io9
The coolest thing about the cover artwork for Queen's 1977 album News of the World was that it was inspired by a cover from the October 1953 edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later called Analog). The caption for the image was "Please... fix it, Daddy?"
Drummer Roger Taylor brought this to the band's attention, and they decided to gank it for their next cover. They contacted the artist of the original piece, Frank Kelly Freas, who painted the cover based on his own work. It features Freddie Mercury and Brian May dead in the robot's giant hand, while Taylor and bassist John Deacon plummet to the ground. It's definitely one of Queen's most identifiable album covers, which also contained the hits "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions."
Artist Frank Kelly Freas was involved in the science fiction field from 1950, until his death in 2005. He painted everything from pieces for NASA, to book covers, to magazine covers, to buxom beauties as nose art on fighter planes to Mad Magazine, and even the covers for the GURPS books for Lensman and Planet Krishna. He won numerous awards, and was often hailed of "The Dean of Science Fiction Artists." You can check out his awards, browse his art, and even buy pieces of his work at his website, which is chock full of information including a brief documentary by his wife Laura.
Comments
awww...robot sad
Strangely enough the man in the original painting reminds me of Freddy Mercury during the early 80's.
This album cover gave me the heebie jeebies as a 5 year old every time I saw it in a store.
The cover folded open to show the other band members falling and the inside has a more sinister robot picture.
The Artwork reminded me of Jeff Wayne's Album cover for his musical version of the War of the Worlds from 1979.
+ Watch video
I...am....Ironman!
And all this time I thought it was HIV...
The guitarist, Brian, earned his PhD in astrophysics a couple of year ago, and even wrote a popular science book with another 2 scientists.
Those god-damned talanted E.T commies...
yay for Kelly Freas, RIP.
Someone could do (and possibly has done) a thesis on the use of SF motifs in album covers of the 70s.
ELO, anybody?
It obviously didn't mean to...
@zenpoet: Exactly...pretty much sums up the song in 1 image.
I remember staring at this album cover in the store when I was a kid. It blew my mind.
This was my first 8 Track Tape. I bought it at OZ Music Store in Eastwood Mall in Birmingham, Alabama and rocked to it while cruising the mall, looking for girls, in my 77 Camaro.
Lol, let the laughter and shaming begin... I have thick skin, you can't hurt me.
Best. Queen. Album. Ever.
PS. Always loved/was-creeped-out-by the cover, too.
Kelly Freas was a master at drawing both anatomy and hi-tech SF. It,s too bad he's remmebered mostly for that Queen cover. Check out his book "The Art of Science Fiction". Freas was astounded at the bad art that ended up on SF novel covers in the 70s and 80s. One thing that startled him in particular was how those penny dreadful illustrators always failed to get Spock right.
Don't forget the version Jawbone Radio did for Jonathan Coulton's Thing-A-Week cover of Queen!
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