What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover? - io9 Comments

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

carey.pridgeon — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 07:57:43 PDT

I just bought a copy of this book from my local Antiquarian bookshop, ordered from a dealer in the US (I'm in the UK).

However, much to my surprise, while I was browsing through their Sf shelves the a couple of days ago, I found yet another Manor books novel with the Dune cover on! The ladies who own the shop had no idea they had it, not being obsessed with old SF, unlike me.

The book in question is 'Look Back to Earth', by Don Pfeil, published in 1977. I've scanned the cover and stuck it on my website. They used the back cover of the Dune novel for this books front cover, sticking just the thopter on the back cover

The link to the jpg is here. Feel free to grab the image, but don't link to it where it is please, my hosting is free via a friend, so I try to keep my bandwidth usage down :)

carey.pridgeon

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Torley — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:06:24 PDT

Heh, I prefer the cover that looks like a hamsa, similar to the Second Life logo:

» [en.wikipedia.org]

Torley

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

zafner — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:26:46 PST

Okay, I happen to have this very version of the book, and that's not all that's wrong with it. The ads on the last three or four pages are strange indeed; one of them is for a Gordon R. Dickson novel upon which is based the movie Soylent Green. Except, of course, Soylent Green is based on the novel Make Room, Make Room! by Harry Harrison. And the last ad is for a cookbook!

zafner

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

oldandintheway — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:19:16 PST

HeeHeeHeeHeeHee....hes said PENIS.....HeeHeeeHeeHee

oldandintheway

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Schweppes — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:04:57 PST

@Murilee Martin: Sure, all you need is a couple of cars with (real or fake) rocket motors, or maybe a DeLorean vs. the last of the V8 Interceptors.

Schweppes

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Murilee Martin — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:01:34 PST

@s0crates82: Hmm... science fiction PCH?

Murilee Martin

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

hardwareguy — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:35:31 PST

The Dune I read didn't have that cover. What I thought was wrong with the cover is that the Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was on the cover.

[www.ninjaturtles.freewebtools.com]

hardwareguy

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

A4aron — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:49:56 PST

What the hell! this is so freaky, i finished reading the Dune book last night then stumbled upon this! hahah, i was thinking the cover does look like dune then scrolled down and Wow!

A4aron

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:21:06 PST

@Schweppes: Yeah yeah I know Murilee is a guy, OK? Jeez. I just thought, you know, Murilee is like a girl persona. So maybe I should go with the persona's gender. Sorry, I've read WAY too much gender-bending science fiction for my own good.

Annalee Newitz

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Schweppes — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:58:10 PST

@AlfaCharger: @s0crates82: Looks like everyone wandering over from Jalopnik gets the joke. I'm guessing that Annalee Newitz hasn't met her colleague in person yet, maybe they should meet up for some coffee and girl talk?

Didn't realize that Murilee collected classic sci-fi covers, I've still got a bunch of '50s and '60s editions that I've picked up at book sales and such over the years stored at my parents place.

Schweppes

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Project Thanatos — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:17:38 PST

@Annalee:

I don't care what it's made of.. the fact that it's spewing from its SIDES is the creepiest shit ever. Must be some DUNE STD I haven't heard of.. nor do I want to!

Project Thanatos

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

electronic shaman — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:30:48 PST

WOW! I was looking at the harvester and reading about the drugs thinking that it WAS Dune...

"The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel."

electronic shaman

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

antimatty — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:29:56 PST

i assume we are saying this looks like star wars? :)

antimatty

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

urukhaifive — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:46:09 PST

Honest to god, the first thing I did was read the description on the back and thought "'...would enter, control and be a god'? There's no Oxford comma!" Then I noticed the Oscar Mayer weinermobile, and the finally I was like "Oh, hey, this looks like a crappy Dune cover."

urukhaifive

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Skeller — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:16:28 PST

mmm... spice harvester...

Skeller

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

s0crates82 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:12:15 PST

@AlfaCharger: Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Paging Mr. Murilee Martin to io9... Paging Mr. Murilee Martin to io9.

s0crates82

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

AmishJohn — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:04:07 PST

@nutbastard: I don't know; my wife may find the treads... interesting.

AmishJohn

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:49:41 PST

@nutbastard: Looks just like my thingie! It's the "Arrakis ship model" from Good Vibrations.

Annalee Newitz

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

nutbastard — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:48:24 PST

i seriously hope nobodies schlong is yellow and adorned with racing stripes.

nutbastard

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

nutbastard — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:46:21 PST

@strider_mt2k:
dude, what the hell does YOUR thingy look like, if that thing looks like... nevermind.

nutbastard

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

pipboy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:59:10 PST

I was just going to buy that PKD novel but instead I bought one from the Dune chronicles today. I _KNEW_ there was a connection! Or could this be a message coming from Zebra in a shape of pink laser light pointed at my forehead, just for me?

pipboy

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

discomonkey — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:51:32 PST

You're missing the point. Read the letters on the left edge:

P
T
S
P
(E)

PTSP!! PTSP!!! Tom Cruise, you sly vixen, is this a message?

(The E is obviously something you have to know, you know?)

discomonkey

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Imipolex_G-Unit — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:44:28 PST

He who controls the CHEW-Z controls the universe.

Imipolex_G-Unit

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Pwnieboy — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:21:37 PST

@Annalee:

SOYLET PENIS IS PEOPLE!!!!

Pwnieboy

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

zerofritz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:09:29 PST

@Rick Chandler: Look Rick, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

zerofritz

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:45:01 PST

See the skull in the foreground? What do you think happened to it??? Space penis attack!

That's right -- that penis is MADE OF PEOPLE.

Annalee Newitz

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

92BuickLeSabre — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:39:25 PST

I just want to take a step back and re-iterate that that is a truly crappy Dune cover.

"We can totally re-use this cover. It was so piss-poor for Dune that most readers probably won't even notice."

92BuickLeSabre

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

strider_mt2k — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:18:29 PST

Hey that DOES look like a thingy!

strider_mt2k

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

ghost — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:59:48 PST

@latoberg: yep. and notice where this strange penis ejaculates? that's what I call imaginative! I'm afraid to look at my own wiener now.

ghost

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

dead_red_eyes — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:52:22 PST

@latoberg:

Same here.

dead_red_eyes

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Rick Chandler — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:44:54 PST

@zerofritz: One two three four, I declare an avatar war

Rick Chandler

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

latoberg — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:40:59 PST

The first thing I thought of was the Klan was colonizing planets with a giant penismobile.

latoberg

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

braak — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:22:02 PST

@ManchuCandidate: Oscar Meyer gets around. He's been packing his sinuses with the Spice since the early days, and can now fold space in order to transport delicious hot-dogs and meat-related-substances throughout the galaxy.

braak

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

nutmeag — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:20:26 PST

@chriswren:
The "weinermobile" on the back cover . . . but mostly I was looking for it b/c I've come to expect that--I am a product of today's society.

nutmeag

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

ManchuCandidate — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:18:58 PST

I didn't realize Oscar Myer had a weinermobile on Dune. Even in the future, Arrakis-ians enjoy the processy goodness (sand worm) of hot dogs.

ManchuCandidate

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

AlfaCharger — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:18:19 PST

Ah the lovely "LADY" named Murilee Martin.

Maybe "SHE" needs to post the covers on Jalopnik for the PCH!

AlfaCharger

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Chris Wren — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:13:28 PST

I don't see any phallic imagery at all. What's WRONG with you people?

Chris Wren

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

nutmeag — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:07:46 PST

Don't worry, Braak, you're not alone. My first thought was to look for the shapes . . . then I realized it was about Dune. Ahh, the dirty minds of sci-fi nerds.

nutmeag

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

NefariousNewt — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:57:54 PST

@zerofritz: "What do you think of my wiener now!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

Sorry... been a long day...

NefariousNewt

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Project Thanatos — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:50:52 PST

lol Penis-mobile

Project Thanatos

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

manjisan — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:35:41 PST

@braak: THAT is funny!

manjisan

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

braak — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:25:43 PST

Oh, dude. I thought the point of this post was going to be how everything looked like a kind of penis.

Which, I guess, is appropriate, really, for a book by a guy named Dick.

braak

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

zerofritz — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:20:29 PST

what's more impressive to me is the fact that somebody pimped out the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on the back cover.

zerofritz

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

Jeff-Minor — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:15:55 PST

That's the first thing I thought when I saw the cover: Dune rip-off. Not the best of the Dune "art."

Jeff-Minor

What's Wrong With This Philip K. Dick Book Cover?

strider_mt2k — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:14:23 PST

Oh dear.
-and you can still smell the cat pee.

Sorry! Sorry. Old memories of my older brother's houses.
Many books...many cats.

strider_mt2k