Tag: Alexander A. Schomburg

Fantastic Story Magazine, Summer, 1952 (Featuring “Slan” by A.E. van Vogt) [Alex Schomburg] [[[Triply updated post!]]]

“Slan” was originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (September, October, November and December, 1940), with illustrations by Charles Schneeman.  The above-mentioned issues are “view-able” through the astounding (pun intended) Luminist Archive.  Reprinted in its entirety in Fantastic Story Magazine in 1952, the story was accompanied by three illustrations – shown below – created by Virgil Finlay. 

Since creating this post back in January of 2020 (was it that long ago?!) I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire a copy of the Summer, 1952 issue of Fantastic Story in excellent condition, the cover of which – shown below – features Alex Schomburg’s art in all its colorful, streamlined, cloudless, undulating, stylistic glory. 

This image replaces (!) the scan originally featured in this post, which I’ve now tossed to the bottom of this post.  

As well as being evocative and powerful on levels both emotional and intellectual, these illustrations reveal an extraordinary level of intricacy and detail, typical and representative of Finlay’s work.  It might strike one as odd, given the quality of Finlay’s work, that only one of his efforts ever appeared in (more accurately, “on”) Astounding Science Fiction, but the explanation for that sad absence can be found here.  

All images presented here were obtained and adapted from Archive.org’s Pulp Magazine Archive, with the Summer 1952 issue of Fantastic Story Magazine being available here.

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Pages 10-11.

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Page 17

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Page 25

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Akin to my recently updated post showing depictions of C’Mell, in Cordwainer Smith’s The Ballad of Lost C’Mell, “this” post, from August of 2018 – showing illustrations for A.E. van Vogt’s Slan – has been updated to present illustrations for Slan from a different – Russian – angle.

The main impetus for the “original” post was to present Virgil Finlay’s wonderful visual interpretation of the story as seen in his three illustrations in the summer, 1952 issue of Fantastic Story magazine: Jommy Cross’ confrontation with slan girl Joanna Hillory; a symbolic portrait of Jommy juxtaposed against a collage of figures representing the persecution of slans by “normal” humans against slans (Jommy’s golden tendrisl prominently displayed); Jommy, at the thirtieth story of a building in Centropolis, witnessing the launch of a spacecraft operated by tendrilless slans. 

Befitting Fantastic Story, Finlay’s images are themselves fantastic in detail, symbolism, and visual impact, examples of illustration that are not only stylistically but qualitatively unique in science-fiction – and not just science fiction – illustration. 

Giving the significance of Van Vogt’s body of work, it’s unsurprising that it’s been translated into a variety of languages, among which – also unsurprisingly – is Russian.  One title under which Van Vogt’s stories have appeared in the Russian language translation is “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды), or Hybrids, published by Kanon (Канон) publishers in Moscow in 1995, Gibrodiy being one of Kanon’s three compilations of Van Vogt’s works.  A list of seven other Russian-language translations of Van Vogt’s works – 5 books and 2 other items – can be found at Electronic Bookshelves by Vadim Ershov and Company) where these works can be downloaded as zip files.

Hybrids comprises three stories:

1) “Voyna Protiv Rullov” (Война Против Руллов) – The War Against the Rull, translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов)
2) “Slen” (Слен) – Slan, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев)
3) “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids (main title), translated by V. Goryaev (В. Горяев)

The other two titles are:

“Zver” (Зверь) – The Beast, published 1994

Zver includes three stories:

1) “A Dom Stoit Sebe Srokoyno” (А Дом Стоит Себе Срокойно) – The House That Stood Still, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев)
2) “Tvorets Vselennoy” (Творец Вселенной) – The Universe Maker, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой)
3) “Zver” (Зверь) – The Beast (main title), translated by I. Boyko (И.Бойко)

“Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men, published 1995

Dvoyniki includes six stories:

1) “Deti Budushchego” (Дети Будущего) – Children of Tomorrow, translated by K. Prostovoy (К.Простовой)
2) “Vladiki Vremeni” (Владыки Времери) – Time Lords, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой)
3) “Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men (main title)
translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов)
4) “Loobyashchie Androidi” (Любящие Андроиды) – All The Loving Androids, translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов)
5) “Neistrebimie” (Неистребимые) – The Replicators, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев)
6) “Uskolznuvshee iz Ruk Chudo” (Ускользнувшее из Рук Чудо) – Secret Unattainable, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой)

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Front Cover of “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids

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Front Cover of “Zver” (Зверь) – The Beast.  Note the similarity of the building to the police headquarters in (the original) Blade Runner, as seen in this video – “Blade Runner spinner lift-off (’82 theatrical release version)” – from the YouTube channel of Damon Packard II.

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Front cover of “Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men

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Aside from van Vogt’s original authorship, the one commonality among the three Russian translation is their illustrator: Ilya Evgenevich Voronin.  His black and white sketches – in a style akin to that of Dan Adkins – appear as a single illustration in the title page of each work, while each of the stories within is headed by an illustration pertinent to that story. 

In this, Слен is no exception, the lead image depicting Jommy Cross coming upon the departure of a tendrilless slan spacecraft from Centropolis, with Granny looking on…

Ilya Voronin’s illustration for Slan, on page 79 of “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids.

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“He knew that by no logic could that gauntlet of corridor be con­sidered safe. 
At any moment a door might open,
or wisps of thought warn him of men coming around some bend. 
With abrupt decision, he slowed his headlong rush and tried several doors. 
The fourth door yielded to pressure, and Jommy crossed the threshold with a sense of triumph. 
On the far side of the room was a tall, broad window.

He pushed the window open and scrambled out onto the wide sill. 
Crouching low, he peered over the ledge. 
Light came dimly from the other windows of the building,
and by its glow he could see what appeared to be a narrow driveway wedged between two precipices of brick wall.

For an instant he hesitated and then, like a human fly,
started up the brick wall. 
The climbing was simple enough;
enormously strong fingers searched with swift sureness for rough edges. 
The deepening darkness, as he climbed, was hampering,
but with every upward step his confidence surged stronger within him. 
There were miles of roof here and, if he remembered rightly,
the airport build­ings connected on every side with other buildings. 
What chance had slans who could not read minds against a slan who could avoid their every trap?

The thirtieth, and top, story!
With a sigh of relief, Jommy pulled himself erect and started along the flat roof. 
It was nearly dark now,
but he could see the top of a neighboring building that almost touched the roof he was on. 
A leap of two yards at most, an easy jump. 
With a loud clang! the clock in a nearby tower began to in­tone the hour. 
One – two – five – ten!
And on the stroke, a low, grinding noise struck Jommy’s ears,
and suddenly, in the shadowy center of that expanse of roof opposite him yawned a wide,
black hole.  Startled, he flung himself flat, holding his breath.

And from that dark hole a dim torpedo-like shape leaped into the star-filled sky. 
Faster, faster it went; and then, at the uttermost limit of vision,
a tiny, blazing light sprang from its rear. 
It flickered there for a moment, then was gone, like a star snuffed out.

Jommy lay very still, his eyes straining to follow the path of the strange craft. 
A spaceship. 
By all the heavens, a spaceship!
Had these tendrilless slans realized the dream of the ages—to operate flights to the planets?
If so, how had they kept it secret from human beings?
And what were the true slans doing?” (pp. 30-31)

References

Fantastic Story Quarterly / Fantastic Story Magazine, at Wikipedia
Luminist Archive, at LuministOrg
Slan, at Wikipedia
Slan (full text), at Prospero’s Isle
Science Fiction Laboratory (in Russian), at FantLab.ru
Ilya Evgenevich Voronin (in Russian), at FantLab.ru
Ilya Evgenevich Voronin (In Russian), at LibRuSec.ru
Virgil Finlay, at Wikipedia
Virgil Finlay, at WordsEnvisioned

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January 2020 362

Startling Stories – October, 1954 (Featuring “Spacemen Lost”, by George O. Smith) [Alex Schomburg]

This post dates back a-ways.  Specifically, to February of 2018.  Displaying Alex Schomburg’s cover for the October, 1954 issue of Startling Stories, as a way of indirectly leading to Virgil Finlay’s illustration for “Spacemen Lost”, the image I showed originally was simply “copy & saved” from the Internet.  (It’s now shown all the way at the bottom of the post.)

Since then, I’ve been able to acquire a copy of this issue in very nice condition, with the cover featuring only one minor fold on the right edge, but no real tears or crinkles.  Considering the untrimmed fragility of the cover edges of Startling Stories and similar Thrilling Publication pulps, it’s a fortunate find.   

And so, the entire cover…

…and then, a cropped view of Schomburg’s art.  The scene depicted bears no direct (for that matter, not even an indirect) relationship to the issue’s contents, but it’s quite appropriate, the shades of blue in the painting nicely balanced by the white and blue border.  Then again, on second thought, notice that the earth’s cloudless?  Just how did all that tan moondust (spacedust?) pile up around the lower stages of the two spaceships?  Where are the astronauts going?  No matter; it’s nice to look at.    

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Here’s Virgil Finlay’s illustration, on page 19, for “Spacemen Lost”.

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And the rear cover, featuring an advertisement for the Collected Works of Zane Grey.  

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On a related note, prompted by a reader’s inquiry (about which probably more in the future?), I learned about the Italian science fiction magazine Urania, which commenced publication on October 10, 1952, by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.  A degree of further searching led to MondoUrania, an excellently organized website, where medium-size covers for all issues of the magazine are displayed, and (this is the really impressive part) clicking on the cover image of any randomly-chosen issue generates the same image in slightly larger size, accompanied by bibliographic information about that issue, and, a summary blurb about the issue’s central sttory.

So, scrolling through, among, between, and within and without all these images, I was surprised to recognize the cover art for Startling Stories of October, 1954, for the cover of Urania issue 98, dated September 29, 1955.  And then, I realized that the Urania cover is not that of Startling, but an adaptation which features two spacecraft, and, astronauts in different positions.  What?  Who? 

Well, it turns out that the cover art is by Curt Ceaser (working name for Kurt Kaiser), who completed approximately 200 covers for Urania for issues published between 1952 and 1957.  Some of his oeuvre are, frankly, “meh”, many are knock-offs and adaptations of contemporary American science fiction pulp art – which will probably be readily recognizable, like this one, and, this one, both inspired by Galaxy Science Fiction – while some seem to have a relatively greater degree of originality. 

So, here’s the bibliographical information accompanying MondorUrania’s illustration of issue 98.  (In Italian, of course.)

98 – 29/9/1955
Copertina di C. Caesar

I PIANETI DELLA LIBERTA (BORN LEADER) – J.T. McINTOSH

L’autore immagina che, negli ultimi giorni di agonia della Terra distrutta dalle radiazioni, un’astronave parta per il primo viaggio interplanetario con un carico di ragazzi sui sedici anni che saranno, su un nuovo pianeta, il Mundis, il ceppo della nuova Umanità.  Durante il viaggio, che dura quattordici anni, le coppie che si sono formate decidono di non avere figli se non quando saranno arrivati al termine del viaggio.  Per conseguenza, la nuova generazione è divisa dalla vecchia da un periodo di tempo che costituisce un abisso tra il mondo degli anziani e quello dei giovani, abisso reso più profondo dall’ignoranza completa dei giovani su tutto ciò che, sulla Terra, aveva costituito una base di vita per i loro padri, compresa la forza nucleare, considerata tabù. Mundis è un mondo felice, ma fermo.  E i giovani che dai microfilm trasportati sull’astronave e gelosamente conservati, capiscono che la Terra era molto più progredita nella scienza, si ribellano alla congiura del silenzio dei vecchi, vogliono che il mondo sul quale sono nati fruisca anch’esso del progresso.  La lotta fra loro e i vecchi si risolve attraverso un pericoloso avvenimento: l’arrivo su Mundis di un’altra astronave, la Clades, che trasporta gli ultimi – questa volta veramente tali – superstiti della Terra.  Gli scampati hanno un altro sistema di vita, militaresco e dittatoriale, e sono animati da spirito di conquista.  Chi prevarrà nella lotta fra questi due mondi, fra questi ultimi campioni dell’umanità divisi da diverse ideologie?  Il romanzo ha un alto contenuto umano e sociale e piacerà a tutti, perchè rispecchia noi tutti, esseri umani, con le nostre debolezze, le nostre qualità, i nostri desideri, i nostri errori e le nostre aspirazioni.

INDICE
MONDI SENZA FINE – CLIFFORD D. SIMAK – 13° puntata
ESISTONO GLI SPIRITI FOLLETTI? – Curiosità scientifiche

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Here’s the English translation of the above, courtesy of Oogle Translate:

Issue 98 – September 29, 1955
Cover by C. Caesar

THE PLANETS OF FREEDOM (BORN LEADER) – J.T. McINTOSH

The author imagines that, in the last days of the agony of the Earth destroyed by radiation, a spaceship leaves for the first interplanetary journey with a load of boys of about sixteen years of age, on a new planet, Mundis, the strain of the new Humanity.  During the journey, which lasts fourteen years, the couples who have formed decide not to have children until they arrive at the end of the journey.  Consequently, the new generation is divided from the old by a period of time which constitutes an abyss between the world of the elderly and that of the young, a gulf made deeper by the complete ignorance of the young on all that, on Earth, had constituted a basis of life for their fathers, including nuclear power, considered taboo.  Mundis is a happy but firm world.  And the young people who, from the microfilms transported on the spaceship and jealously preserved, understand that the Earth was much more advanced in science, rebel against the conspiracy of the silence of the old, they want the world on which they were born also benefits from progress.  The struggle between them and the old is resolved through a dangerous event: the arrival on Mundis of another spaceship, the Clades, carrying the last – this time truly such – Earth survivors.  The survivors have another way of life, military and dictatorial, and are animated by a spirit of conquest.  Who will prevail in the struggle between these two worlds, between these last champions of humanity divided by different ideologies?  The novel has a high human and social content and will please everyone, because it reflects all of us, human beings, with our weaknesses, our qualities, our desires, our mistakes and our aspirations.

INDEX
WORLDS WITHOUT END, by CLIFFORD D. SIMAK – 13th episode
DO ELEGANT SPIRITS EXIST? – Scientific curiosities

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Some References That May Interest You…

Urania Magazine, at…

… Wikipedia (Urania Magazine)

… MondoUrania (“The World of Urania”)

… UraniaMania

… Science Fiction Project – The Lost Treasures

Urania – Issue 98 (September 29, 1955), at…

… MondoUrania

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Born Leader, by J.T. McIntosh, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

… GoodReads

Zane Gray (Paul Zane Gray), at…

… Wikipedia

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Here’s the image of Startling that originally appeared in this post…

2/25/18 244

Sailing to Imagination: The Solar Sail, as Depicted in Amazing Stories (August, 1962) and Analog Science Fact – Science Fiction (April, 1964)

As “no man is an island” – to use a hackneyed but entirely true aphorism – neither is any field of knowledge.  The arenas of the arts, humanities, and sciences, disparate as they may be, have long intersected with and influenced one another in ways ranging from the intellectual, to the cultural, to the artistic.  And, beyond.  Certainly this has long been so in illustrations associated with science fiction, in venues ranging from books, to pulp magazines, to cinema, to the virtual world.  By nature and intent, all of these present visions of worlds past, present, and future – and often “parallel” – based on the science and technology rooted in the real (or, ostensibly “real”!) world.

Two interesting examples of this appeared in the early 1960s, as cover illustrations for the August, 1962 issue of Amazing Stories, and, the April 1964, issue of Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction.  Though utterly different in artistic style, both compositions pertain to stories based upon the solar sail, a method of spacecraft propulsion by means of the radiation pressure of sunlight.

The Amazing Stories cover is by the very well-known artist Alex Schomburg, whose actual name (as I discovered when writing this post!) was either Alexander A. Schomburg, or, Alejandro Schomburg y Rosa.  His painting presents Jack Vance’s story – well, the title is prominently displayed on the cover! – “Gateway to Strangeness”.

“The ship, its great sail spread to the fading sunlight, fled through space like a ghost – out, always out.  There were still a billion miles to travel … a billion miles before they’d know whether they would ever come back.”

The Analog cover is by Harvey Woolhiser (actual name James Harvey Woolhiser) for “Sunjammer”, by Winston P. Sanders.  As far as I’ve been able to determine, this was the only cover illustration Woolhiser created for Analog, let alone Astounding.  Unsurprising: his forte seems not to have been science fiction, albeit he did create a straightforward cover, in muted tones of blue and green, for the November, 1948 issue of Science illustrated, appropriately for the article “Space Travel – Now or Never?”

But, what about “Sanders”?  Who was he?  (Hmmm…  Certainly not Bernie Sanders…  Definitely not Colonel Sanders…)  At first, I thought he may have been a “one-shot” or at best an infrequent author.  Then, a little searching quickly revealed that “Sanders” was actually one of the pen-names of the wonderfully talented Poul Anderson, under which were published these other stories, primarily in Analog.

Pact (1959)
Wherever You Are (1959)
Barnacle Bull (1960)
The Barrier Moment (1960)
The Word to Space (1960)
Industrial Revolution (1963)
What’ll You Give? (1963)
Say It With Flowers (1965)
Elementary Mistake (1967)

As you can see, not only are the covers different in design, style, and color palette, they’re slightly different in proportion as well: For Amazing Stories, Schomburg’s fits the magazine’s standard digest-size format nicely, while Woolhiser’s conforms to the larger, slick-upscale-coffee-table-ish (Manhattan-advertising-agency?  Southern-California aeronautical-engineering-firm?  Academic-think-tank?  Suburban-office-lounge?  University-dorm-room?) format in which Analog was published by Conde-Nast from March of 1963 through March of 1965.

Though both covers depict spacecraft and astronauts – the latter diminutive by virtue of their juxtaposition with spacecraft – I think Schomburg’s image “works” far better, precisely because there’s no central element to the composition: the very center of the scene is “empty” space:  Your eye and mind have to “work”, moving from the moon to the earth to the star-mottled indigo blackness of space to the multi-colored sail, its supporting framework, and attached habitation pod.  All the colors in the scene balance very nicely against the yellow and black “Amazing” logo at the upper left. 

It’s interesting, really. 

Though by the 50s and 60s and doubtless much earlier Amazing Stories lacked the gravitas and literary influence of the “big three” – Analog, Galaxy Science Fiction, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – the magazine’s art and illustrations, both cover and interior, sometimes stood – it seems to me – on a visual footing equal to and on occasion much better than those appearing in those publications.  Then again, compared to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction that wasn’t too difficult, at least in terms of interior illustrations, for those appeared in that publication in only few issues from the late 1950s, most notably for Ray Bradbury’s “Fondly Fahrenheit”.

So, anyway:  An Analog-ous cover…  (Please pardon predictable pun!)

…and, moving in for a closer view:

“The difference between ‘nothing’ and ‘practically nothing’ can turn out to be the most exceedingly practical, because anything whatever is an intolerable contaminant in nothing.  And if that sounds like nonsense – read on and find out!”

While these two covers depicted science-introducing-fiction during the early 1960s, today, nearly five decades later, they serve – indirectly, symbolically, and effectively – as fiction-introducing-science:  Both can be found at the June, 2019 post LightSail 2 Inspires Thoughts on Fictional Sails, at Paul Gilster’s Centauri Dreams website.

Devoted to the presentation of peer-reviewed academic research on the exploration of deep space, Centauri Dreams, which began in August of 2004, encompasses subjects such as the technology of interstellar propulsion and long-duration space travel; the exploration for and identification of extrasolar planets; investigation of the origin, evolution, and nature of other planetary systems; the search for extraterrestrial life (not necessarily alien civilizations a la the works of Arthur C. Clarke or Carl Sagan (whose writings have distinctly theological overtones, with technology and alien intelligence providing a form of secular salvation) but simply plain ole’ “life”, per se, in any form); lengthy philosophical speculation about cosmology, and, well, far more.  The majority of the posts are invaluable in presenting summaries of and excerpts from the latest academic journal papers in the fields of astrophysics, astrobiology, and space research, sometimes with an accompanying illustration or two from the original article, and virtually always with links to the original article in either abstract or open-access form. 

Fundamentally, what makes the site so worthwhile is that the sense of curiosity, wonder, and speculation inherent to its ethos and mission is undergirded by an appreciation of and respect for solid science. 

Well, why not let the website speak for itself?  Thus:

“In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities.  For the last twelve years, this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation.  It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas.”  Refreshingly (whew!)“…Centauri Dreams is not about the existence of UFOs, nor about alien abductions, ‘ancient astronauts,’ electric universe cosmology or other New Age talking points.  It is a review of peer-reviewed research.”

However, that disclaimer is a nice (and slightly ironic!) segue to a significant aspect of Centauri Dreams: Though by no means the central focus of the site, its innumerable posts include a sizeable number (as of mid-2020, I count over twenty) directly pertaining to science fiction.  These comprise discussions about landmark, significant, or just plain ‘ole interesting films (the posts about “Dark Star”, “Forbidden Planet”, and Howard Hawks’ “The Thing” are great), the history of science fiction (“Astounding in the Glory Years”, and Poul Anderson’s “We Have Fed Our Sea” / “The Enemy Stars”), literature (note the two 2006 posts on Astounding) and the mutual influence of space exploration and science fiction on one another.  In a larger sense, many posts at Centauri Dreams are enhanced by science-fiction cover art from books and magazines, which serve as reference points for the topic at hand.

The site’s science-fiction themed posts are below…   

2 0 2 0

January 3
Some Thoughts on Science Fiction Visuals

April 3
The Interstellar Ramjet at 60

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2 0 1 9

June 10
LightSail 2 Inspires Thoughts on Fictional Sails

May 3
“An Intellectual Carrot – The Mind Boggles!” Dissecting The Thing from Another World

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2 0 1 8

April 18
Civilization Before Homo Sapiens?

April 2
2001: A Space Odyssey – 50 Years Later

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2 0 1 7

November 19
‘Dark Star’ and Staring into the Cosmic Abyss

September 11
Creating Our Own Final Frontier: Forbidden Planet

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2 0 1 6

September 9
Star Trek Plus Fifty

February 5
The Distant Thing Imagined

January 25
Proxima Centauri & the Imagination

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2 0 1 5

February 9
We Have Fed Our Sea

January 23
Who Will Read the Encyclopedia Galactica?

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2 0 1 3

March 8
Stranger Than Fiction

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2 0 1 2

March 9
Science Fiction and the Probe

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2 0 1 1

November 18
Science Fiction and the Interstellar Idea

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2 0 0 9

August 28
Science Fiction and Interstellar Thinking

January 26
A Science Fictional Take on Being There

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2 0 0 8

November 15
Science Fiction: Future Past

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2 0 0 7

March 10
Whither the Science Fiction Magazines?

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2 0 0 6

September 4
Astounding in the Glory Years

April 15
A Key Paper from an Astounding Source

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2 0 0 5

August 30
On the Evolution of Science Fiction

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References

Centauri Dreams – Imaging and Planning Interstellar Exploration, at Centauri-Dreams.org

Alex Schomburg (Alexander A. Schomburg / Alejandro Schomburg y Rosa), at Wikipedia

James Harvey Woolhiser, obituary at Legacy.com

Poul Anderson, bibliography at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Tau Zero Foundation – Pioneering Interstellar Flight, at tauzero.aero

“No man is an island,” at phrases.org

Startling Stories – April, 1952 (Featuring “The Glory That Was”, by L. Sprague de Camp) [Alex Schomburg] [Updated post…!]

[Update, May, 2021! …  I recently learned from Mike Chomko, publisher of The Pulpster (affiliated with PulpFest), that the cover artist of this issue of Startling Stories was Alex Schomburg.  So, the text of this post has been updated accordingly.  Thanks for the tip, Mike.]

I’ve recently had the good fortune to acquire several issues of Startling Stories, giving me the opportunity to present my own scans of this magazine, rather than images randomly found on the ‘net. 

This post is the first such example:  Originally created on February 17, 2018, it’s been updated to include images of the front and rear covers of the the magazine’s issue of April, 1952.

Though no artist’s names appear in the issue’s table of contents, this softly-pink-horizoned-moonscape-with-cloudless-earth-floating-in-the-distance was created by Alex Schomburg.  It looks as if the light gray to silver to dark gray to black shadings of the lunar mining machine were done via airbrush…     

So, the front cover:

…and the back cover, with an advertisement for The Collected Works of Zane Grey. 

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Here’s Paul Orban’s Illustration  – on page 89 – for “The Intruder”, by Oliver E. Saari, whose life encompassed the realms of engineering and science fiction. 

I’ve not read Saari’s story, but the theme of the “header” blurb – below – reminds me of episode six from (the otherwise sadly and highly uneven) season four of The Man in The High Castle: (“All Serious Daring“). 

The concept is also highly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber, Junior’s, “Destiny Times Three” – one of the most brilliantly executed tales of parallel universes I’ve ever read!  Then again, Leiber was an extraordinary writer! – which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in March and April of 1945. 

“To have an exact duplicate of yourself show up and take over your business, your wife? … brother, it’s murder!”

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Here’s the cover image – from Archive.org – that originally appeared in this post.