By Dan Brown

I lived through the 1970s so you don’t have to, kids!

But seriously. 

Regardless of how old you are, you should check out the art book Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s, which was published this summer.

It will have special resonance if you are a Gen Xer like me who remembers the paperback and magazine covers of old. 

If you were a fan of writers Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Anne McCaffrey, or Michael Moorcock, you’ll grok this hefty collection of paintings.

But even if you have no memories of the Me Decade, you can still learn a lot about today’s science-fiction aesthetic because many of these images still linger in the public imagination.
 
Keep in mind this was a time when painters and illustrators had to summon depictions of spaceships, astronauts and aliens largely from whole cloth i.e. their minds. The artists represented here did have the benefit of the work done in the early decades of the century, but the genre wasn’t as ubiquitous then as it is today. There was no internet repository they could summon with a few taps on the keyboard. Nor flashy video games

And yes, I got this book because it has huge nostalgia appeal for me. Born in the 1960s, I grew up in the 1970s. It was a magic time because that’s when I got my first taste of sci-fi literature.

Editor Adam Rowe wisely divides the artistic output from the decade into understandable sections like spaceships, alien life, and landscapes. He then subdivides each of these broad categories into themes that recurred throughout the decade – UFOs, space cats, robots, et cetera.

Individual artists – think John Berkey, Angus McKie, Boris Vallejo, and others – likewise get their own spotlight page or two. This allows Rowe to present a 222-page showcase that gives even newbie readers an accurate feel for the times.

You might be wondering about movie posters, since this was the decade that saw Star Wars create an overnight explosion in interest for space fantasy. One subsection, titled Star Wars before Star Wars, collects the works that presaged George Lucas’ saga, including hairy creatures that look an awful lot like wookies and four-legged walking tanks originated by Syd Mead.

There’s also strong representation of paintings originally done as covers for such Warren publications as Creepy. 

In short, this is a delightful volume.

It provides a look at the body of work that serves as a bridge between the art of old and the art of today. It all went down in the 1970s.

I can only hope it finds an audience among younger readers who haven’t been exposed to these pictures before, and provides compelling evidence that no one requires AI help to dream up lively visions of days to come.

It’s also a nice companion piece for the art books that reproduce early Dungeons & Dragons art from roughly the same period.

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 33 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.