Front to Back: Future Tense

Part II of a series spotlighting wraparound paperback art.


Beyond Tomorrow, edited by Damon Knight (Pan UK, 1973). Cover illustration by Ian Miller, with an unusual title typeface dating back to the early 20th century.

OK, so it’s now been a couple of weeks since I began posting my multipart look at wraparound paperback fronts. We finally turn to the science fiction and fantasy genres, which have left us with more examples of this extended artwork than any other category of book. Many more examples. And some beauts, to boot.

I was a big reader of SF during my teenage years, and I own some of the specimens displayed below (most of which are softcovers, with a couple of hardbacks thrown in). Others I can only wish to have found and collected when they we still available for their modest cover prices. Among the artists represented below are Dean Ellis (Protector, The Lost Continent), Peter Andrew Jones (A World Out of Time, The Patchwork Girl), Michael Whelan (The Smoke Ring), Brad Holland (Cities in Flight), Ken Laidlaw (Doctor Rat), Gervasio Gallardo (Fungi from Yuggoth & Other Poems), the remarkably prolific Bruce Pennington (Satan’s World, Dune Messiah, Lost Worlds), Ian Miller (Guardians of Time, Long After Midnight, I Sing the Body Electric!, S Is for Space, R Is for Rocket, The Golden Apples of the Sun, The Time Machine), Richard Powers (Brain Wave, Expedition to Earth, Indoctrinaire), Bob Pepper (A Voyage to Arcturus, The Mask of Circe, The Omega Point), Louis Glanzman (Tales of Neverÿon), Chris Moore (The Fountains of Paradise), David McCall Johnston (Orlando Furioso, The Tsaddik of the Seven Wonders), Leo and Diane Dillon (Strange Wine), Paul Slater (The Space Machine), Jeff Jones (The Dying Wizard, The Vultures of Whapeton), Tony Roberts (Double Star), Patrick Woodroffe (Waldo & Magic, Inc., Seven Footprints to Satan), Alan Lee (The Lost World), Ian Pollock (Profundis), Chris Foss (Orbit 4), Ray Cruz (The Shaving of Shagpat), Chris Yates (Rogue Moon), Josh Kirby (Wooden Centauri), Don Maitz (The Virgin & the Wheels), and Robert LoGrippo (The Boats of the Glen Carrig).

Also well-remembered for his wraparounds is Tim Gill, who created beautiful fronts for Brian Aldiss’ Helliconia trilogy in the 1980s.

Click on any of the images here to open an enlargement.

FOLLOW-UP: Two more examples of sci-fi wraparounds came to my attention after this piece was posted. Tom Stimpson created the artwork for The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (1980), while credit goes to Jim Burns for the front of The Stochastic Man (1978).