Rayguns and Rocketships: Vintage Science Fiction Book Cover Art
by: Rian Hughes (Ed.)

Hardcover. London, Korero Press, Revised Ed., 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 479 pages in color. Science-fiction paperbacks exploded over the 1940s and '50s literary landscape with the force of an alien gamma bomb. Titles such as Rodent Mutation, The Human Bat vs. The Robot Gangster, Dawn of the Mutants and Mushroom Men from Mars appeared from fly-by-night publishers making the most of the end of post-war paper rationing. They were brash and seductive - for around a shilling the future was yours. Despite the tight deadlines and poor pay, the books' cover artists still managed to produce works of multi-hued, brain-bending brilliance, and collected here is an overview of their output during an unparalleled period of brash optimism and experimentation in publishing. This is the updated edition with 16 new pages. Clean copy.