SSD 64, Feb 1961 by theseus88bc
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
For the first time since it was first published in August 1955 Space Science Digest sported a dollar price under the UK price. Grimsdale and Puckle had no idea what to charge American readers, but the agent they hired, a Mr Manfred Wormscrew assured them it was the best price to pitch the magazine at for its US launch.
For the first time US readers could marvel at the stories of AJ Crudworthy, tour the British Rocket Group's new Moonbase Alpha model, and read letters and articles denied them for 6 years.
As a footnote Crudworthy tried to sue the BBC over their "Doctor Who" TV series in 1963, but the Corporation's solicitors pointed out that a time travelling London bus was entirely different than a time travelling police telephone box... irrespective of the fact that the bus was larger inside than outside!
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The models all came from a 3D resource site and were brought together and rendered in Bryce. Only postwork was some blurring and some 'glow' to the windows.
As ever thank you for the lovely feedback, and thanks for looking.
Iain

Comments (15)
So cool, as always Iain a job well done mate
Well done. 5+! Thank you for this one.
Pitty they couldn't come to an 'arrangement' a time travelling London bus sounds like a lot more fun, with 'plenty of room upstairs'! Love these planet installation covers, you always get the feel of the time, not too flash or far fetched.Great stuff Iain..well done.
Thanks for the comments ^_^ It's easy to go OTT with these... spent around an hour playing about with models until I found the right balance between interesting and overkill. (Although I may have to have a Crudworthy story where I can do a Mysteron-style glowing city full of light and colour.)
Thanks for the great mag cover and interesting tale! Good stuff! Hope you ccontinue to explore this theme.
Very Fine! A Perfect Sci-Fi Cover!
I love very much this cover! Can I subscribe to the magazine? ;-)
Love it as always. Fun thinking of your inspirations and possible implied plotlines. The time-travelling bus that's larger on the inside -- perhaps JK Rowling read the story decades later and filed it away as a background detail. Possibly that flying bus from DR WHO "Planet of the Dead" got driven thru a wormhole back into 1960. Moobnbase Alpha has a design reminiscent of Quatermass' design shown in QUATERMASS II a.k.a. ENEMY FROM SPACE. The shuttle pad in the center of the domes also reminds one of the SHADO Moonbase in the Gerry Anderson series UFO. And of course the name is recohgnizable to any SPACE 1999 fan.... geez, has it really been 36 years since that debuted????? Hell, has it really been 12 years since the Moon blasted off into interstellar space? Which malkwes me wonder if, in the SSD universe, SHADO grew out of the BRG, possibly as a side project that eventually consumed the rest of the organization. We never knew how SHADO had managed to have all that space gear operational by the show's 1980s setting. As for the image itself, this is a good emulation of the art style of the shortlived large edition ANALOG.
fabulous work
Very cool!
Fantastic image and lighting. Corrie
I find real space exploration sadly lacking in glamour, so decided to take a skewed approach and created a what-if scenario: what if Britain was a major force in the space race of the 50s and 60s? What if Quatermass was real? And from then I just went off and created this whole other reality, plundering names from classic TV and radio... and inventing a writer that even I sometimes forget is fictional, hahaha As always, thanks for the comments everyone.
Very cool and wonderfully fits the period - a terrific alternative universe!
Very good presentation!
I just love these retro sci-fi covers you create. Excellent work. :)