Joachim Boaz
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joachimboaz.bsky.social
Joachim Boaz
@joachimboaz.bsky.social
1.1K followers 160 following 2.3K posts
History PhD. Defender of Liberal Arts. History of Leftist Thought. Joachim Boaz (he/him) maps the topography of science fiction between 1945-1985. Creator of the fanzine Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations: https://sciencefictionruminations.com/
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joachimboaz.bsky.social
Julia Verlanger (1929-1985) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Florence Magnin, 1989; R, Joe Petagno, 1978
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #France
Cover for La Mort en Billes. Large skull covered with a veil hovers above a bucolic landscape of trees and a creek. Cover for Travelling Towards Epsilon. An astronaut deconstructs. You can see stars through his legs and chest.
December 7, 2025 at 2:03 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Leigh Brackett (1915-1978) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, uncredited, 1976; R, Ed Emshwiller, 1962
#scifi #sciencefiction #books
Cover for The Coming of the Terrans. Woman with fur is surrounded by undulating hills, various twisting vines, and a flower. Cover for The Long Tomorrow. A mennonite car is pulled by a horse in the background. There's a nuclear mushroom cloud and various wreckage.
December 7, 2025 at 1:55 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Ralph McQuarrie's cover art detail for Mike Shupp's With Fate Conspire (1985)
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #art
man runs on a road between grass. Behind him is a sphere and a large city.
December 7, 2025 at 12:27 AM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Roger Dee (1914-2004) was born on this day. Bibliographic: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Ed Emshwiller, 1954; R, Allen Anderson, 1953
#scifi #sciencefiction
Cover for the February 1954 issue of Galaxy. Spacemen walk in a hydroponics bay. Cover for the January 1953 issue of Planet Stories. Spaceman stands on a surface of a planet outside of a spaceship. Various large women from the cosmos grab at him from the air.
December 6, 2025 at 2:00 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Editor Ejler Jakobsson (1911-1984) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Jack Gaughan, 1970; R, Jack Gaughan, 1969
#scifi #sciencefiction
Cover for the April 1970 issue of UK Galaxy. Same cover was used for the March US edition. Man in the cosmos grabs at planets that are the size of balls. Cover for the November 1969 issue of Galaxy. Man inside of a sun comprised of various grabbing arms of other figures.
December 6, 2025 at 1:55 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
One of my favorite Bruce Pennington covers.

Detail from the 1968 edition of John Blackburn's A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
A composite shape with arms and legs and hands made up of mushrooms and fungus. It ambles across a desolate landscape with small homes and what looks like a watch tower. Birds land on its soporific masses.
December 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Hannes Bok's interior art for Frederik Pohl's "It's a Young World" [as by James MacCreigh] in Astonishing Stories, ed. Frederik Pohl (April 1941)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Two figures with wings attached to their heads run past what looks like a large building (column, foundation, sand).
December 2, 2025 at 1:24 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Hannes Bok's interior art for Frederik Pohl's "It's a Young World" [as by James MacCreigh] in Astonishing Stories, ed. Frederik Pohl (April 1941)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Two men seem to be fighting a large dragon that coils and writhes.
December 2, 2025 at 1:22 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
I love old magazine banners. This one from Astonishing Stories, ed. Frederik Pohl (April 1941)
#scifi #sciencefiction
Viewpoints. Person looks through telescope that becomes the "o" in Viewpoints. There are various letters streaming across the stars.
December 2, 2025 at 1:18 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
G. Thorp's interior art for Isaac Asimov's "Heredity" in Astonishing Stories, ed. Frederik Pohl (April 1941)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Two men look at a rectangle filled with the devastation of cities.
December 2, 2025 at 1:08 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Charles G. Finney (1905-1984) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Jack Gaughan, 1968; R, Boris Artzybasheff, 1961
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #fantasy
Cover for The Unholy City. Man and woman walk away from a dead reptile towards a city in a desert expanse. Cover for The Circus of Dr. Lao. A disturbing clown head or mask with a woman and skeleton dancing below it.
December 1, 2025 at 11:31 AM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
John Crowley (1942-) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, John Cayea, 1976; R, Yvonne Gilbert, 1983
#scifi #sciencefiction #fantasy #books
Cover for Beasts. A lion man looks out from behind broken bars. Cover for Little, Big. Man and woman reside in a garden filled with poppies, birds, topiary, and levitating bubbles.
December 1, 2025 at 11:27 AM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
I can't fathom how some could read a story like this and conclude that empathy and love for all is a bad thing. Be caring. Be an ally. Welcome and support all. It's that simple.
www.chron.com/culture/arti...
"For other queer Texans, spending the holidays with others in the community or a new found family can open their eyes to new experiences or even subvert their experiences. Claire, a trans woman who lives in Austin but chooses not to go home for the holidays, instead t spends Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family of a friend. Claire, who similarly asked that her last name be withheld to not inflame family tensions, said that initially she worried her friend's Mexican, devout Catholic family wouldn't accept her. Now, she finds their holiday traditions deeply comforting. Their bond was cemented by a gift her friend's father, a woodworker, gave her last year. "For Christmas last year, [he] gave me the same pattern, handmade hand mirror that he has made for all of the other women in the family. I opened it and immediately ran and hid in the bathroom sobbing because it was so touching," Claire recalled. "Now I’m spending my holidays with a chosen family that I would have thought wouldn’t accept me, but who in fact fully accept me.""
November 30, 2025 at 11:08 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Made some delectable Danish Rugbrød. Will devour with smoked salmon and pickled herring. #baking #bread
November 30, 2025 at 8:41 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Bob Haberfield's cover art detail for Blast Off: S.F. for Boys, ed. Harry Harrison (1969)
#scifi #sciencefiction #art
Cover illustrates, in surreal strokes, the blast off of a rocket. The smoke is rendered as tight clumps of circles. There is also an arching fire rendered as concentric circles behind and below the blast off radius.
November 30, 2025 at 2:56 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Artist Gino D'Achille (1935-2017) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, 1973; R, 1976
#scifi #sciencefiction #art #artist
Cover for Burroughs' Thuvia, Maid of Mars. The titular Thuvia stands in front of an alien creature that looks like a large fuzzy reptile with dog ears. Cover for Vance's Blue World. A tentacled monster that looks vaguely mechanical reaches towards a man and a woman. The woman lays on a rock while the man wields an ax.
November 30, 2025 at 1:46 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Milton A. Rothman (1919-2001) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Hubert Rogers, 1939; R, Jack Binder, 1940
#scifi #sciencefiction
Cover for Oct. 1939 issue of Astounding. Man in silver stands imperiously in front of a hatch. He has various instruments at his waste and a flying helmet. Cover for the February 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories. Spaceman shoots in the general direction of a woman held somehow near a mushroom. There are various tentacles in the oppressive depths of the alien planetary surface.
November 30, 2025 at 1:42 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
E. Everett Evans (1893-1958) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Paul Blaisdell, 1955; R, Frank Kelly Freas, 1959
#scifi #sciencefiction #books
Cover: Spaceway Science Fiction. Cover shows Mae West and Criswell on the moon. Mae holds a flashlight and Criswell waves. Cover for Man of Many Minds. Man reaches outward surrounded by many fantastic shapes (wolves, aliens, birds, spaceships, etc.). The cosmos reaches beyond.
November 30, 2025 at 1:37 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Mini-rumination on the allure of historical SF conventions

Join the discussion: sciencefictionruminations.com/2025/11/29/w...

#scifi #sciencefiction #books
Photo from left to right: Langdon Jones’ wonderful collection The Eye of the Lens (1972) (cover is comprised of a bunch of gears and numbers) Algis Budrys’ Rogue Moon (1960) (cover is a man near a mysterious sphere) Joanna Russ’ We Who Are About To…. (1976) (cover is a man on a personal space craft) John Christopher’s A Wrinkle in the Skin (variant title: The Ragged Edge) (1965) (cover is a ruined city)
November 29, 2025 at 4:57 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Art Sussman, 1960; R, Bernard Symancyk, 1968
Cover for Out of the Silent Planet. Three spaceman in the shape of a spaceship rocket off towards various planets that seem sliced in parts. Cover for That Hideous Strength. A vaguely face-like shape with six orifices looms over a mansion, chess pieces, and an easel.
November 29, 2025 at 2:08 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. (1950-2012) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, uncredited (Dean Ellis probably), 1979; R, Janet Aulisio, 1982
#scifi #sciencefiction #books
Cover for Bandersnatch. A man walks in a dark moss and vine covered ruin. There's a large fox-like creature behind a tower. Cover for Mayflies. A robot holds his metal hands to the head of a bearded man. Another woman and man sit next to him clasping hands. They are inside of a spaceship.
November 29, 2025 at 2:03 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Artist Doug Beekman (1952-) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, 1977; R, 1980
#scifi #sciencefiction #books #art
Cover for Critical Threshold. Three people stand amongst trees. There's a spectral shape above them. The two women huddle behind the man. All have very tight shorts... Cover for Van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull's The Winged Man. Three central figures. Two men behind the woman. The woman poses on a pedestal. There are winged figures behind a large sphere behind them.
November 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c...

L, Antony Maitland, 1963; R, uncredited, 1965
#scifi #sciencefiction #books
Cover for A Wrinkle in Time. Three kids run. There's a large swirl. And the shape of a woman behind them. Cover for The Arm of the Starfish. There's a starfish and a dark murky ocean with a dolphin or whale or shark shape.
November 29, 2025 at 1:54 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
So.... I assume it was transformed later into this cover!

Jack Gaughan's cover for Barbara Paul's An Exercise for Madmen (1979)

Which I reviewed a while back: sciencefictionruminations.com/2016/06/12/b...
November 28, 2025 at 11:13 PM
joachimboaz.bsky.social
Still from Emilio Miraglia's giallo The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)
#giallo #italy #film #movie
Three human figures (left, right, and center) run across an overgrown theater. There are various roman statues and columns.
November 28, 2025 at 6:25 PM