Comments on: The Definitive SF Works of Chris Foss: exclusive preview

By: Chang Terhune

Chang Terhune — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:01:00 +0000

I got back my TTA books I left at my parents house and have been buying them up as I see them at various cons and shows.

ch mod = horny

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:45:00 +0000

I fell in love with Foss’s work (and that of the late lamented Peter Elson) after reading the TTA books as well. Vincent DiFate had a more oil-paint style, but also great.

By: Lobster

Lobster — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:28:00 +0000

Huh. That’s actually who I thought this was at first. I grew up looking at Mckie’s art books. There’s one image in particular, a sort of derelict that looks kind of like a thin-fingered hand, that still as unsettling as when I was a kid. Can’t seem to find it online, though.

By: Stas' Wiatrowski

Stas' Wiatrowski — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Brings back memories of the 70s Asimov Panther editions of my youth. I remember being a little peeved that the images on the cover had no connection at all to the Good Doctor’s stories, but at the same time I couldn’t help but be transported by the sheer awesomeness of Foss’s attention to detail and sense of scale.

By: scav

scav — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:18:00 +0000

Yes. And you haven’t seen a dildo until you’ve seen a Chris Foss dildo…

By: Textuality

Textuality — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:54:00 +0000

Can’t seem to find the special edition in the UK. :(

By: Tim Smith

Tim Smith — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:39:00 +0000

I had spacewrecks at a child and I studied that book until it totally fell apart, I re-discovered them on ebay in my mid 20′s and I purchased all the TTA books, just to relive that feeling of being a day dreamy kid again

By: avraamov

avraamov — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:12:00 +0000

didn’t foss illustrate ‘the joy of sex’? or am i hallucinating..

By: avraamov

avraamov — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:03:00 +0000

it does indeed. peter elson was another one, is my brain is working correctly. it’s been a long time. the guy i obsessed over most though, was tim white, who at the time i thought was a cut above everybody else. now he looks slightly cheesier, in some ways. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28773898@N04/5766502727/in/photostream/

By: avraamov

avraamov — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:56:00 +0000

kurt – are you me?

By: craum

craum — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:08:00 +0000

Reminds me of Angus Mckie…
http://tinyurl.com/3hdmcx8

By: Brian Huntington

Brian Huntington — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 07:58:00 +0000

Oh man. You guys are killing me. I had no idea that my much beloved copy of Starliners was part of some series but the second I saw the image on this post I was like, this guy has to be in that book (which I always assumed was a collection of different artists). True story: I’ve had that book for probably 25 years or so and never read a word of it until a year ago. I just drank in the images. I was too young to get any of it. I should have known the Happy Mutants would know EXACTLY what book it was.

Mack, thanks for posting that link. Great site.

By: nosehat

nosehat — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:25:00 +0000

Ah, ha! I’ve got a copy of 21st Century Foss somewhere as well!

Foss was really good at painting BIG spaceships, and making them look very, very, very big! Great awe-inspiring, sense-of-wonder stuff!

By: Spikeles

Spikeles — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:14:00 +0000

Ah I thought they looked familar, wracked my brain for bit, but Google came through for me. I have a well thumbed copy of one of his earlier books. 21st Century Foss

By: stuck411

stuck411 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 03:18:00 +0000

Wonderful work. Makes my hands itch for the glory days of OMNI Magazine when they ran painting spreads of futuristic landscapes. I’ll bet I saw his stuff in there when I was younger than 10.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:24:00 +0000

Fun fact: Foss was also one of the illustrators for the original edition of The Joy of Sex. “Realism and invention”, indeed.

By: lorq

lorq — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:15:00 +0000

Just for clarification: there were no Chris Foss illustrations in the Terran Trade Authority books; they were illustrations by other artists working in the Foss style, like Angus McKie and (one of my faves) Peter Elson. Love Foss and love the TTA books — but Foss himself wasn’t in them.

By: liquidstar

liquidstar — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:05:00 +0000

So funny, a friend of mine remarked just the other day how much he liked the Terran Trade Authority Handbook (Spacecraft, 2000 to 2100 AD) and how it was funny it’s past 2000 now. Good to know there are other people out there who love the old SF cover masters. (Jim Burns a personal fav of mine, his Planet Story and Mechanismo http://www.amazon.com/Mechanismo-Harry-Harrison/dp/0891695044

By: Jack Myers

Jack Myers — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:43:00 +0000

I remember loving this guys work from way back, and many moons later when the game Homeworld came out they thanked ‘Lucas’ for inspiration but not Foss. I imagine they got plenty of emails about it because he is carefully thanked in every other HR manual that followed the first game release.

By: Jack Myers

Jack Myers — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:39:00 +0000

I still have my copy too, and the rest of those books. Foss is the man.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:24:00 +0000

When did Stewie become a robot?

By: Florian Magnus Dobler

Florian Magnus Dobler — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:23:00 +0000

Is there any other source for the special edition book which allows international shipping to europe?

By: Martain Chandler

Martain Chandler — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:15:00 +0000

Once again a wonderful thing, BB. I had forgotten the Terran Trade Authority Books! Sweet.

By: t3kna2007

t3kna2007 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:12:00 +0000

Yep, looks like a match to me, thanks for doing that.

Cool font. That ‘R’ makes me think of an alien’s leg.

By: sincarne

sincarne — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:09:00 +0000

According to “What the Font,” it’s Range in two different weights (Medium and Light).

Looks a pretty good match to me: http://bit.ly/nkVQf6

By: sincarne

sincarne — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:04:00 +0000

I have nothing to add to this conversation. I would just like to point out I’ve spent the last 46 minutes heading down the TTA/Chris Foss internet rabbit hole. Did you know there’s a pen-and-paper RPG? True story. Lots of pics.

http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/tta/index.html

By: occlupanid

occlupanid — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:42:00 +0000

Terran Trade Authority! Even though I have those books, can't resist getting this new whopper of a Foss.

By: mack

mack — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:41:00 +0000

Every single artist at http://conceptships.blogspot.com – and there are some brilliant ones – owes a debt of gratitude to Chris Foss and Ron Cobb. Full stop.

By: RevTyler Baumann

RevTyler Baumann — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:23:00 +0000

This post makes me extremely happy. I was obsessed with the big collection books of space ships that were made in the 80′s and recently I’ve been trying to figure out what they were called and who did them. I’m 100% positive if the books I’m thinking of aren’t completely by Chris Foss that some of the artwork in them was. They were really large size art books of colossal spaceships that included detailed descriptions of what everything was and what it was doing.

By: t3kna2007

t3kna2007 — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:16:00 +0000

Schweet!

(Can anyone name that font used in the cover shot?)