Lots of my earlier posts display interior illustrations from Astounding Science Fiction from the 40s and 50s (particularly the year 1950). With this post, I’m revisiting that theme…
…here’s an illustration by Edmund Emshwiller for Raymond F. Jones’ tale “Academy for Pioneers”, which appears on page 114 of this issue. (Is that a GoPro mount on the front of the astronauts’ helmets?!) This story has never been anthologized, while the cover story, “The Missionaries”, was only republished in 1972.
And, the magazine’s rear cover, with an advertisement for the Science-Fiction book club…
[Update – December 26, 2020: My search for additional sightings of Frank the Robot has been successful. I’m happy to report that he’s been captured on video on many occasions, and entirely un-UFO-like, his identity has been definitively verified by amateur and professional observers from locales the world over. It turns out that he’s not at all reticent about public appearances, seeming to quietly revel in and appreciate public recognition. True, he doesn’t say much. (Actually, he doesn’t say anything at all.) After all, if you’re a metallic man several stories tall, your presence alone speaks for itself.
I’ve also included numerous links about Frank’s creator, Frank Kelly Freas. Oh, yes… Note Frank’s resemblance to the robot in Freas’ black & white illustration for Tom Godwin’s story “The Gulf Between”. A distant relative?
So, to view a better Frank sighting, scroll down a little – just below Stewie Griffin – and enjoy.]
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“What the hell is that, a killer robot monster?!”
Frank Kelly Freas’ art gets around, in ways quite unexpected:
I recently discovered that the plaintive, puppy-dog-eyed, giant robot featured on the cover of the October 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction – the inspiration for the cover art of Queen’s 1997 album “News of the World” – was encountered in the latter form by none other than Family Guy’s Stewie Griffin, in the series’ 2012 episode “Killer Queen”. As you can see in the clip below (original here), Stewie’s introduction to the un-named metal monstrosity – courtesy of Brian Griffin – is a meeting quite memorable.
“You wanted obedience Cullin – now you have it. You climbed a long way up by forcing human beings to behave like machines. But you were wrong in one respect; no human can ever be forced to behave exactly like a machine, and no machine can ever be constructed that will behave exactly like a human. Machines are the servants of humans, not their equals. There will always be a gulf between Flesh and Steel. Read those five words on the panel before you and you will understand.
It was a good ship, built to travel almost forever, and it hurled itself on through the galaxy at full acceleration; on and on until the galaxy was a great pinwheel of white fire behind it and there was nothing before it.
On and on, faster and faster, into the black void of Nothing; without reason or purpose while a dark-eyed robot stared at a skeleton that was grinning mirthlessly at a five-word sentence:
A MACHINE DOES NOT CARE (Tom Godwin, “The Gulf Between”, p. 56) ________________________________________
“God, why does he look sad?! He’s already destroyed mankind; what else could he want?!”
“I’ll tell you what the news of the world is, we’re in a lot of #@%$*! trouble!”
Having created this post in May of 2018, I’ve since acquired a copy of the October, 1952, issue of Astounding in much better condition than the “original”.
While the cover of the “new” magazine has none of the chipps and scuffs; dings and bends; creases and wrinkles, of the original, the most notable difference is between the color tones of the covers, despite the two images having been created with the same Epson scanner.
As for the cover art itself?
By Richard Van Dongen, it’s quite striking, and somewhat reminiscent of Gaylord Welker’s cover for the December, 1952, issue of Astounding, albeit Welker’s cover was unrelated to any story in the magazine.
Images of the “olde” and “new” covers are displayed below…
The December, 1952, issue of Astounding Science Fiction bears a cover that’s remarkably simple in composition, yet by virtue of that simplicity conveys a story wordlessly. (Well okay, the title in the lower left corner is a give-away!)
Though most of Gaylord Welker’s painting consists of little more than a deeply blue sky darkly ascending to near-black (the scan you’re viewing has significantly more color latitude than the printed image), the wrecked spacecraft at lower left and forlorn astronaut at lower right – is that an ejection-seat “D-ring” in his left hand? – tell you all you need to know. Ironically, though, like numerous other cover illustrations for 1950s issues of Astounding, Galaxy Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science from the ’50s, there’s no direct tie-in to any story in the actual issue.
Which means, of course, that the image is begging for literary treatment.
Which has been done across the decades, of course, with great variation!
Anyway, the accompanying illustration is Henry Richard Van Dongen’s lovely panoramic cityscape for Asimov’s “The Currents of Space”.
I’ve now (April, 2020) updated the post by making some minor tweaks to the scan of Van Dongen’s art: I’ve situated the two halves of the image closer to one another, and, increased the contrast. However minor in effect, I think this marks at least a degree of improvement over the original scan from 2017.
Which, is shown at bottom.
So, I can’t tell which I like more – the Welker or the Van Dongen…!
Illustration by Henry Richard Van Dongen, for Isaac Asimov’s story “The Currents of Space” (pp. 130-131)
…here’s an illustration by Edmund Emshwiller for Raymond F. Jones’ tale “Academy for Pioneers”, which appears on page 114 of this issue. (Is that a GoPro mount on the front of the astronauts’ helmets?!) This story has never been anthologized, while the cover story, “The Missionaries”, was only republished in 1972. 
