Inspiration Information #1
Queen’s 1977 album News of the World was inspired by this cover from the October 1953 edition of Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later called Analog) to illustrate the story The Gulf Between by Tom Godwin:
The robot killing the man was likened to a child injuring a bug and looking up at his parents saying “what have I done?” The caption for the image was “Please… fix it, Daddy?” The artist of the original piece, Frank Kelly Freas, painted the album cover based on his original work. It features Freddie Mercury and Brian May dead in the robot’s giant hand, while Roger 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.”
Freas painted another version of it for inner cover. The inner cover version depicted the robot breaking through an auditorium rooftop and reaching for the people in the panicked crowd. This painting was also used in the artwork to promote Queen’s tour.
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. Check out his book “The Art of Science Fiction”.
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