Retro science fiction is simply the best. Movies like The Forbidden Planet or Metropolis are candy for the eyes, but you know what is also great about those movies? Their promotional posters. And you know what their promotional posters looked like? Old book covers. If you look at early editions of books from Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Clark Ashton Smith or Strange Tales, you’ll notice the unique style of their artworks. Early science fiction always had this great and colorful feeling of what we’re going to call “retrofuturism,” which is basically a view of the future, but from the past.
The artist we are showing you today is no amateur. Bruce Pennington is a well-known British painter that made a name for himself with book covers. Those paintings are mainly of what he called “flying saucers” (but I also added is a portrait of Aleister Crowley) and contain a lot of aliens and spaceships. Be warned though, after watching this, you will feel the urge to buy the Dune series, watch Silent Running and maybe even read Dan Simmon’s Hyperion.
