The U.E.S.P.A. Series of books...

[The Lensman]

HEY! I was thinking about this project of yours in the last few weeks. I'm glad to see you're back in the saddle. I'm not personally familiar with the work of Richard Powers but I do like the trippiness of the style.

Thanks Albertese, it was fun doing some more of these covers. As with too many artistic projects, this one is constantly being tweaked, specifically the internal chronology. That was one of the appeals of doing the Bantam collected editions, because I didn't have to worry so much about who did what. So some of those story summaries in the post will probably get tweaked a bit. For the most part nothing is "official" until the solo book cover is done. That pretty much sets in stone what ship, captain or other character was the focus of that story. For the most part.

As for Richard Powers, he's one of those guys who's work I saw for years and years without knowing who he was. Hell, I owned several books with his covers. While I was out replacing my Moorcock stuff, I ran into books with his art, and am a little bummed I didn't pick them up. Thank god for Google image search!

The ship in Space Viking stolen by Andray Dunnan was named Enterprise. Lucas Trask bought a second ship under construction and named it Nemesis to use to hunt down Andray after Dunnan killed Trask's wife.

Yep. It's been years since I've read Space Viking. I sold off some of my Piper stuff, but I thought I had kept an old ACE edition of the book.

These vintage book covers are wonderful! And it's nice to learn a little about your inspiration for them - thank you.
How do you make them look old? I mean the folds and creases, and bent back corners, that sort of thing - Is there a program or tool that you use for it, or do you do it individually by hand somehow? I've seen this on a few artists' book covers - including Ptrope's recent Art Challenge.

Thanks Cyfa, it's always gratifying to know people enjoy these. It's a pretty niche thing and it's mainly enjoyed by people about my age and up. While I didn't buy my vintage books new, they were in plenty of used books stores in the 80's and early 90's. Frankly, cover art seems to be a lost art. Not a fan of most of the covers I see on the shelves today.

As for "aging" the books, hopefully this will help:

The Library of Star Treks That Never Were - Book cover designs

I can spell the old mustiness.

Hey, so can I! :P Damn auto correct, eh?

 

[Cyfa]

Thank you for the link to "ageing" (now I just want one to the Fountain of Youth...), The Lensman!

 

[publiusr]

I think your art just caused alternate universes to pop into reality where these books lived.

 

[Sibyl]

These are exceptional.

 

[The Lensman]

I think your art just caused alternate universes to pop into reality where these books lived.

These are exceptional.

Thank you both!


And another one.......

Fun Fact: Some time back, I planned on having the Romulans actually being Romans, with the world in Bread And Circuses being a colony world of theirs. However, since the beginning of this whole thing, I've liked the idea of a series of Sam Cogley stories and since there's a dearth of legal dramas in the original Trek, I opted to borrow a couple from the other series. That's when I realized that I could make "The Drumhead" a sequel to "Balance Of Terror", with Spock put on trial by an over zealous Commodore as a Romulan spy. So that nixed my idea of the Space Roman Empire.

The original version of the back cover to this book had a blurb about The Preservers picking up some Romans on a visit to Earth millenia ago and leaving them on this world to colonize it, as they did with the Native Americans. The implication being that they may have done this with other groups of Earthlings as well. Sorta explaining all the human looking, English speaking aliens around.

I've got the first four covers in the series done now, with this being the fourth one.....unfortunately this story order invalidates my cover "3 From Tomorrow" as that was intended to be a collection of the first three stories. So now I have to adjust that cover to reflect the correct order. (shakes fist at sky)

 

[E-DUB]

Glad to see these back. Made my day.

 

[DrCorby]

Thanks Cyfa, it's always gratifying to know people enjoy these. It's a pretty niche thing and it's mainly enjoyed by people about my age and up. While I didn't buy my vintage books new, they were in plenty of used books stores in the 80's and early 90's. Frankly, cover art seems to be a lost art. Not a fan of most of the covers I see on the shelves today.

I've really been enjoying all your book covers over the years. Not just the art, but all the work you put into creating a timeline and behind-the-scenes framework to give them context. All very impressive!

I'm probably a little older than you, so I remember going to the office supply store in my hometown which also had a small book store, and seeing paperbacks covered in artwork like you're depicting. Ah, the endless happy hours spent browsing the shelves...

I agree that far too few books these days have proper cover art, compelling you to pick up the book and read the back cover blurb, just to see what the book is about, because the art was so intriguing. Though to be honest, even back in the day, there was cover art that had me scratching my head, wondering what in the heck I was looking at, and how it tied into the book's storyline...

 

[The Lensman]

I've really been enjoying all your book covers over the years. Not just the art, but all the work you put into creating a timeline and behind-the-scenes framework to give them context. All very impressive!

Thank you! And thanks for the kind words regarding the behind-the-scenes stuff! I always wonder just how interesting people find that part of it. For some reason I find that kind of stuff fascinating.

I'm probably a little older than you, so I remember going to the office supply store in my hometown which also had a small book store, and seeing paperbacks covered in artwork like you're depicting. Ah, the endless happy hours spent browsing the shelves...

There really is something magical about a bookstore. Especially a good used book store in the 70's and 80's. I lived in what was basically a small forest town and in '79, when I was 12, a bookstore opened up within walking distance. I would go up there damn near every week, but could rarely afford more than a comic book. But I would spend hours there, especially in the back room where the sci-fi / fantasy stuff was, marveling over covers depicting wondrous worlds of science and magic, and being entranced by a well written back cover blurb.

I agree that far too few books these days have proper cover art, compelling you to pick up the book and read the back cover blurb, just to see what the book is about, because the art was so intriguing.

Exactly. The cover should be compelling enough to make you want to find out what the book is about. Most times these days, I find that I don't care. But maybe I'm just not up with the times.

Though to be honest, even back in the day, there was cover art that had me scratching my head, wondering what in the heck I was looking at, and how it tied into the book's storyline...

LOL! The aforementioned Richard Powers did covers precisely like that. Really strange looking stuff that rarely reflected anything in the book....but was still visually interesting.

 

[The Lensman]

 

[somebuddyX]

Love this kind of universe. The art is great and so are the blurbs but I think it takes it's another level to build a consistent production universe behind the story universe. Layers upon layers. Cheers!

 

[Redfern]

Lensman, do the engine nacelles of this particular ship "extrude" from the outer "torus" of the saucer? If so, a slick spin on the iconic Jefferies silhouette!

 

[FormerLurker]

If they do, it's an actual Jefferies design, one that was between the Daedalus and the Constitution we know so well. The spin on it is incorporating the nacelles into the edge of the saucer, rather than perching them on top, as Jefferies had done.

 

[Kor]

I would really like to print some of these out and paste them to the outside of some random paperback novel to display on my coffee table.

Kor

 

[BillJ]

Love these. Always a treat when a new one is posted.

 

[The Lensman]

Love this kind of universe. The art is great and so are the blurbs but I think it takes it's another level to build a consistent production universe behind the story universe. Layers upon layers. Cheers!

Thanks! I was originally working on something non-UESPA related, but have been to some books stores picking up some vintage books and saw some new covers that made me want to do another one. Ironically, this is not the one I started, but one that I came up with while working on the other one. Because this was such a spur of the moment thing, I didn't work out the behind the scenes part. Will post that a little later.

Lensman, do the engine nacelles of this particular ship "extrude" from the outer "torus" of the saucer? If so, a slick spin on the iconic Jefferies silhouette!

Thanks! Yeah, it's part of the saucer

After tweaking this image, you can't see some of the meager details that are on the ship. Unfortunately I didn't follow the first rule of computer art (save often) and had a power flicker and apparently lost the version with the few hull details > So until I replace those details, this is the clearest picture of the ship.

If they do, it's an actual Jefferies design, one that was between the Daedalus and the Constitution we know so well. The spin on it is incorporating the nacelles into the edge of the saucer, rather than perching them on top, as Jefferies had done.

Working on this, I couldn't help but feel I was doing something familiar. Near the end I just figured it was the Saladin Class that I was thinking of. I kept thinking I was subconsciously riffing on someone elses work. Turns out I was, but it was the main man himself. After reading your post, I looked up those early Jefferies images and found a couple of things in those old designs that were clearly utilized by the designers of the Discovery.

One of the designs of the Enterprise, while in the familiar layout seen in the shows, has long warp engines like Discovery.
Top right corner of this image:
https://slightlywarped.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/808140e9955acc42a40b797ab3b22d40.jpg

Also, an early design was a kind of weird saucer type ship. It has that concentric ring type design, where the central bride area and the outer ring are only connected at the back dorsal.
http://ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/wp-content/uploads/2005/07/Jefferies-saucer-Enterprise2.png

I would really like to print some of these out and paste them to the outside of some random paperback novel to display on my coffee table.

Kor

Don't forget to take pictures and post

Love these. Always a treat when a new one is posted.

Thanks and keep your eyes open. I should have a new one up in a few days.

 

[fireproof78]

I would really like to print some of these out and paste them to the outside of some random paperback novel to display on my coffee table.

Kor

Get some blank books and make a center piece

Great work, @The Lensman. I think the minimalist design of the ship works in this case, regardless of the RL reasons for it.

 

[Atolm]

Most excellent!

 

[Kor]

...
Don't forget to take pictures and post
...

Not to be too much trouble here
...but do you have any of these available in high resolution? That would make printed versions much sharper.

Kor

 

[The Lensman]

Not to be too much trouble here
...but do you have any of these available in high resolution? That would make printed versions much sharper.

Kor

Which ones do you have in mind?

 

[F. King Daniel]

This is from Captain Georgiou's ready room on the USS Shenzhou in the first two episodes of Discovery:

I like to think she's got the classy hardbacks, but these are the MMPB versions.