70s Sci-Fi Art
Adam Rowe — Sci-fi art collector and writer
An exploration of retro speculative fiction artists and themes
70s-sci-fi-art.ghost.ioIf you were into computers in the '80s, you may not know his name, but you definitely know his work.
A lovingly curated archive of retro science fiction cover art, mostly from the 1970s and '80s. Each post digs into a theme — cool spaceships, robots in love, strange dragons — with the enthusiasm of a collector who genuinely can't stop pulling books off the shelf. Part art history, part nostalgic treasure hunt.
Written by Adam Rowe.
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English
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Odds and Ends - March 2026
Here's Phil Foglio's 1983 cover for Hit or Myth, by Robert Asprin.The model for the demon was Foglio's friend Greg Ketter, owner of Dreamhaven Books in Minneapolis, who was recently photographed walking through tear gas at age 70 while protesting the ICE invasion.The Hit or Myth anecdote comes from this 2021 Black Gate post, which further notes that characters named after Ketter have made appearances in "George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, Nick Pollata’s&...
Robert Tinney: 'Byte' Magazine and Beyond
Robert Tinney passed away on February 1st, 2026. If you were into computers in the '80s, you may not know his name, but you definitely know his work: He was the artist behind the beautiful hand-painted covers of the influential computer hobbiest magazine Byte from the December 1975 issue until the early '90s.Here are two of his most well-known covers, which appeared back-to-back in April and May 1981.His style was frequently surreal, serving up a visual pun illustrating that issue&apos...
'80s Unicorns by Sue Dawe and Andy Mack
I fell down a real rabbit hole recently. It started when a good friend of mine who loves horses and knows I love sci-fi art sent me a link to a post from heckyeahponyscans featuring four postcards of delightfully glowing '80s unicorns against backdrops of outer space.Well, most of them were outer space; One of them was a pink forest. The post just had this caption by way of explanation: "My childhood (1980s) unicorn postcard collection. I believe these were all by the same artist, And...
Robots in Love
Happy Valentine's Day week! Last year, I flew pretty close to the "getting too specific" sun with a post centered on bug aliens in love with humans. This year, we're dropping the requirement that humans be involved and swapping out the proboscis for transistors. We'll be just a little NSFW this issue, although apparently not so much that it couldn't appear on a book cover.Here's Philippe Caza's 1985 illustration, for The Rest of the Robots, by Isaac Asimov...
Cool Spaceships
Spaceships: The first frontier. Across the '70s and '80s, complex and colorful spaceships were the primary element that publishers everywhere thought to shoehorn onto any science fiction book cover. The diverse visual style of all that spacecraft is impossibly to fully sum up, but in this post, we're going to try regardless.Last time I did a roundup of awesome spaceships, someone commented to note that I should include the very colorful art of Alan Gutierrez. You're so right,...
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If you've ever been mesmerized by the painted cover of an old paperback, this blog will feel like coming home.