1936--"Things To Come" by HG Wells

An inspiring future scene from HG Wells’ 1936 Things to Come. Watch it here. Image via x-ray delta one.

Star Wars by Olly Moss

Tempting though it might be to go to YouTube and dig up the fantastically awful Star Wars Christmas special for epic embedding, I instead present some very awesome posters by Olly Moss, designed for Mondo. (Via Fanboy.com.)

The Empire Strikes Back by Olly Moss

This is one creative set of illustrations: the twin suns as C3PO’s eyes, and the Bespin/Fett mashup is terrific. Even Darth Vader has to admit, he looks good in ‘trees’.

Return of the Jedi by Olly Moss

They sure built ‘em roomier back in 2001. And with more padding! Only nine years ago, and look at what a cluttered mess the ISS is! What were we thinking?! Here you see the entrance to the control deck, aboard a quite different Discovery than I featured on Tuesday.

Les Baxter makes any moment a Future-That-Never-Was moment. Guaranteed, or your money back!

Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HPOW

The classic line, “My God, it’s full of stars” strikes fountains of sparks in my imagination (and has done so since first I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey.) It crosses my mind often. Especially when looking at an image like this! Less welcome are the images of those stewardesses in their Pepto-Bismol pink outfits. Squick.

Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way. Back in the old days, back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy. Today, there are less than 200 left. Many globular clusters were destroyed over the eons by repeated fateful encounters with each other or the Galactic center. Surviving relics are older than any Earth fossil, older than any other structures in our Galaxy, and limit the universe itself in raw age. There are few, if any, young globular clusters in our Milky Way Galaxy because conditions are not ripe for more to form. Pictured above by the Hubble Space Telescope are about 100,000 of M72′s stars. M72, which spans about 50 light years and lies about 50,000 light years away, can be seen with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Water Bearer (Aquarius).

Darth Vader, by Steve Bialik

I found this post weeks ago. I wasn’t intentionally waiting for Star Wars Day, but here we are, so here you go: “Artist Steve Bialik represents legendary Star Wars characters as samurai from traditional Japanese art.”

Jabba the Hutt, by Steve Bialik

Okay, so I’m one of the last dozen people (apparently) on Earth to have discovered this wonderful, wonderful song: Drops of Jupiter by Train. And now I’m passing it on to the rest of you, because if you have not had the pleasure, it has the most marvelous lyrical imagery. Seriously, I am in love with this song. Here are the lyrics.

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair
She acts like summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there’s time to change
Since the return from her stay on the Moon
She listens like spring and she talks like June

Tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that Heaven is overrated

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star?
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Now that she’s back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the constellation
She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo
Reminds me that there’s room to grow

Now that she’s back in the atmosphere
I’m afraid that she might think of me as plain ol jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land

Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind?
Was it everything you wanted to find
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you, even when I know you’re wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance
Five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me

Tell me, did the wind sweep you off your feet?
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way

Tell me, did you sail across the sun?
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded
And that Heaven is overrated

Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself

All art on this post © justinvg.

I owe my finding of these fantastic Star Wars planet “poster” graphics to my friend Lexa (who makes me look like I have merely a casual interest in the Star Wars universe. Which, uh… is really not the case!!) I dearly hope justinvg gets these made as actual posters; they’d go so well with the IYA 2009 posters which I long to own.

UPDATE: Posters available here!!

Midnight Star: “The Beginning”, 1980, image © Shusei Nagaoka

More space-faring album covers from Shusei Nagaoka. Check out the rest of his art for an amazing array of bellbottoms, launching into the final frontier….

The Skyliners: “The Love Bug”, 1978, image © Shusei Nagaoka

Sun: “Destination Sun”, 1977, image © Shusei Nagaoka

It’s been a while since I’ve posted album cover art, and I just couldn’t stop with the Shusei Nagaoka awesomeness. Viva la 1970s!

Deep Purple: “When We Rock, We Rock…”, 1977, image © Shusei Nagaoka