As I mentioned in last month’s post, Peter Elson created many of the covers for Harry Harrison’s books, but he wasn’t the only brilliant artist to do so. This month’s image comes from Alan Craddock, another British artist, who created the eye-catching image below. He also worked on my favorite comic 2000 AD, which gave the world Judge Dredd among many other fantastic characters.
One of the things that initially attracted me to science fiction was the entertainment factor. Sure, it was geeky, sometimes it was thought-provoking, and some stories had a high technical content, but mainly it was that sense of fun!
This image was used for the novel Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers–as the title suggests, a completely over the top, gleeful read. The colorful, brash, and bold artwork reflects the book’s tongue-in-cheek mood perfectly. Mr. Craddock also created the artwork for You can be The Stainless Steel Rat – an interactive game book, which occupies another precious space on my bookshelves.
You can read more about Mr. Craddock on the Science Fiction Book Art website, and I’m happy to say that he posts about his artwork on Twitter.
And here is my well-read, tatty copy. 🙂
