These illustrations come from the Terran Trade Authority Handbook: Spacecraft 2000 to 2100 AD by Stewart Crowley (©1978). I first found this book at some kind of flea market in England in 1982 (I was 9 years old so I can't entirely remember the circumstances). That copy may still be somewhere in my parents house, but I found it again at a garage sale in Buffalo a couple of years ago. As a kid I found the book fascinating and kind of creepy. It's presented as a guide to the spacecraft of the 21st century and details the way they were used in the "Proximian War." It's all pretty silly, but some of the illustrations are amazing, and do succeed in creating an alien atmosphere. The book is illustrated by several different people, the best among them being Angus McKie. The Terran Trade Authority Handbook that addresses alien life forms (which I will get to later in the year), is more ridiculous than this book by several orders of magnitude.
Illustrator: Colin Hay
Illustrator: Angus McKie
Illustrator: Angus McKie
Illustrator: Angus McKie
2 comments:
I remember both books in that series from my own childhood--vividly. I was a child of the 80s and 90s, so I think it found its way into my possession via one of my older sci-fi obsessed cousins.
I remember the in-depth story behind the pictures, but also trying to copy the tiny mechanical drawings that accompanied the spacecraft designs(I'm trying to remember if they were the endpapers?).
Thanks for posting this and triggering the memory
Nick in Tennessee
There were in fact four books in the TTA series:
Spacecraft 2000-2100AD
Great Space Battles (with Charles Herridge)
Spacewreck: Ghostships and Derelicts of Space
Starliners: Commercial Travel in 2200 AD
plus Spacebase which was a combined volume of the first two books.
Cowley also did a series called "Galactic Encounters" written under the pseudonym Steven Eisler published either by Intercontinental Book Publishers or Crescent. The series consists of:
Aliens in Space
Star Quest
The Fantastic Planet
Worlds at War
Dangerous Frontiers (also published under the alternate title Settlers in Space with differet cover art)
Space patrol
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