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 flybynight publishers making the most of the end of postwar paper rationing. They were brash and seductive for around a shilling the future was yours. The stories were often conceived around a precommissioned cover and a title suggested by the publisher, and the writers were paid by the word, and sometimes not paid at all. Titles were knocked out at a keypounding pace, sometimes over a weekend, by authors now lost to literary history (plus a few professionals who could spot an opportunity) who were forced to write under pseudonyms like Ray Cosmic, Steve Future, Vector Magroon or Vargo Statten. Despite the tight deadlines and poor pay, the books cover artists still managed to produce works of multihued, brainbending brilliance, and collected here is an overview of their output during an unparalleled period of brash optimism and experimentation in publishing.

Binding: Hardback;480 pages; Publisher: Korero Press; Classification: AKLB; Weight: 1304 g; Dimensions: 236 x 162 x 33

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