Graphic Design
eBooks: The Steve Ramsay World-Wide Adventures by Rosaylmer Burger
Graphic Design
Adventure novels have a long history of popularity. Evolving from mythical stories of Odysseus and Beowulf to explorers of strange lands, by the 1960s we had James Bond and cold warriors.
eBook: The Beetle by Richard Marsh
Graphic Design
While I was working on the eBook for The Jewel of Seven Stars, I came across The Beetle, first published in 1897, just a few years before Jewel. More importantly, it was released the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and rivalled it in popularity.
eBook: The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
Graphic Design
The original tale of the Egyptian mummy come back to life was written by Bram Stoker – the author of Dracula – and first published in 1903. The Jewel of Seven Stars owes much to the dramatics of Victorian theatre. Stoker 's professional life was as an acting and business manager in the theatre, and the first half of this book is devoted to the manners and formalities of late 19th century English culture.
Amerika: 1987 TV Mini Series
Graphic Design
Amerika arrived in February 1987, a seven-part ABC TV mini series focused on the former USA 10 years after the USSR successfully invaded and defeated the Americans. Starring Robert Urich, Kris Kristofferson, Sam Neill, Christine Lahti, Wendy Hughes and Armin Mueller-Stahl, the story explores the troubled world of Americans in defeat and a nervous Soviet leadership afraid of an uprising.
The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual 2.0
Graphic Design
In 1975, Franz Joseph’s Technical Manual was the perfect companion to his Enterprise blueprints. While there are more accurate sources now, these were two of the best items to have during the time after The Original Series went off the air and before the movies began.
Doctor Strange (1978) DVD and Blu-ray Cover
Graphic Design
You have to feel for the folks over at Shout Factory. They got the rights to re-release the 1978 Doctor Strange TV movie to tie in with the release of the new feature film starring Benedict Cumberbatch. And they went to the effort to remaster it from the original film elements. That's dedication, and one of the reasons genre film and TV lovers love Shout like cinephiles love Criterion and Kino Lorber. They do things right.
eBook: Gene Roddenberry's Spectre by Robert Weverka
Graphic Design
Post-Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry made a series of pilots in the 1970s: Genesis II (1973), Planet Earth (1974), The Questor Tapes (1974) and Spectre (1977).
Donald Trump's America Poster
Graphic Design
One-hundred-and-five years ago, cartoonist Udo J Keppler saw the interests of capitalists and plutocrats at odds with his country's stated goals of liberty and justice for all. The Golden Calf reigned supreme.
Battleship – The Game
Graphic Design
Battleship is quite an old game at this point, starting out as a pencil and paper game from the First World War era. The object is to sink your opponent's ships by calling out grid references, shelling the hidden navy. Hit or miss until total victory.
The Last Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Graphic Design
Abraham Lincoln was the right man for the right time in US history. He preserved his country's Union through brutal civil war. By 1865, there was reason for hope to the end of conflict. In February of that year, he sat for what would be his last formal portrait.
"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses…"
Graphic Design
While built for other reasons, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, USA has come to symbolize the dreams and ambitions of generations of immigrants who came to the US to leave behind the strife in their native lands and fulfill the American Dream of peace, prosperity and freedom for their families.
Fantastic Voyage Posters and Wallpapers
Graphic Design
Fantastic Voyage was released in 1966. Well-written, imaginative and with a good cast, it was one of the better science fiction films of the 60s.
Filmation Tarzan Lord of the Jungle Season 1 DVD Cover
Graphic Design
In 1976, Filmation had the license to produce Tarzan cartoons for Saturday mornings. Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle debuted with 16 episodes that first season, and it was different than many previous portrayals of Edgar Rice Burroughs' signature character. Tarzan was shown as an intelligent and civilised character who had fantastic adventures with his animal friends in lost cities and strange civilisations, just as he was in the original novels. A lot of kids like me loved it.
eBook: Dr. Syn · A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh
Graphic Design
Russell Thorndike created Doctor Syn for this, his first novel, published in 1915. A native of Romney Marsh in southeast England, he chose to base the book around real-life smuggling in the area in the late 18th century. Dr. Christopher Syn, an elderly parson, has his life turned upside down when His Majesty's government comes to Dymchurch-under-the-Wall to investigate that smuggling.
Dr. Syn alias the Scarecrow Novel Cover
Graphic Design
In 1975, Disney decided to re-release Dr. Syn as a 75-minute feature film, and to tie into that, they commissioned Victoria Crume (aka Vic Crume) to write a novelisation of the film for young readers, something she had done before for other Disney properties and would do again.
Dr. Syn – The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
Graphic Design
Russell Thorndike's Doctor Syn first appeared in the novel of the same name in 1915, with six more novels following in the 1930s and 40s. The general public knows Syn from the 1964 Disney episodes starring Patrick McGoohan, but that's only one version of the story. The rest is worth looking at.
AssignmentEarth.ca Relaunched
Graphic Design
The web's most complete site on this back-door pilot from Star Trek gets its seventh major update, with new design and content.
eBook: Ornament
Graphic Design
This one came to me with the design language set by Liz Boyer of Chalk. I completed the book layout and then converted it to ePUB and KF8/MOBI ebooks in a short turnaround to be ready for the Christmas market. I'm told it peaked at #14 on iTunes in the Biography & Memoirs category.
John Carter of Mars 2: The Gods of Mars Poster
Graphic Design
A set of teaser posters for John Carter of Mars II: The Gods of Mars. With Disney having let their option lapse after acquiring the Star Wars franchise, perhaps Warner Bros. will explore the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
eBook: A Princess of Mars Cover by Frank E. Schoonover
Graphic Design
One of the classic editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars is the first printing, published by A.C. McClurg & Co. in 1917. Frank E. Schoonover, a top illustrator of the day, painted the cover and interior plates. Schoonover was a student of the master Howard Pyle – as was NC Wyeth – and there are definite similarities between the artists.
Tarzan Covers by Neal Adams and Boris Vallejo
Graphic Design
I have to credit Neal Adams for getting me to read my first Edgar Rice Burroughs' book – Tarzan of the Apes – in 1977. Having read his DC Comics work, Neal Adams was the epitome of what comics could be to a 12-year-old boy. That he did some of his best painting work on these covers for Ballantine in 1976 is what drew me to buy the book.
John Carter of Mars Covers by Michael Whelan
Graphic Design
In 1979, Del Rey/Ballantine Books commissioned Michael Whelan to paint new covers for Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars novels, succeeding Gino D'Achille's 1973 series.
JFK: We Choose to Go to the Moon
Graphic Design
I'm just old enough to remember the last of the Moon landings in the early 70s. It seemed normal, like it was what people did. But the Moon missions were soon cancelled, and we haven't seen a person walking on another planet since. We had to satisfy ourselves with robotic probes like Viking's mission to Mars. And then the shuttle came, but it never got out of orbit.
The Thunder Child Banner
Graphic Design
Here's a quick project for The Thunder Child blog, done in trade for some SF memorabilia.
The Starlost Compendium
Graphic Design
The Starlost was a television series that aired primarily on NBC in the U.S. and CTV in Canada during 1973. Created by Harlan Ellison – with technical details on the ship by Ben Bova – it was an early foray into Canadian-American co-production and syndication release.
eBook: When the Sky Fell
Graphic Design
When the Sky Fell details a scientific theory about Earth crust displacement first put forth by Charles Hapgood, and expanded on by Rand and Rose Flem-Ath. Albert Einstein supported Hapgood's work. The theory also dovetails with Plato's description of the end of Atlantis, and the many flood myths in ancient literature. When the Sky Fell was first published in the 1990s, and I was at one point working on the updated version to be published as an ebook.
eBook: The Forbidden Manuscript
Graphic Design
This book is in the vein of The DaVinci Code, and I chose to create the design for it as something more than an average mass-market item.
eBook: Assignment: Earth
Graphic Design
"Assignment: Earth" aired in the spring of 1968 as the last episode of the second season of the original Star Trek. It began, however, as a completely separate pilot script by Gene Roddenberry almost two years earlier.
Think Different: Here's to the Crazy Ones
Graphic Design
The Think Different campaign by TBWA\Chiat\Day\Los Angeles for Apple Computer in 1997 is the campaign that shows us advertising can be done for the right reasons and it can benefit the society it speaks to, not merely distract us and part us from our money. Think Different delivered on its promise by promoting a computer that was unlike anything else at the time.
The Exploration of Space by Arthur C. Clarke
Graphic Design
A few years ago, I approached a publisher of space books with the idea of producing a series of volumes that would reprint the most important texts of the space age. The publisher passed, citing it being outside their business model, and they weren't set up to work with outside designers. I still think it's a good idea.
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Graphic Design
This is the third, and probably final, post about Tom Adams' paintings for the works of Raymond Chandler. Below is how The Lady in the Lake appeared when published. Adams left a quiet space at the top of each composition for the title and byline, and in those days that was all that was needed (no excessive marketing text).
eBook: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Graphic Design
My favourite novel was written by Philip K. Dick and first published in 1962. The Man in the High Castle won the 1962 Hugo award, the Oscars of science fiction, for best novel of the year.