Ungoliantschilde

2001: a Space Odyssey, by Jack Kirby.

Inks by multiple guys on this series. Mike Royer, Frank Giacoia, even Archie Goodwin. The published pages were a mixture of Kirby’s magnificent collage work, and colors by the great Marie Severin.

This was Kirby when he came back to Marvel after doing the New Gods. He came back with the understanding that Stan would not be involved in his books anymore. Every series he did seemed to build and grow off the previous stuff. This book is really and truly one of his artistic gems. Most fans focus on his Silver Age Marvel creations and his staggering New Gods concept and work. But when you look online and see absolutely gorgeous, psychaedelic splashes of space and god and spaceships and astronauts and stuff, a lot of it originated as published work from his 2001: a Space Odyssey comics. Me being, well ME... I prefer the black and white version. But if you can find a trade or cheap reader copies, go for it. It’s the kind of thing you can show people who don’t know Kirby and it will blow their mind.

This is amazing

Picture Jack Kirby drawing a comic book where every panel on every page would make an awesome late 1970s blacklight poster with Spaceships, Neanderthals, Astronauts, Insterstellar Travel, a giant floating baby (WTF?!), Machine Man, and God. Picture all that, and you’re pretty well primed for reading this.

Jack has never been my favorite writer, but this book is really more of a visual tour de force for Jack than it is an example of his writing chops.

so much hope and aspiration can be found by simply allowing ourselves to see beyond the confines of our own limitations. looking to the skies has been a unifying theme for all of humanity, throughout all of history. predictably, it has lead to both discovery and derision. fear and faith have been affirmed in equal measure by gazing upwards. it therefore follows that part of reality is our individual perception thereof. we each can see the universe in accordance with how we want to see it.

look with hope, and you will find it.

Can’t help but mention the Flash Gordon soundtrack by Queen.

And Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive probably deserves to be mentioned.

For more contemporary stuff, I think the Gorillaz could actually work quite well as Space Travel music.

so much hope and aspiration can be found by simply allowing ourselves to see beyond the confines of our own limitations. looking to the skies has been a unifying theme for all of humanity, throughout all of history. predictably, it has lead to both discovery and derision. fear and faith have been affirmed in equal measure by gazing upwards. it therefore follows that part of reality is our individual perception thereof. we each can see the universe in accordance with how we want to see it.

look with hope, and you will find it.

Tarantula Nebula’s Web, from Wired Space Photo of the Day.

Caption: This new Hubble image shows a cosmic creepy-crawly known as the Tarantula Nebula in infrared light. This region is full of star clusters, glowing gas, and thick dark dust. Created using observations taken as part of the Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP), this image was snapped using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The Hubble Tarantula Treasury Project (HTTP) is scanning and imaging many of the many millions of stars within the Tarantula, mapping out the locations and properties of the nebula’s stellar inhabitants. These observations will help astronomers to piece together an understanding of the nebula’s skeleton, viewing its starry structure.

Credit: NASA, ESA, E. SAbbi, caption by the Hubble Heritage Team.

Enki Bilal ~ "Ultimate Negotiations", for Heavy Metal.

silver surfer/watercolor/gouache by rogercruz

Space Kiss

Silver Surfer by Francesco Francavilla

Maybe my favorite Surfer image. Quiet, contemplative, and full of wonder. Francesco Francavilla is a rare talent.

Page by Jim Starlin (pencils) and Steve Leialoha (inks) from Warlock #9, published by Marvel, October 1975.