Adrian Chesterman - A gallery of book covers

 

I nearly bid on a copy of this the other day just because I liked the cover but then I heard the creak of my bookshelves and decided to hold back.  On the plus side it made me do a little investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

Well these are rather lovely, aren't they.  For obvious reasons I've selected the covers with spacesuits in them but if you go google image; Adrian Chesterman, you will find a lot of very beautiful icon book covers from the 70s and 80s. Enjoy, I know I did.


Steve

Dog in a Spacesuit (2019)

Available from a different branch of the same chain of discounted ex-catalogue stores that had the Cat in a spacesuit.... I'm still not sure why or if there are yet more to be discovered.

Steve

Cat in a Spacesuit (2019)

I saw this over the weekend in a discounted ex-catalogue store.  I have lots of questions about it and absolutely no answers....which doesn't mean we cant enjoy it on whatever level that may be!

 

 

Steve

The Man In The Moon - Charlie Drake (1964)

This is the cover of The Man In The Moon, the 7" 45rpm EP record featuring Charlie Drake, The Michael Sammes Singers and Johnnie Spence And His Orchestra.  This vinyl release featured the hit songs from Robert Nesbitt's Space-Age musical, which ran at the London Palladium from December 23rd 1963 for the Christmas season.  (That's roughly the same time that the British public were catching there first glimpse of Doctor Who's Daleks!)  Now I wasn't around back then but I am just old enough that everything above means something to me and I actually know, broadly speaking, who all of those names are, but then I am developing a latent taste for cheesy old tunes of yesteryear.


Steve         

Dean Ellis Gallery (various dates)

Marvellously talented artist


Steve

Bubble Funnies Mini Comic 3 - Captain America (1981)

14 page promotional comic with cover art by Herb Trimpe.

Steve

Peter Jones Cover Gallery (0000)

There is so much of Peter Jones artwork that I love, especially his work on the Larry Niven books, but for the purposes of this blog, here's some with spacemen in them

Steve

2000AD issue 2089 (2018)

Cover of a very recent copy of UK weekly comic book; 2000AD.  This is by the great Chris Weston, whose art, design and creativity is staggeringly good

Steve

Morph in Space (2016)

Morph is a much loved British TV animated character that has been around for decades and who, in 2016, went where no other plasticine creature has gone before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM7lSAYKmsE

 

 

 

Steve

Landing on the Moon postcard by Angus Clifford Racey Helps (????)

A curiosity from the paintbrush of Angus Clifford Racey Helps (1913 to 1970)

Thanks to Paul Magrs for leading me to this


Steve

Doppelganger - Original Concept (1969)

I was having a little wander around the internet, looking for some pictures for another post and stumbled across this....

Found courtesy of The Prop Gallery website, this is the original concept art by Derek Meddings  for the Spacesuit first used in the 1969 film Doppelganger, AKA; Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.  The art has long since been sold but go visit the website for a good look around.

 

http://www.thepropgallery.com/derek-meddings-spacesuit-concept-design

 

I think that this is rather a special find for Say; Hello Spaceman, as its this suit in conjunction with the Moon Zero Two suit that first got me interested in tracking those spacesuits that feature in multiple media. And to think, it all started here beneath the pencil and paints of Derek Meddings, a man that designed so much of my childhood.  What a hero

 

 

Steve

Merry Mars by Chris Trevas (2005)

A finer piece of Santa/spaceman art you will be hard pushed to find.  Fantastic work, by Chris Trevas.  And a great big happy Christmas for those that care, otherwise just enjoy the holiday

 

http://www.christrevas.com/index.html

Steve

Great Adventure Stories for Boys Hamlyn story library (1977)

 1977

1980?

Two editions of the same book, both paying homage to a different, previously existing, spacesuit.

The first is clearly: Space: 1999 - Mission of the Darians (1975) with some elements of the  UFO and Moon Zero Two spacesuits

And the second is the classic: Alien (1979) Ripley's Suit

Because I'm reading a lot of old books from the 60's 70's and 80's this year I was quite happy to order myself an copy of the top one for that reason and the rather lovely cover.  I'll update artist info when it arrives, if its documented.


Steve

Sam (2016) ...and other animals.

I think this is very cool.

Sam, a 12 meter tall monument of a monkey cosmonaut, by sculptor Denis Prasolov.  It was placed in Kronvald Park, Riga in Latvia.  It pays tribute to all the animals that died in spaceflight survival tests before manned missions were attempted.

There are also some other versions of Sam and other animal cosmonauts in alternative format.

 

....and others to view here:

https://www.denisprasolov.com/kopiya-first-crew-all-the-heroes

Enjoy

Steve

"Help" by Svjeeta (2013)

Here's a fantastic spaceman themed illustration called "help" that features an alien helping a wounded astronaut. It was created by Deviant Art user Svjeeta, and is magical.

Steve

Jeremy Geddes

A small sample of the very beautiful photo-surreal art of Jeremy Geddes. Go search the internet for many more

Steve

The Interpreter by Brian Aldiss. Cover by Bruce Pennington (1973)

A bit of a classic cover as far as I'm concerned.

Steve