Worlds of IF Science Fiction Sept 1963 — Van Vogt's The Expendables Cover
On an alien world bathed in the searing light of a swollen, stormy sun, two spacesuit-clad figures stand amid jagged terrain beside a domed habitat structure. The sky blazes orange and yellow with solar fury, casting the rocky landscape in dramatic contrast. This is a planet on the edge — hostile, luminous, and quietly terrifying. The composition balances human vulnerability against cosmic scale, embodying the exploratory dread and wonder of early 1960s science fiction.
Two lonely spacemen sweat it out under a sun that wants them dead — and the dome won't hold forever! Pure IF magazine frontier terror at its finest.
“WORLDS OF IF SCIENCE FICTION JUL 10 1963PLM SEPTEMBER 1963 40¢ THE COURSE OF LOGIC BY LESTER DEL REY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE THRID BY MURRAY LEINSTER A. E. VAN VOGT'S 1st New Science-Fiction Story in 14 years. THE EXPENDABLES”
