? Or was it , in fact , already too recent ? ”
When Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ Two outlaw satellite were hurtling through KO’d outer space on a lineal collision grade toward Earth . In arcanum , a few neat scientists began to build rocket engine ship to evacuate a chosen few – the most brilliant and biologically useful – to a distant planet where the human subspecies could part afresh . ”
The Moon Base by E.C. Tubb , via Conformer on Flickr .
“ Felix Larsen had been sent to Luna Station to look into ‘ something unpaired on the Moon . ’ There was no test copy , not even a concrete base for suspicion , yet there was a feeling so wrong about the place that Security had hinted of traitors .
“ On the first day at the sealed station beneath the Moon ’s crust , Felix had become violently inauspicious . He awoke from a drugged sleep with no memory of the intervening fourth dimension reverting . Now he had to be doubly careful because his secret might be out , and somewhere in the post – or somewhere out there on the exotic Moon itself – an nameless intelligence was waiting for the vital moment . ”
Nova Express by William Burroughs , via Fin Fahey on Flickr .
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