Judas Valley: Skeleton Graveyard on Alien World, Amazing Stories Oct 1956
Dread and desolation saturate this striking Atomic Age cover as a lone spaceman surveys a desert alien landscape littered with human skeletons and shattered space helmets — victims of some unseen massacre. A sinister blue teardrop-shaped robot or probe hovers menacingly in the amber sky, while jagged crimson rock formations loom in the distance. The scene illustrates Gerald Vance's 'The Judas Valley,' capturing the lethal promise of its tagline: 'Death Walked Hand-in-hand With Agony.'
The foreground dominated by a massive, detailed human skeleton still wearing a cracked space helmet is gloriously morbid pulp spectacle. A field of scattered skulls and bones stretching to the horizon drives home the body count with enthusiastic overkill.
“WORLD'S LEADING SCIENCE-FICTION MAGAZINE AMAZING STORIES OCTOBER 35¢ ZIFF DAVIS PUBLICATION BEST SCIENCE FICTION AMAZING STORIES OCTOBER 1956 VOL. 30 NO. 10 THE JUDAS VALLEY By Gerald Vance Death Walked Hand-in-hand With Agony!”
