
Super Science Stories Sept 1950 — Star Beast & Cracking Planet Cover
This cover hilariously predicted that future space explorers would operate glowing control panels while wearing fashionable red jumpsuits — partially correct, since ISS crew do wear jumpsuits, though considerably less glamorous. A blonde woman in a crimson space suit aims a weapon while her helmeted male companion hunches over a dashboard of dials and buttons, both dwarfed by a massive cracked and lava-veined alien planetoid looming behind them — pure Atomic Age space opera rendered in vivid gouache drama.
This is classic space opera pulp — a glamorous heroine with a weapon, a brooding male technician, and a cosmically threatening alien world filling the frame with lurid menace. The Poul Anderson and Fredric Brown bylines anchor it firmly in mid-century commercial SF at its most entertainingly overwrought.
“25¢ SUPER SCIENCE STORIES READ IT TODAY — LIVE IT TOMORROW! A NOVEL OF TOMORROW'S DESTINY THE STAR BEAST by POUL ANDERSON KRIS NEVILLE NEIL R. JONES MANY OTHERS THE UNDYING ONES by FREDRIC BROWN SEPT. P [Popular Publications logo]”





