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1970s SciFi, Space Adventure
Link - by Avi Abrams



Josh Kirby's Epic SF Art, and more


Josh Kirby (1928-2001) was one of these illustrators who crammed his canvas with the most unusual amount of highly intense visual elements (some of the Medieval surreal painters such as Hieronymus Bosch come to mind). His art was so lush with colorful detail that a single painting required a full minute to properly appreciate - a time enough to down a single-shot cup of espresso, perhaps, for those who like their art with a good coffee (like we at DRB do).

Josh Kirby was most famous for his hilarious Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" over-the-top fantasy covers, but as it turns out, he also produced quite a few science fiction illustrations throughout his whole career (which spanned 1950s-1990s). The following unashamedly "space-operatic" image is perhaps the best presentation of his inimitable style in scifi:


(image credit: Josh Kirby Estate)


The "epic-ness" does not stop there; for a full taste of detail-crammed Kirby's style head over to this page, which shows the full "Voyage of the Ayeguy" series - here is one example titled "Arrival of the Ark":


(image credit: Josh Kirby Estate)

Make sure to check out more works by Josh Kirby at Josh Kirby Art official page.

Continuing our short-and-sweet taste of the epic 1970s science fiction space adventure art, here is some analogy between "Star Wars" and "Battlestar Galactica" promotional art (these two franchises were competing for viewers attention at the time): on the upper left is Star Trek's Lieutenant Uhura, below left is Star Wars cast, and to the right is "Battlestar Galactica" promotional poster:




Compare it to the original Star Wars concept poster (left image below):




Poster on the right is for the "Space Amoeba" (or, "Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas" - also known as "Yog-Monster From Space"). It's just too juicy and lovely a poster-thing not to include, so we couldn't resist.


"Return of the Jedi" (aided by Josh Kirby's Visual Splendour)

Speaking of Star Wars and Josh Kirby connection, here is a good look at the poster he did for "Return of the Jedi" - in our opinion this is perhaps the most visually-exciting and well-balanced poster to come out for that movie (note the composition and the placement of characters, could not be done better):


(image credit: Josh Kirby Estate) - click to enlarge


Stay tuned for our continuous coverage of awesome 1970s scifi art, full of adventure and glamour of the spaceways!




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YOUR COMMENTS::

1 Comments:

Anonymous Yolanda said...

This is pure awesomeness!

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