Looking at the examples took me back to my youth and comic books (I still have over 1000 is some long boxes in the closet, including all the original 1980s X-Men and Daredevil issues).
However, seeing this image in the collection took me back to another time in my life:
When I was a young ROTC cadet in the late 80's, I used to love reading the annual Soviet Military Power publications that the DoD put out.
It was a window into a new world that I was just about to enter, and I wanted to learn about the enemy. Like the comic books, I still have some of these SMP issues on my bookshelf. Ok, I am a geek...
But the image above reminded me of the images (actually paintings) that graced the pages of Soviet Military Power. To my young mind, it was something I had never seen before, especially in my liberal hometown.
So, as a postscript to other retro-futuristic art, I offer you.....
Retro-Futuristic Soviet Space Art courtesy of the Defense Intelligence Agency:
SOVIET SPACE-BASED STRATEGIC DEFENSES
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1987
Soviet Space Station and Shuttle
by Brian W. McMullin, 1986
Soviet Anti-Satellite System
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1986
Mars Lander
by Brian McMullin, 1986
Space Particle Beam
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1987
The art that was part of Soviet Military Power offered much more than speculative ideas on Soviet space adventurism....planes, trains, tanks, missiles. I encourage you to go browse the collection.
1 comment:
These weren't just speculations about possible Soviet space/military power, of course -- they were thinly disguised specific intentions of the US space/military contractors and planners.
You could replace the Hammer and Sickle with the Stars and Bars and run any of those images up the flagpole today, and our Congresscritters would be falling all over each other to throw money at LockMart and the other contractors to build us one o' them Death Rays.
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