The Artful Astronaut: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – November, 1962 [Edmund Emshwiller]

Four short months after the appearance of his cover illustration for the June, 1962, issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Edmund Emshwiller – “Emsh” – created cover art for the magazine’s November issue that was utterly different in style and mood.  Though this painting, too, depicted an astronaut, this space explorer seems to be a person quite different from “George”, the intergalactic dispenser of unknown elixers!

Taken at first (and second?) glance, the viewer might be hard-pressed to think that the two illustrations were products of the same hand.  November’s astronaut is painted in bold, rough-edged, unrefined strokes.  His spacesuit is odd:  His visor is a little confining, if it is a visor: It iincorporates a set of vertical bars.  His helmet is decorated with two cylindrical, mechanical protrusions: While they could be thrusters for maneuvering in space, they look all the world like something a little more earthbound:  Spigots.  Beer spigots, that is.  Well, there is lots of ambiguity going on here, which is reflected in the astronaut’s pensive countenance.

The sky behind provides an interesting contrast: Rather than appearing as gradations of a particular shade of color, or a series of colors gradually blending into and away from one another, the sky appears as distinctly-edged waves of green, purplish-brown, medium blue, and dark blue, with a few small stars floating just above the horizon:  The feel is vaguely reminiscent; lightly akin, to Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, albeit spacecraft were not known to have existed during van Gogh’s lifetime.  At least, as far as is known.  At least, on earth.

Something else; a tiny detail:  Ed Emshwiller typically signed his art with the four-letter moniker “EMSH” tiny in capital letters, often “hiding” his diminutively-written signature somewhere within the details of his finished work, whether painting or black & white interior illustration.  For example, in the June, 1962 issue of TMFandSF, “EMSH” appears on the sole of the astronaut’s left boot.

But, November’s cover is anonymous: EMSH is nowhere to be found.  And, another similarity with June:  This, too, is a “stand-alone” illustration:  The painting pertains to none of the stories within the issue, and, is un-named in the table of contents.

Perhaps we’re supposed to supply the story?

The Artful Astronaut: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – June, 1962 [Edmund Emshwiller]

Whimsy is an interesting thing.

Usually, we think of whimsicality in terms of the play of words and sentences. 

But, the visual arts can be whimsical as well.

Case in point, the work of Edmund Emshwiller (or, “EMSH”, for short).  An artist whose extraordinarily prolific output was only exceeded by his sense of imagination and creativity, Emsh’s oeuvre primarily comprised cover art for softcover books and pulp magazines, as well as – perhaps more abundantly – black and white interior illustrations.  His cover paintings for both literary formats are characterized by boldness and variety of color, an almost camera-like, stop-motion “capture” and portrayal of action (whether of individual men and women, machines, or both), and, an almost physicalized and detailed crispness and clarity to alien worlds and imagined future technology, the latter particularly in terms of the interiors of spacecraft, as well as spacesuits, weapons, and related equipment.

But on occasion, his art took a different (or latent?!) turn:  It could be humorously insightful, as shown on the cover of the January, 1955 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.

Or, it could playful, as seen in cover of the June, 1962 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  Here, while the taken-for-granted scenario of an astronaut floating in the void of intergalactic space might conventionally focus on the rather – um, er, ah – challenging (?!) aspects of this predicament most dire, Emsh – presumably inspired by illustrations of spacesuits prevalent at the time, particularly Randall F. White and George J. Scott’s 1961 design for a full pressure flight suit (below), from Patent Room.com – takes a different turn. 

Our hero George (or, is he an anti-hero!?) is equipped with an air tank decorated with the phrase “GEORGE’S ELIXIR – GUARANTEED MONEY BACK IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED.”     

On his arm, where a tattoo would be: “MOTHER”

Oh his torso, where a tattoo could be: an octopus, a pair of dice, and the shield from the Great Seal of the United States. 

On his thigh, where a tattoo might be: a nude image of “ROSIE”, and, the head of a bald eagle.

On his calf, where a tattoo almost certainly is: “HOME SWEET HOME”.

Alas.  This is a stand-alone illustration:  While the table of contents lists the artist as “Ed Emsh”, no title attached to the painting, and the painting pertains to no story. 

Perhaps George’s story is ours to imagine.