Vintage SF Magazine Covers Wish You a Weird Christmas

December 18, 2009 9:36 PM

Have a Weird Christmas courtesy of this set of vintage SF magazine covers.
posted by jjray (18 comments total)

A Happy Holidays to you too (album covers, but still weird).
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:58 PM on December 18, 2009

Oh. God. Love it! Favorited a thousand times over.
posted by OrangeSoda at 10:14 PM on December 18, 2009

I hear Santa has a flatbed scanner for a special someone.
posted by Tube at 11:01 PM on December 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

The rat-in-the-skull one is just fantastic. Also, gotta love four armed Santa.

could do with fewer weird-proportion females menaced by gribleys but that's what you're gonna get when you look at vintage SF mag covers
posted by Kattullus at 11:22 PM on December 18, 2009

That robot in the 2nd link is delightful!
posted by hellojed at 11:52 PM on December 18, 2009

"Prospector's Special" by Robert Sheckley! I loved that.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 2:24 AM on December 19, 2009

Kattullus: "Also, gotta love four armed Santa."

Tars Tarkas Claus, Jeddak of the North Pole.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 3:29 AM on December 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

At least a few of these (Analog SF and F&SF) are still in publication, and still promoting great work. If you like this stuff, subscribe. They're cheap, they're almost completely ad-free, and every subscription ensures that such awesomeness does not vanish from the earth.
posted by rlk at 7:17 AM on December 19, 2009

PRAISE KLONO'S CARBOTANIUM CLAWS, IN THE FUTURE WE HAVE BANISHED CONSTIPATION TO THE NINTH LEVEL OF OBLIVION!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:31 AM on December 19, 2009

The "Pipe Dream" cover is actually pretty clever, and a step above the usual robots/rockets/monsters cover art (even though it does include strangely-proportioned women).
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:44 AM on December 19, 2009

Don't forget how the Six Million Dollar Man saved Christmas.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:43 AM on December 19, 2009

By Grabthar's Hammer, this is great stuff. I seem to recall that GALAXY had a special Christmas cover each year, and that Ed Emshwiller ("Emsh") did most of them. Glad to see a few here!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:32 AM on December 19, 2009

In the future, all women will have gigantic pointy boobs.
posted by Wavelet at 9:51 AM on December 19, 2009

Hee Hee. CALIFORNIA IS DOOMED... doomed... doomed
posted by Babblesort at 12:06 PM on December 19, 2009

Fantastic images. Am I the only person, however, who gets annoyed when a flickr user scans an old magazine or cookbook and slaps his/her own copyright notice on it?
posted by queensissy at 3:25 PM on December 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

The 4-armed Santa was a regular December feature on Galaxy covers during the 50s; a friend collected a bunch of them in a post last year. Be sure to click the images for bigger versions and lots of fun details. (The fifth one down is my fave.)
posted by mediareport at 9:59 PM on December 19, 2009 [2 favorites]

I love 1956 Santa's rocketship teapot and four-handled cup.
posted by hattifattener at 11:34 PM on December 19, 2009

Btw, the artist of those Santas is Ed Emshwiller (EMSH), who did a bunch of scifi book and magazine covers before moving into experimental film. Neat guy.
posted by mediareport at 8:22 AM on December 20, 2009