Jack Coggins' Asteroid Belt Spaceman, Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb 1953
Likely illustrating Kendell Foster Crossen's 'Assignment to Aldebaran,' this cover plunges the viewer into the treacherous asteroid belt alongside a lone spaceman astride a sleek rocket-powered scooter. Clad in a bulky bronze pressure suit with antenna and visor, he guns through the void as tumbling rocks streak past Saturn's ringed silhouette in the amber background. The dynamic low-angle composition and warm metallic palette are quintessential Atomic Age pulp bravado — solo man versus the infinite cosmos.
One man, one rocket scooter, a billion tons of incoming rock — and he's not even flinching. Cosmic nerve has never looked so bronze.
“THRILLING wonder STORIES SCIENCE FICTION BY TOP WRITERS FEATURING THE VIRGIN OF ZESH By L. Sprague de Camp ASSIGNMENT TO ALDEBARAN By Kendell Foster Crossen FEB. 25c A THRILLING PUBLICATION Jack Coggins”
