Oct 17
Bibliomancer’s Art Direction: I want a picture that will be timeless. Like a mash-up of Peter Max meets Chairman Mao. Art like that will never go out of style. Now give me another foot-long pill and leave me alone. I’ve got a lot of art-making to do!
Published 1970
October 17th, 2013 at 10:33 am
Dan Daren’t meets Chairman Mao-kon? Is this what happens if you take the pill?
October 17th, 2013 at 11:03 am
‘You’ll give up those horns, old chum. You’ll give them right up if you know what’s good for you.’
October 17th, 2013 at 11:33 am
What exactly is the pink-haired George Melly leaning on? Is this a Sir Mix-A-Lot situation?
October 17th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Crystal Tipps & Alistair: the Global Domination Years.
As for the size of the pill, I find it rather hard to swallow.
October 17th, 2013 at 12:27 pm
For some reason (pardon me if I’m being simply too obscure) this made me think of the Talking Heads video for ‘Once In A Lifetime’, where David Byrne’s preacherman does the karate chop gesture all along his raised forearm. Perhaps based on this cover …
October 17th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
i like this cover it is excellent.
October 17th, 2013 at 1:27 pm
Man, that US gov’t shutdown affected everything! Even GSS was offline! But now that you’re back, all I have to say is:
That guy on the cover really looks like a butthead.
October 17th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
@Tat, haha whaaaaaaaat
October 17th, 2013 at 2:04 pm
@Phil: If memory serves, that’s pretty much the plot.
@Adam Roberts: so it’s not a big pill, it’s a sausage. ‘Same as a liverwurst. Same as a liverwurst…’
October 17th, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Featuring Old Men, New Men, Under Men, Unusuals, and Friends. The three on the cover strike me as ‘Unusuals’, most definitely.
October 17th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
The Day They Shot Gay Space-Mao
October 17th, 2013 at 3:13 pm
This book is emblematic of the Science Fiction Book Club in its heyday. You would sign up for their 3-books-for-a-penny introductory offer. Then receive a big box with your hardcover Asimov’s Foundation, A Princess of Mars, and Again Dangerous Visions books. And then forget to mail back the card for next month’s feature selection. Several weeks later you get a box in the mail with …. Sweet Sufferin’ Jesus … your ghastly-looking new copy of “Our Friends From Frolix 8”.
October 17th, 2013 at 4:47 pm
Chairman Mao say:
If we have a correct theory but merely prate about it, pigeonhole it and do not put it into practice, then that theory, however good, is of no significance.
“On Practice” (July 1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 304.
Theory – BEHIND YOU!
October 17th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
I hate to see the enemies from frolix 8! Or…. would I….
October 17th, 2013 at 5:31 pm
The guy on the left is clearly a New Man. Only New Men would colour-coordinate their necktie to their hair and their medication.
October 17th, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Antenna Man’s face is on the spine. His dead, red eyes staring at you from off your bookshelf…boring into what little is left of your soul…your drooling mouth agape in a parody of his own…the horror, the horror…
October 17th, 2013 at 9:36 pm
Chairman Mao’s arm is also a pill. That’s why they are training a weapon on him.
November 21st, 2013 at 7:22 pm
“Want a marshmallow?”
March 28th, 2014 at 9:54 pm
To be fair to the artist, this IS a Philip K. Dick book, so the chance that this bizarre cover accurately reflects the contents is substantial.