70s Sci-Fi Art

Ron Troxell, 1992

Chuck Liese

Heavy Metal #13 - Urm the Mad by Philippe Druillet

Star Raiders (2600) Based on the original Atari box art by Terry Hoff

The 1994 Fotographica poster of my dreams

Most if not all the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks have hype copy on the cover that says, “A thrilling fantasy adventure in which YOU are the hero!” Creature of Havoc (1986) has that copy too, but it is the one time (that I can recall, at least) where it is fibbing. You are not a hero. You are a horrible creature, mutated, without identity and driven only by instinct (though, honestly, I am not 100% sure you’re the titular creature). This makes Havoc pretty unique in the series (only the time loop of Black Vein Prophecy exhibits a similar mechanical boldness) and makes for a complex and difficult playthrough.

So, monster that is constantly changing and evolving. Initially, you are driven by instinct, which means you make rolls to determine where you go. Once reason takes hold, you need to figure out language, which involved breaking a code (and kind of reminds me of The 13th Warrior in the way speech slowly becomes comprehensible). Then you need to escape. That involves secret passages, which can be discovered by adding 20 to the paragraph number when you’re in the right spot. You kill some adventurers along the way (combat in this book, with your claws and bulk and spines and, uh, appetite for flesh, is both bracing and gruesome). Eventually, you confront the sorcerer who made you this way — Zharradan Marr, the handsome gent on Ian Miller’s fantastic cover — find out the truth about your identity and, presumably, kick his ass into the netherworld (where he continues to make trouble for the world, as detailed in The Trolltooth Wars novel). Alan Langford delivers art and it is fine, but this is maybe the only time I will ever say this: the art is secondary to the experience of playing through this book.

All in all, conceptually and mechanically, a performance that is difficult to impossible to top. Clearly, since it is the last FF book that Steve Jackson wrote.

Vintage magazine covers by Prieto Muriana.

The art on the bottom right was used to illustrate a medical stasis pod in Starliners by Stewart Cowley.

A.R. Lowe art for Science Fiction Monthly, November 1975.

'Der große Stier' by Robin Sanborn, 1973 (Eddie Jones)

Cover illustration by Richard Powers

Art by UK artist Tim White (1952 - 2020)

Uncredited, 1988