Sunday, April 06, 2008

Jukka Murtosaari and his two visions of Philip K. Dick (and other illustrations)

I thought I'd post more covers by Jukka Murtosaari, whom I mentioned earlier and posted his illustrations he'd sent to Hard Case Crime. These five are all previously published and they are all books. I don't have his magazine and fanzine illustrations handy, even though I have some warm reminescences of his pin up illos for fanzines like Spin and Tähtivaeltaja. Maybe some day... (Following the links you'll find some other covers he's done, some he's done for my own fanzines.)

First we have two Philip K. Dicks. These came out in a short-lived series FAN that strived to publish classic and new SF and fantasy, but for some reason failed to gather interest in the book-buying public. Maybe the selections in the series were too varied, including books from Robert E. Howard to Rudy Rucker and Nancy Collins. Also, some of the covers for the books were ugly, but not those by Jukka. The logo of the series was done by Martti Ruokonen, one of the foremost illustrators and graphics working in Finland.


The first one is for Martian Time-Slip (orig. 1961, in Finnish in 1993) and the second one is for one of the best of Dick's novels (and one of the best SF novels ever), The Man in the High Castle (1962, in Finnish in 1992). I think Jukka captures the latter's essence very well, with a humorous style.

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