Well its good to be back at the helm and hopefully I can keep the blog rolling while Woodsy is on shore leave for a little while! The last time he had an extended leave of absence, I dropped a meteor on Moonbase and blew up the blog, but I promise not to do anything quite so dramatic this time. To start off, i'd like to revisit one of my favourite science fiction artists and also one of my favourite writers. Arthur C Clarke first came to my notice in the launch issue of Speed and Power magazine, a weekly aimed at boys and chock full of jets, cars, trains and all things powerful and speedy! It was a treasure trove of information, back in the seventies and each week, it included a short sci-fi story from Clarke, illustrated usually by an amazing artist, who was never credited in the issue. It was only very recently, by virtue of the all powerful internet, that I discovered Michael Whittlesea.
His bold, colourful illustrations complmented Clarkes stories wonderfully and drew me in to read every one, which for me was very unusual, as I was never fond of reading and very much taken by the visuals. Whittlesea's style was unusual in that it introduced a chunky, assymetrical style of ship, very much similar to the work of Chris Foss, famous for his Foundation and Lensman series of book covers.
Whittlesea captures the truly alien life amongst the clouds in glorious colour, showing the manta's and vast gas-filled medusan creature in beautiful detail.
