Future History

The Pyro theme we've looked at recently has brought together some cool examples of toy design from the late fifties and early sixties. Book cover and magazine design was also a great place to discover fabulous colourful spaceship examples and Andy B sent me a selection of pulp covers from one of my favourite artists, Ron Turner. Rons work has a distinct dynamism and flow, which always shone through in his work in TV21 on Stingray and Captain Scarlet etc. These early examples of book and mag covers also show that he clearly used toys as the basis for his illustrations. This first cover shows a slightly disguised Pyro X-300 Space Cruiser, presumably drawn with Rons hand as part of the design! His other work shows the classic 'jet-age' style that he cultivated over the years. Wonderful stuff.

I love the cool pseudonyms the writers were encouraged to use, Volsted Gridban, Vargo Statten and the unforgettable 'Ray Cosmic'!