Bleep and Booster Annual (1966)

 

Bleep and Booster was a beloved children's animated sci-fi series featured on the BBC's Blue Peter from 1963 to 1977. For 1966-1968 there was a yearly annual album with adventures of the duo. I love space art in general and feel that images of children exploring space are important in helping them imagine people (and themselves) in space and the possibilities. These adventures are seen through a British eye since England did not have a manned space program. Instead "plucky" children  were taken to the Moon and planets by friendly aliens. But children could see images of "themselves" doing space walks, exploring alien planets, and observing manned capsules of the Americans.

Timym, William. Bleep and Booster Annual. London: Purnell and Sons, Ltd. (77 p.) 1966.

Six Days on Luna One (1965) Part 3

 

Here are the last of my scans from this book. It is a large book with large illustrations every few pages. The artist was Teodor Rotrekl (6 June 1923 in Brno – 1 September 2004 in Prague) who was a Czech illustrator and painter. His most known works are illustrations of science fiction books and journals.

Shtuka, I. Illustrated by Rotreckl, Teodor. Шесть Дней На Луне-1 (Six Days on Luna One.) Prague: Artia. (211 p.) 1965.

This book is unique (at least to me) in showing the failure in space flight. The picture above shows poignantly an astronaut carrying their buddy back to the rover after an accident.  American books rarely showed the expected costs of learning to go into space.

Six Days on Luna One (1965) Part 2

 

To continue with this fantastic space art book from 1965. Above is the 1963 Hungarian cover. I have not been able to find the book yet. There is so much here I run out of comments.

This is a translation into Russian of a 1963 Czech book. The 1963 book's title was:

 Šest dnů na Luně 1 (1963) 

I quote from here:

http://blog.edenfuture.com/2011/01/six-days-on-luna-1.html

 "Maybe the most beautiful book from Teodor Rotrekl´s peak period is Šest dnů na Luně 1 (Six Days on Luna 1, 1963) written by a journalist Ivo Štuka (1930 - 2007). This book for older children combines a real history and possible future of the space exploration with a kaleidoscopic novel set in our solar system. Almost every page contains a color illustration by Rotrekl, some of them quite exciting."

Shtuka, I. Illustrated by Rotreckl, Teodor. Шесть Дней На Луне-1 (Six Days on Luna One.) Prague: Artia. (211 p.) 1965.

 

Part 3 Next Week