Chris Foss: An Appreciation

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  After collecting comics, watching horror/sci-fi movies and reading fan magazines (esp. Cinefantastique), I began collecting some of my favourite artists through collected editions of their work. Published in 1978, 21st Century Foss collects Chris Foss' ground-breaking sci-fi conceptions of hulking interstellar ships, automated planet scavengers, asteroid defence installations and cities, massive cargo ships, and raging battles between lethal space ship weaponry.

Foss was real deal for science fiction authors and visionaries in the 1970s; he illustrated book covers for Issac Asimov, E.E. "Doc" Smith and others; and did storyboard conceptions for Dune and Alien (never used, H.R. Giger won the job). Although majestic in scope, Foss' illustrations show the wear and tear of space travel and the unique human stamp on technology. Hatches, antennae, cabling and various devices lend a gritty texture to these moving monstrosities.

Look at the illustration The Machine in Shaft 10. You see human figures meshing into the fabric of these leviathans of technology:

Influence on Star Wars' Death Star?

Astronaut-workers bound down the asteroid surface and emerge from a tunnel; observers peer through windows of the Death Star-like orbiting station. Indeed, Foss planted the idea of space technology as a herculean endeavor, with all the nuts-and-bolts, yet undeniably human.

Some illustrations emphasize maintenance in progress, like the ship lowering a huge bomb into an interstellar silo. Others make a connection between ancient and modern space travel as in Landing Ground at Nazca. Away and Beyond shows gnarly, spire-like towers in a far off settlement.

Earth is Room Enough nods towards the black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Foss also lent his talents for dynamic action in a series of WWII illustrations. You're overwhelmed by his kinetic renderings of submarine and aircraft battles.

Before CGI, Chris Foss was the master who would influence a generation of future special effects artists and genre illustrators. And probably had a major impact on the development of more realistic conceptions of space technology, warts and all.