This is a book I have had my eye on for ages. It appears occasionally in ebay but always for outrageous prices. Well for Xmas this year I decided now was the time. From even the little I had seen of this book its paintings are incredibly beautiful, to add the pop-ups on top of that, and you get a great unsung children's space book.
Flying in Space. Prague, Czech Republic. 18p. 9.2 x 13.2 in. 1961
So excuse me for being struck with the beauty of this book, even the back cover is a work of art.
While the front of the book is the cover illustration expanded to fly the ship over the Moon.
The Russian style of space art has a romantic quality about it. Both the techniques and that was they choose to soften the lines makes it very dreamy.
I do wonder if the text tells me what kind of propulsion system they are using. It looks like the ancestor of the Discovery from 2001.
As I said a jewel of a book.
This amazing book is obviously linked to the Soviet SF Movie "The Road to the Stars" screened during 1957.
ReplyDeleteThe movie itself is an outstanding piece of visual effects and it could also regarded as a 2001 Space Odissey forerunner.
Further info as follows on Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica:
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/roastars.htm
What a terrific find!
ReplyDeleteIt was book of my childhood.I have this book, I took is with me to Australia when get immigration in 1992.
ReplyDeleteКнига из моего детства!
ReplyDeleteкогда я переехала в Австралию из Советского Союза, то взяла её с собой.
Она и сейчас у меня есть. Эта вешь научила меня мечтать и верить в настоящие чудеса.
It also seems to draw heavily on the two-part moon adventure drawn by Hergé for his Tintin series: the red-and-white livery of the space-ship, the scenes of it standing at the gantry and flying over the moon, and the orange space-suits. Hergé himself drew on the Chesley Bonestall drawings of space from Colier’s Magazine.
ReplyDeleteI would say that the spaceship is a variant of the "Orion" project
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29
The starship is a Photon Rocket, which the Russians were keen on for years.
ReplyDelete