L. Ashwell Wood: Behind the Scenes part 6

L ASHWELL WOOD’S SPACE SHUTTLE PART 2

by Jeremy Briggs

The previous part of this article on L Ashwell Wood’s cutaway of a space shuttle design from the 1970 Inside Information On Space Travel book covered the original art painted by Wood. This time we will look at the real life designs of the space shuttle from the time period that would have influenced his painting.

Inside Information On Space Travel was published by Benwig Books in 1970 as part of a series of factual information books for children. Each book featured a series of colour cutaways plus several black and white illustrations all painted by Wood who also wrote the books.

The Space Travel book featured the then current Apollo lunar landings and looked to the immediate future with the illustration of the Skylab space station, which was the next step for the NASA space programme, on its front cover. It also included illustrations of two different types of future space shuttle, a cargo carrying shuttle in the “To Space Stations And Back” illustration and a passenger carrying shuttle in “What Of The Future?” So where did the ideas for these illustrations come from?

Firstly a quick history lesson: in the late 1960s and early 1970s there were many concepts for the post-Apollo method of getting astronauts into Earth orbit. The overriding factor in these was affordability and the main concept to help make orbital flight cheaper was to reuse the flight vehicle rather than effectively throw it away each time as had been done with rockets up to that point. This reusability requirement saw many American aerospace companies put forward designs for a reusable shuttle that would return to Earth and land like an aeroplane no matter how it took off. In general those designs began with two different aeroplane-like craft, the smaller one piggy-backed on the larger one so that the larger one could carry the smaller one up to a great altitude before the smaller one separated and went the rest of the way to Earth orbit. This would eventually evolve into the smaller craft being launched on rocket boosters to get into space which was the genesis of the craft that became NASA’s Space Shuttle.

One of the designs for this latter concept came from Grumman who produced this picture to illustrate their concept for a shuttle that carried satellites and astronauts into Earth orbit. Despite the angled wings this concept is very similar to the NASA Orbiter Vehicle that actually flew with main engines at the rear and a payload bay for transporting satellites into space. If we take this Grumman image and flip it to show a direct comparison with Wood’s shuttle, there can be little doubt that this then is the image he used as the basis for his cutaway.

Wood’s painting has two further space vehicles, a mini-shuttle and a space station. Taking the space station first and despite the then construction of NASA’s Skylab station, which was launched in 1973, there were many designs for larger space stations also coming from the various aerospace companies. Most of these designs showed a modular approach based in part, like Skylab itself, on the legacy of the Apollo programme. This illustration from North American Rockwell shows two shuttles docked at an Earth orbiting station.

While Wood’s original artwork for his space station is actually less than half an inch across, and the shadow effect around it shows that it was originally slightly larger, it bears more than enough of a resemblance to the North America Rockwell station in both its design and orientation that there is a high probability that Wood used this image to base his own station painting on.

The space shuttle design used in this station painting is much closer than the Grumman design to the final version of the Space Shuttle that NASA actually flew, which is not surprising as North American Rockwell became Rockwell International who were the aerospace company that designed and built all of NASA’s Orbiter Vehicles. One of the other North American Rockwell illustrations for this concept shuttle, which they called DC-3, shows the shuttle in orbit launching a satellite with a space station in the background.

In this illustration the satellite being deployed from the shuttle’s payload bay is elongated with a rounded nose, engines at the rear and ‘wings’, which would actually be solar arrays, mounted on the top rear of the main body. It also has a stand mounted radio antenna mounted above and about half way along the main body. By flipping this illustration of the DC-3 satellite launch and focussing on the satellite and the space station in the background again there is a good probability that Wood used this image to base his own on, realigning it to the orientation of the satellite in the Grumman image.

The difference here is that the DC-3 illustration is of a satellite and Wood’s is of a mini-shuttle. I suspect that L Ashwell Wood confused the slightly earlier shuttle concepts of two different manned space craft attached to each other, with the bigger one carrying the smaller up far enough that it could then go the rest of the way into orbit, with this later design of a single space craft boosted into orbit by other means that would then be able to deploy satellites. There does not seem to have been any real world design concepts whereby the smaller craft was carried into space enclosed within the larger one as Wood illustrates. It does however make for an interesting illustration to spark a child’s imagination.

The other shuttle illustration in the Inside Information on Space Travel book is for a passenger carrying ‘space liner’, a shuttle sized vehicle able to carry many passengers from Earth to an orbiting space station. This Lockheed design for such a vehicle, called Starclipper, is a similar design concept to the Grumman shuttle with its main engines at the rear and angled wings. The Starclipper also has two jet engines attached to the top of the main body which protrude rather like antenna. It wasn’t unusual of shuttle concepts at the time to include jet engines to allow the shuttle to be manoeuvred in the atmosphere as it came in to land on a runway. Indeed the DC-3 design above has over wing boxes that were intended to house its jet engines.

By realigning the Starclipper image into the same orientation as Wood’s space liner we can see that this then is where he got his design of a space liner from. The irony here of course is that an artist so well known for his own cutaways used a cutaway produced by Lockheed to produce a non-cutaway illustration of his own.

While some may consider that these illustrations show that he was copying the designs of others, they really show that Wood was researching these shuttle design concepts just as he would have researched the real vehicles of his other illustrations and, as such, was not short changing his child readers with the fantasy spaceships that other artists created.

Having researched the shuttle designs for these illustrations it is just a pity that L Ashwell Wood died in 1973 and so did not get to see a real shuttle fly into space.

REFERENCES:
Grumman Shuttle.
North American Rockwell DC-3 and Space Station.

Lockheed Starclipper.

L. Ashwell Wood: Behind the Scenes part 5

L ASHWELL WOOD’S SPACE SHUTTLE PART 1

by Jeremy Briggs

L Ashwell Wood is best known for his 600+ cutaway illustrations produced for Eagle comic between 1950 and 1969 but the last series that he was associated with was the Inside Information series of children’s books published by Benwig between 1969 and 1971. These have been covered before on Bear Alley when Steve was trying to tie-up the biographical details of Wood himself and when Richard Sheaf proved the existence of the final four books in the series by providing scans of their covers.

Inside Information On Military Aircraft (1969 – SBN 901-798 096)
Inside Information On Modern Ships (1969 – SBN 901-798 07x)
Inside Information On Trains Today (1969 – SBN 901-798 088)
Inside Information On Civil Aircraft (1969 – SBN 901-798 061)

Inside Information On Space Travel (1970 – SBN 901-798 150)
Inside Information On Naval Ships (1970 – SBN 901-798 126)
Inside Information On Racing Cars (1970 – SBN 901-798 142)
Inside Information On Hovercraft (1970 – SBN 901-798 134))

Inside Information On Exploring Under the Sea (1971? – SBN 901-798 31 2)
Inside Information On Famous Steam Trains (1971? – SBN 901-798 32 0)
Inside Information On World Car Speed Records (1971? – SBN 901-798 33 9)
Inside Information On Tanks and Armoured Cars (1971? – SBN 901-798 34 7)

These 8 x 6 inch landscape format hardback books were aimed at children and were all written and illustrated by Wood who was also the owner of the company. Each book has 8 single page colour cutaways and 1 two page centrespread colour cutaway, plus 3 black and white illustrations, all newly produced for each book with one of the single colour pages being reused for the cover. The books were published in three batches of four as can be seen from the dates given and the first batch of four titles were also released in softcover under the same Standard Book Numbers with a generic cover design. Indeed some of the hardback versions of the first four books are softcover books with the hardback glued onto the softcover, while others were printed as hardbacks.

A selection of the illustrations for these books have recently come to light and with the recent ending of NASA’s Space Shuttle programme it seems appropriate that we use the L Ashwell Wood’s version of a space shuttle entitled “To Space Stations And Back” from Inside Information On Space Travel as an example of his work from this series of books.

This illustration shows a pair of manned spacecraft, a larger shuttle style vehicle designed to take its cargo into space and an additional smaller vehicle designed to take people from the main craft to a distance space station.

The original art for this spacecraft, which is painted on Fineline Drawing Board, is approximately 12 x 9 inches with the final printed version of the image being approximately 7.5 x 5 inches, so the original artwork is not quite the “half up” that Wood used for his Eagle centrespreads. Perhaps the most striking thing about this original is the brightness of the colours in comparison to the printed version, especially for the space background which is a strong purple colour rather than the blue of the book. The reason for this may be down to the technical limitations of reproducing the dark colours of a space background given the printing capabilities that were being used in 1970. Indeed artist Mike Noble had problems with reproductions of his space backgrounds when he was painting the Fireball XL5 comic strip in TV Century 21 comic in 1965. As he related in this interview on The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History website, Noble had to use Prussian Blue for space backgrounds due to the infrared cameras that photographed the art for printing picking up any colour of paint that had any black mixed into it and printing that colour as black or grey no matter what colour it appeared to the naked eye.

In addition to the shuttle and mini-shuttle the image also includes an Earth-orbiting space station. While the painted station is less than half an inch across on the original art, as can be seen by the shadow-like lines in this close up, Wood obviously had decided that his original version of it was too big and had reduced the size of it, perhaps to give the impression that it was further away from the shuttle and the Earth.

As we know from his Eagle work, Wood painted the full illustration first and then the number circles were added afterwards with the numbers going on last. Looking at the original artwork used for this page we therefore see the white number circles added on top of the artwork. While this artwork has no attached notes giving the key to the numbers that would be added to the circles, it does have a semi-transparent overlay of tracing paper onto which those numbers have been written in pencil.

There is little in the way of writing on the art board itself although Wood does title the image as Space Shuttle-Ship as well as including his stylised signature.

This signature is unusual for two reasons; firstly it is not on the printed version of the image, suggesting that it was added after publication when the art had been returned to him from the printers, and secondly it is in biro. Wood normally painted this style of signature, of a capital lettered Ashwell above Wood with a large L to the left, on his paintings while his hand written signature was in more normal day-to-day joined-up script. Looking in more detail at this signature you can just make out the ruled pencil lines that he used to keep the heights of the letters consistent.

No one has seen the original artwork without the white numbers circles on it since before the book was published in 1970 and few, perhaps only Wood’s wife Florence, would even have seen it then. However with the use of modern technology it is possible to Photoshop the white circles out and provide an impression of what the original image looked like in its full glory before they were added.

L Ashwell Wood would not live to see a real shuttle spacecraft fly. He died in 1973, four years before Shuttle Enterprise glided from the back of its Boeing 747 carrier aircraft for the first time and some eight years before Shuttle Columbia blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre into space.

The second part of this article will show the real world designs that L Ashwell Wood based this spacecraft on.

(* With thanks to Richard Sheaf.)

Comic Cuts - 16 September 2011

Another brief column this week. The daily grind of writing metadata for an enormous set of images doesn't leave much time for anything else. Individually, the pictures can be quite interesting - anything from a fire at the Alhambra Theatre to a portrait of Daniel Lambert, who weighed 50 stone (700 pounds) and whose stomach was nine feet four inches round. However, a relentless diet of them isn't the best way to work: the enthusiasm of the first hour or two soon evaporates; by hours three and four you're struggling against the desire to read e-mails or surf the web; by hours five and six even hoovering the living room or mowing the lawn sounds like more fun; by the end of the day, you're more likely to be mowing carpets and hoovering the lawn.

For a little light relief, I managed to finish a dummy for a book on Tuesday evening and ordered up restocks of Eagles Over the Western Front, which should arrive in a few days time. Although it's more expensive to do short print runs, it does mean that my financial exposure isn't life-theatening as I only ever have a couple of hundred quid's worth of unsold stock at any one time. Ambitious print runs have probably been the death of most small publishers because the economies of scale can look so attractive. It's easy to get sucked in by the idea of printing thousands of books to drive the unit costs down; less easy to then shift those cheaply printed copies when everyone is tightening their belts. That's why most small presses last for one or two books. Bear Alley now has five books under its belt, I'm rather pleased to say, and there are more on the way. It's not a money-spinner but we're in profit to the tune a a few hundreds of pounds, which will pay for the printing of the next couple of books without my having to dip into my savings, which have financed the operation so far. Is there such a thing as a smug emoticon? That's what you'd see here if there was!

New stocks of the Eagles books should arrive next week and you can order all three books now and save yourself a little postage and packing.

I've also been working on more pages for the planned collection of stories by C. L. Doughty; our column header is the latest page off the production line, although I've still got to sort out the title lettering. But the pages look spectacular.

Random scans: three from Carlo Jacono, the Italian master of giallo art- what might be called noir or hardboiled art elsewhere. The term comes from the colour (yellow) that was traditionally used on pulp books in Italy. I first came across his work on the covers of Fleetway's Super Libraries - a series of extra-length pocket libraries published in 1967-68. Jacono was the main artist of the run of Steel Claw stories in the Stupendous Series...

Not that he was limited to Fleetway - he also painted covers for Commando for many years. He's still hugely popular in Italy even a decade after his death... there's a website dedicated to his work and plenty of images can be found around the internet. However, here are a trio of covers that probably won't have turned up as they were for Badger Books back in 1960.

The third cover is something of an oddity as it is a reworking of an Ace Double (D-130) cover for Philip K. Dick's Solar Lottery, published in 1955. I haven't a clue why Badger would have asked him to repaint the Ace and not produce an original cover image.

Jacono did a couple of other covers which I'll try to dig out in time for next week. Talking of which, I'm pleased to welcome back Jeremy Briggs, who will be providing a two-parter that will run over the weekend, during which time Paul Temple will be taking a short break. Don't panic, he'll be back on Monday and run through the week and I'll be back next Friday unless I can squeeze in another cover gallery mid-week.

Paul Temple and the Affair of the Tired Tiger part 5

(* © Evening News)

Paul Temple and the Affair of the Tired Tiger part 4

(* © Evening News)

Paul Temple and the Affair of the Tired Tiger part 3

(* © Evening News)

Paul Temple and the Affair of the Tired Tiger part 2

(* © Evening News)

Paul Temple and the Affair of the Tired Tiger part 1

I'm very pleased to be able to present another Paul Temple yarn, which has been sent over by a reader from Holland. I believe this one predates the strips that have appeared here previously. Unfortunately, none of the strips I've seen have been dated, although the language and general style have been late 1960s. There was a conscious effort in some of the later strips to alter the look of Paul Temple so that he became Francis Matthews, who was starring in the Paul Temple TV series from 1969, so that places those particular strips towards the end of the run, say circa 1970. This one might be from around 1966, although that's a very rough estimate.

The artist is John McNamara and the writer is credited as Francis Durbridge, although I suspect that he had nothing to do with the scripting; most of the Paul Temple novels were ghosted for Durbridge by various hands (Charles Hatton, Douglas Rutherford (McConnell) and Tony Hussey).

(* © Evening News)

Isaac Asimov: SF Cover Gallery

Isaac Asimov was the second science fiction author I read in quantity. I began reading SF stories almost exclusively from around the age of 11. Before that I'd read some of the global catastrophe novels in the Dr Palfrey series by John Creasey, some James Blish adaptations of the Star Trek TV series and some of Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars novels. I picked up the first issue of Speed & Power when it came out in 1975 (it launched just before my 12th birthday) and became hooked on Arthur C. Clarke's short stories. Speed & Power also reprinted some of Asimov's robot stories and I became an obsessive reader of both authors.

Our local library had a good selection of Arthur C. Clarke's books and, of course, I had loads of his stories in Speed & Power, so I never bought and owned many of his paperbacks. Asimov was trickier to find in the library, so I ended up buying them rat a time when Chris Foss was doing many of the covers, which kick-started my love of SF cover art. Thirty-five years later I've come full circle and the various cover galleries I've run over the past few years - and Sci-Fi Art: A Graphic History - have been the result.

Novels

Pebble in the Sky (Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1950; London, Corgi, 1958)
Corgi Books S583, 1958, 220pp.
Sphere, 1969, 186pp.
Sphere, 1974, 186pp.
Sphere, 1977, 186pp.
Grafton 0586-06952-6, 1987, 226pp, £2.95. Cover by Chris Foss
HarperCollins 0586-06952-6, 1993, 226pp.

The Stars Like Dust. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1951; London, Panther, 1958; abridged as The Rebellious Stars, New York, Ace, 1954.
Panther Books 863, 1958, 191pp, 2/6. Cover by Richard Powers
----, [2nd imp.] 1964
----, [3rd imp.] 1965
----, [4th imp.] 1968. Cover photo
----, [5th imp.] 1969
----, [6th imp.] 1972. Cover photo
----, [7th imp.] 1972
----, [8th imp.] 1973
Panther 0586-02441-7 3, [9th imp.] 1975, 189pp, 35p. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [xth imp.] 1981
Grafton 0246-12920-4, 1986, 220pp. h/c
HarperCollins 0586-02441-7, 1993, 188pp.

The Currents of Space. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1952; London, Boardman, 1955.
Panther Books 824, 1958, 192pp, 2/6. Cover by Josh Kirby
----, [2nd imp.] 1962
----, [3rd imp.] 1964
----, [4th imp.] 1967
----, [5th imp.] 1971
----, [6th imp.] 1971
----, [7th imp.] 1973. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [8th imp.] 1975
----, [9th imp.] 1978
Granada 0586-00824-1, [10th imp.] 1979, 205pp, 75p. Cover as above
---- [11th imp.] 1981
---- [12th imp.] 1983, 205pp, £1.50. Cover as above
Grafton 0586-00824-1, 1990, 205pp.

Foundation. New York, Gnome Press, 1951; London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1953; abridged as The 1,000-Year Plan, New York, Ace, 1955.
Panther Books 1080, Jul 1960, 189pp. 2/6. Cover by Richard Powers (reprints Avon T-193, Year 2018! by James Blish)
----, [2nd imp.] 1964
----, [3rd imp.] 1965
----, [4th imp.] 1966
----, [5th imp.] 1967
----, [6th imp.] 1968
----, [7th imp.] 1969
----, [8th imp.] 1969
----, [9th imp.] 1971, 189pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [10th imp.] 1971
----, [11th imp.] 1972
----, [12th imp.] 1973
----, [13th imp.] 1973
----, [14th imp.] 1974, 189pp, 35p.
----, [15th imp.] 1975.
----, [16th imp.] 1976
----, [17th imp.] 1977
----, [18th imp.] 1978
----, [19th imp.] 1979
----, [20th imp.] 1979
----, [21st imp.] 1981
----, [22nd imp.] 1981
----, [23rd imp.] 1982
----, [24th imp.] 1983
----, [25th imp.] 1983
----. [26th imp.] 1983
----, [27th imp.] 1984
----. [28th imp.] 1985, 234pp, £1.95. Cover by Tim White
HarperCollins Voyager 0586-01080-7, 1995, 234pp.
HarperCollins (Voyager Classics 3) 0007-11587-3, 2001, 234pp.
HarperVoyager 978-000811749-8, 2016.
----, [19th imp.] n.d., 231pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

Foundation and Empire. New York, Gnome Press, 1952; London, Panther, 1962; as The Man Who Upset the Universe, New York, Ace, 1955.
Panther Books 1355, 1962, 172pp.
----, [2nd imp.] 1964
----, [3rd imp.] Dec 1965, 172pp, 3/6. Cover: photo
----, [4th imp.] 1966
----, [5th imp.] 1967
----, [6th imp.] 1968
----, [7th imp.] 1969
----, [8th imp.] 1969, 172pp, 5/-. Cover: photo
----, [9th imp.] 1971, 172pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [10th imp.] 1971
----, [11th imp.] 1973
----, [12th imp.] 1973
----. [13th imp.] 1974, 172pp, 35p.
----, [14th imp.] 1975
----, [15th imp.] 1976
----, [16th imp.] 1977
----, [17th imp.] 1978
----, [18th imp.] 1979
----, [19th imp.] 1979
----, [20th imp.] 1981
----, [21st imp.] 1982
----, [22nd imp.] 1983
----, [23rd imp.] 1983
----, [24th imp.] 1983
Granada 0586-01355-5, [25th imp.] 1984, 240pp, £1.95. Cover by Tim White
HarperCollins 0586-01355-5, 1994, 240pp.
----, [xth imp.] 1996, 240pp.
HarperVoyager 978-000811750-4, 2016.
----, [11th imp.], n.d., 230pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

 

Second Foundation. New York, Gnome Press, 1953; London, Digit Book, 1958; as 2nd Foundation: Galactic Empire, New York, Avon, 1958.
Digit Book D192, 1958, 159pp.
Panther Books 1713, Aug 1964, 187pp.
----, [2nd imp.] Dec 1965, 187pp, 3/6. Cover: photo
----, [3rd imp.] 1967
----, [4th imp.] 1968
----, [5th imp.] 1969
----, [6th imp.] 1969
----, [7th imp.] 1971, 187pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----. [8th imp.] 1971
----, [9th imp.] 1972
----, [10th imp.] 1973
----, [11th imp.] 1973
----, [12th imp.] 1974, 187pp, 35p.
----, [13th imp.] 1975
----, [14th imp.] 1976
----, [15th imp.] 1977
----, [16th imp.] 1978
----, [17th imp.] 1979
----, [18th imp.] 1979
----, [19th imp.] 1982
Granada 0586-01713-5, [20th imp.] 1983, 240pp.
----, [21st imp.] 1983
----, [22nd imp.] 1983
----, [23rd imp.] 1984, 240pp, £1.95. Cover by Tim White
HarperVoyager 978-000811751-1, 2016.
----, [9th imp.] n.d., 227pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

The Caves of Steel (Robots). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1954; London, T. V. Boardman & Co., 1954.
Panther Book 835, 1958
----, [2nd imp.] Oct 1962, 189pp, 2/6. Cover by Josh Kirby
----, [3rd imp.] 1964
----, [4th imp.] 1967
----, [5th imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-00835-7-3, [6th imp.] 1971. Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
----, [7th imp.] 1971
----, [8th imp.] 1973 Cover by Chris Foss
----, [9th imp.] 1975 [1974]
----, [10th imp.]  1976
----, [11th imp.] 1979
----, [12th imp.] 1980
----, [13th imp.] 1981
----, [14th imp.] 1981
Granada 0586-00835-7, [15th imp.] 1985. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [16th imp.] 1985, 206pp, £1.95.
HarperCollins 0586-00835-7, 1993, 206pp.

The End of Eternity. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1955; London, Panther, 1958.
Panther Books 881, Jan 1959, 2/6
Panther Books 0586-02440-9. c.1969.
Panther Books 0586-02440-9-2, c.1971.
Panther Books 0586-02440-9, 1973, 189pp.
Gollancz VGSF 0575-07118-4, 2000, 192pp.

The Naked Sun (Robots). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1957; London, Joseph, 1958.
Panther Books 1016, Feb 1960, 188pp.
----, [2nd imp.] Apr 1964, 202pp, 3/6. Cover: photo
----, [3rd imp.] 1965
Panther Boosk 2440-9, [4th imp.] 1968, 189pp, 5/-/ Cover: photo
----, [5th imp.] 1969; [7th imp.] 1971
Panther Books, [8th imp.] 1973. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [9th imp.] 1974
----, [10th imp.] 1976
----, [11th imp.] 1978
----, [12th imp.] 1979
----, [13th imp.] 1981
----, [14th imp.] 1982
Granada/Panther 0586-02440-9, [15th imp.] 1985, 189pp, £1.95. Cover as above
Granada/Panther 0586-01016-5, [16th imp.] 1985, 203pp, £1.95. Cover by Chris Foss
HarperCollins 0586-01016-5, 1993, 203pp.

Fantastic Voyage (novelization of screenplay). Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1966; London, Dobson, 1966.
Corgi Books GS7366, 1966, vi+186pp, 3/6. Movie Tie-In.
Corgi Books 0552-09237-1, 1973, vi+186pp.

The Gods Themselves. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1972; London, Gollancz, 1972.
Panther Books 0586-03772-1, 1973, 252pp, 40p. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.], [3rd imp.], [4th imp.], [5th imp.], [6th imp.], [7th imp.], [8th imp.], [9th imp.], [10th imp.]
Granada 0586-03772-1, n.d., 252pp, £3.50. Cover as above

Foundation's Edge. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1982; London, Granada, 1983.
Granada 0586-05839-7, 1983, 432pp, £2.50. Cover by Tim White [[17 printings]]
HarperCollins 0586-05839-7, 1994, 432pp. [[2 printings]]
HarperCollins Voyager 0586-05839-7, 1996, 432pp.
----, [4th imp.] n.d., 432pp, £6.99. Cover by Fred Gambino
HarperVoyager 978-000811752-8, 2016.
----, [6th imp.] n.d., 413pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

The Robots of Dawn (Robots). Huntington Woods, Michigan, Phantasia Press, 1983; London, Granada, 1984.
Granada/Panther 0586-06199-1, 1985, 477pp, £2.50. Cover by Chris Foss
---- [9 x Grafton impressions]
HarperCollins 0586-06199-1, 1994, 477pp.
---- [17th imp.] n.d., 477pp, £7.99.

Robots and Empire. Huntington Woods, Michigan, Phantasia Press, 1985; London, Granada, 1985.
Grafton 0586-96200-9, 1986, 508pp, £2.95. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1986
HarperCollins 0586-06200-9, 1994, 508pp.

Foundation and Earth. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1986; London, Grafton, 1986.
Grafton 0586-07110-5, 1987, 510pp, £3.50. Cover by Tim White [[11 printings]]
HarperCollins 0586-07110-5, 1994, 510pp. [[2 printings]]
HarperCollins Voyager 0586-07110-5, 1996, 510pp
----, [6th imp.] n.d., 510pp, £6.99. Cover by Fred Gambino
HarperVoyager 978-000811753-5, 2016.
----, [6th imp.] n.d. 449pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1987; London, Grafton, 1987.
Grafton 0586-20025-8, 1988, 480pp, £3.99. Cover by Chris Foss

Prelude to Foundation. New York, Doubleday, 1988; London, Grafton, 1988.
Grafton 0246-07111-3, 1989, 460pp, £3.99. Cover by Tim White
HarperCollins 0586-07111-3, 1994, 460pp.
HarperVoyager 978-000811748-1, 2016.
----, [6th imp.] n.d., 402pp, £8.99. Cover by Mike Topping

Nemesis. New York and London, Doubleday, 1989.
Bantam 0553-40069-X, 1990, 446pp.

Nightfall, with Robert Silverberg. London, Gollancz, 1990; New York, Doubleday, 1990.
Pan Books 0330-32096-3, 1991, 352pp.
----, [2nd? imp.] 1992, 352pp.

The Child of Time, with Robert Silverberg. London, Gollancz, 1991.
Pan Books 0330-32270-2, 1992, 342pp.
---- [? 0330-32579-5], [2nd? imp.] 1993, 352pp.

The Positronic Man, with Robert Silverberg. London, Gollancz, 1992; New York, Doubleday, 1993.
Pan Books 0330-33058-6, 1993, 223pp.

Forward the Foundation. New York, Doubleday, 1993; London, Doubleday, 1993.
Bantam 0553-40488-1, 1994, 476pp.
----, [2nd imp.] 1994, 476pp, £4.99. Cover by unknown

NOVELS for children co-written with Janet Asimov (series: Norby in all titles)
Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1983; London, Methuen, 1984.
Norby's Other Secret, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1984; London, Methuen, 1985.
Norby and the Lost Princess, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1985.
Norby and the Invaders, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1985.
Norby and the Queen's Necklace, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1986.
Norby Finds a Villain, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1987.
Norby Down to Earth, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1989.
Norby and Yobo's Great Adventure, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1989.
Norby and the Oldest Dragon, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1990.
Norby and the Court Jester, with Janet Asimov. New York, Walker, 1991.

NOVELS AS PAUL FRENCH (series: Lucky Starr in all titles)

David Starr, Space Ranger. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1952; Kingswood, Surrey, World's Work, 1953; as Space Ranger (as Isaac Asimov), London, New English Library, 1973.
New English Library 0450-01434-7, Apr 1973. Cover by Bruce Pennington
----, [2nd imp.] Jun 1973
----, [3rd imp.] Jun 1974, 144pp, 30p.
New English Library 0450-04691-5, [4th imp.] May 1975
----, [5th imp.] Jun 1980, 144pp, 90p. Cover by Peter Elson
Lightning 0340-42610-1, 1988, 144pp. Cover by Danny Flynn

Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1953; Kingswood, Surrey, World's Work, 1954; as Pirates of the Asteroids (as Isaac Asimov), London, New English Library, 1973.
New English Library 0450-02028-2, Aug 1973. Cover by Bruce Pennington
----, [2nd imp.] Mar 1974
----, [3rd imp.] Mar 1975, 144pp
New English Library 0450-04695-8, [recover of earlier edition], 144pp, 90p. Cover by Peter Elson
Lightning 0340-42609-8, 1988, 144pp.

Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1954; as The Oceans of Venus (as Isaac Asimov), in A Second Isaac Asimov Double, London, New English Library, 1973.
New English Library 0450-01926-8, Aug 1974, 143pp. Cover by Bruce Pennington
New English Library 0450-04689-3, Jun 1980, 142pp, 90p. Cover by Peter Elson
Lightning 0340-43121-0, 1988, 144pp.

Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1956; as The Big Sun of Mercury (as Isaac Asimov), in A Second Isaac Asimov Double, London, New English Library, 1973.
New English Library 0450-01767-2, 1974, 143pp. Cover by Bruce Pennington
New English Library 0450-04692-3, 1980. Cover by Peter Elson
Lightning 0340-48497-7, 1988, 143pp.

Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1957; as The Moons of Jupiter (as Isaac Asimov), London, New English Library, 1974.
New English Library 0450-02067-3, Oct 1974, 142pp, 35p. Cover by Bruce Pennington [No.6]
Lightning 0340-49110-8, 1988, 142pp.

Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1958; as The Rings of Saturn (as Isaac Asimov), London, New English Library, 1974.
New English Library 0450-01999-3, Sep 1974, 144pp, 35p. Cover by Bruce Pennigton [No.5]
Lightning 0340-49111-6, 1989, 144pp.

Omnibus
Triangle (contains The Stars Like Dust, Pebble in the Sky, The Currents of Space). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1961; as An Isaac Asimov Second Omnibus, London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1969.
The Foundation Trilogy: Three Classics of Science Fiction (contains Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1963; as An Isaac Asimov Omnibus, London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1966.
An Isaac Asimov Double (contains Space Ranger, Pirates of the Asteroids). London, New English Library, 1972.
The Robot Novels (includes The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1972; with The Robots of Dawn, New York, Ballantine, 1988.
The Far Ends of Time (omnibus). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1979.
Prisoners of the Stars (omnibus). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1979.
The Adventures of Lucky Starr. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1985.
The Further Adventures of Lucky Starr. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1985.
The Norby Chronicles (omnibus), with Janet Asimov. New York, Ace, 1986.
Norby, Robot for Hire (omnibus), with Janet Asimov. New York, Ace, 1987.
Norby Through Space and Time (omnibus). New York, Ace, 1988.
The Caves of Steel / The Rest of the Robots. London, HarperCollins, 2006.
HarperCollins Voyager 0007-77770-1, 2006.

COLLECTIONS

I, Robot. New York, Gnome Press, 1950; London, Grayson, 1952.
Digit Books D164, 1958, 157pp, 2/-. Cover by unknown
Panther Books 2532, 1968, 206pp.
Panther Books 0586-02532-4, [xth imp.] 1971, 206pp. Cover: photo (by Dennis Rolfe?)
----, [xth imp.] 1973, 206pp.
----, [xth imp.] 1978. Cover: as above
Grafton 0586-02532-4, 1986, 206pp. Cover: as above
HarperCollins 0586-02532-4, 1993, 249pp.
HarperCollins (Voyager Classics) 0007-11963-1, 2001, 249pp.
Voyager 0586-02532-4, Aug 2004, £6.99. Movie tie-in.

The Martian Way and Other Stories. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1955; London, Dobson, 1964.
Panther Books 1799, 1965, 192pp.
----, [2nd imp.] 1967
----, [3rd imp.] 1967, 192pp, 3/6. Cover: design/photo
----, [4th imp.] 1969
----, [5th imp.] 1970, 192pp.
Panther Books 0586-01799-2 2, [6th imp.] 1971, 192pp, 30p. Cover photograph by Robert Golden
----, [7th imp.] 1973 Cover by Chris Foss
----, [8th imp.] 1974
----, [9th imp.] 1976
Panther Books 0586-01799-2, [10th imp.] 1976, 192pp.
----, [11th imp.] 1979
----, [12th imp.] 1981, 192pp, £1.25. Cover as above

Earth Is Room Enough. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1957; London, Panther, 1960.
Panther Books 1042, 1960, 176pp, 2/6.
----, [2nd imp.] 1962; [3rd imp.] 1967; [4th imp.] 1967; [5th imp.] 1969; [6th imp.] 1971; [7th imp.] 1972; [8th imp.] 1972
----, [9th imp.] 1973, 176pp, 35p. Cover by Chris Foss
---- [10th imp.] 1975; [11th imp.] 1977; [12th imp.] 1978; [13th imp.] 1980; [14th imp.] 1981; [15th imp.] 1983; [16th imp.] 1984; [17th imp.] 1986
Grafton 0586-01042-4 [18th imp.] 1989, 176pp, £2.99. Cover by Chris Foss

Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1959; London, Dobson, 1963.
Pan Books M171, 1966, 250pp.
----, [2nd imp.] 1967
Pan Book 0330-20171-9, [3rd imp.] 1972. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [4th imp.] 1972
----, [5th imp.] 1973
----, [6th imp.] 1974, 251pp, 40p. Cover as above
Grafton 0586-06419-2, 1986. Cover by Chris Foss

The Rest of the Robots. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1964; London, Dobson, 1967; abridged as Eight Stories from The Rest of the Robot, New York, Pyramid, 1966.
Panther Books 0586-02594-4, 1968, 223pp.
----, [xth imp.] 1970 Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
----, [xth imp.] 1973
HarperCollins 0586-02594-4, 223pp.

Through a Glass, Clearly. London, Four Square, 1967.
Four Square, 1967.
New English Library, 1970, 124pp.
----, [xth imp.]
----, [xth imp.]

Asimov's Mysteries. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1968; London, Rapp and Whiting, 1968.
Panther Books, 1969. 253pp.
---- [2nd imp.] 1970; [3rd imp.] 1971, 25p; [4th imp.] 1972; [5th imp.] 1973, 35p.
Panther Books, 1981. Cover by Vicente Segrelles

Nightfall and Other Stories. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1969; London, Rapp and Whiting, 1970; in 2 vols. as Nightfall One and Nightfall Two [see below], London, Panther, 1971.
Panther Books 0586-03466-8, 1971, 176pp
----, [2nd imp.] 1972, 176pp, 30p. Cover by Ken Sequin
Grafton 0596-21255-8, 1991, 445pp.

Nightfall Two
Panther Books 0586-03657-1, 1971, 192pp.
----, [2nd imp.] 1972
----, [3rd imp.] 1973, 192pp, 30p. Cover by Ken Sequin

The Early Asimov; or, Eleven Years of Trying. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1972; London, Gollancz, 1973; in 3 vols. [see also below], London, Panther, 1973-74.
Panther 0586-03806-X, 1973, 188pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1974
----, [3rd imp.] 1975, 185pp.
----, [4th imp.] 1977
----, [5th imp.] 1979
----, [6th imp.] 1981, 188pp, £1.25. Cover as above

The Early Asimov 2
Panther 0586-03936-8, 1974, 237pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1974
----, [3rd imp.] 1977
----, [4th imp.] 1979
----, [5th imp.] 1981, 237pp, £1.50. Cover as above

The Early Asimov 3
Panther 0586-03937-6, 1974, 192pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1975
----, [3rd imp.] 1978
----, [4th imp.] 1979
----, [5th imp.] 1981
----, [6th imp.] 1982, 192pp, £1.50. Cover as above

The Best of Isaac Asimov, edited by Angus Wells. London, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1973; Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1974; in 2 vols. as The Best of Isaac Asimov 1939-1952 and The Best of Isaac Asimov 1954-1972 [see below], Sphere, 1977.
Sphere 0722-11254-8, 1973, 336pp. Cover by Patrick Woodroffe

The Best of Isaac Asimov 1939-1952
Sphere 0722-11256-?, 1977

The Best of Isaac Asimov 1954-1972
Sphere 0722-11257-2, 1977, 172pp.

Have You Seen These? Cambridge, Massachusetts, NESFA Press, 1974.
(no UK paperback edition)

The Heavenly Host (for children). New York, Walker, 1975; London, Penguin, 1978.
Puffin Books 0140-31117-3, 1978, vii+55pp.

Buy Jupiter and Other Stories. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1975; London, Gollancz, 1976.
Panther Books 0586-04398-5, 1976, 255pp. Cover by Peter Jones
----, [2nd imp.] 1977
----, [3rd imp.] 1979, 255pp, 85p. Cover as above
----, [4th imp.] 1981, [5th imp.] 1982, [6th imp.] 1984, [7th imp.] 1985
----, [8th imp.] 1988, 255pp, £2.50. Cover as above
Gollancz VGSF 0575-04199-4, 1988, 206pp.
Millennium 1857-08941-4, 2000, 224pp.

The Dream, Benjamin's Dream, Benjamin's Bicentennial Blast: Three Short Stories. New York, privately printed, 1976.
(no UK paperback edition)

The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1976; London, Gollancz, 1977.
Panther Books 0586-04725-5, 1978, 254pp. Cover by Chris Foss
---- [2nd imp.] 1978
---- [3rd imp.] 1979
Granada 0586-04725-5, [4th imp.] 1980, 253pp, £1.25. Cover as above
Gollancz VGSF 0575-04712-7 (VGSF Classics 43), 1990, 224pp.
Millennium 1857-98932-5, 2000, 211pp, £5.99.Cover: still (Columbia Picture Industries)

Good Taste. Topeka, Kansas, Apocalypse Press, 1976.
(no UK paperback edition)

Liar! Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977.
(no UK paperback edition)

Little Lost Robot. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977.
(no UK paperback edition)

3 by Asimov. New York, Targ, 1981.
(no UK paperback edition)

The Complete Robot. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1982; London, Granada, 1982.
Grafton 0586-05724-2, 1983, 688pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1984
----, [3rd imp.] 1984
----, [4th imp.] 1986, 688pp, £3.50. Cover as above
HarperCollins 0586-05724-2, 1995, 688pp, £6.99. Cover as above
Voyager 0586-05724-2, [18th imp.] n.d., 688pp, £6.99.
HarperVoyager 978-0008-27781-9, 2018.
----, [4th imp.] n.d., 611pp, £9.99. Cover by Mike Topping/Shutterstock

The Winds of Change and Other Stories. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, and London, Granada, 1983.
Panther Books 0586-05743-9, 1984, 330pp. Cover by Chris Foss
----, [2nd imp.] 1984
----, [3rd imp.] 1985
----, [4th imp.] 1987
Grafton 0586-05743-9, [5th imp.] 1990, 330pp, £3.50.

The Alternate Asimovs (contains Grow Old Along With Me (Pebble in the Sky), The End of Eternity, Belief, Belief (published version)). Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1986; London, Grafton, 1987.
Grafton 0586-07162-8, 1987, 349pp, £3.50. Cover by Chris Foss

Robot Dreams. New York, Berkley, 1986; London, Gollancz, 1987.
Gollancz VGSF 0575-04565-5, 1989, 480pp.
Vista 0575-60180-9, 1997, 474pp.
Gollancz 978-1857-98335-7 [3rd imp.] 2001, 474pp, £8.99. Cover by Ralph McQuarrie

Other Worlds of Isaac Asimov, edited by Martin H. Greenberg. New York, Avenel, 1987.
(no UK paperback edition)

The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov. Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1986; London, Grafton, 1987.
Grafton 0586-07498-9, 1988, xiv+320pp.

Azazel. New York, Doubleday, 1988; London, Doubleday, 1989.
Bantam 0553-40068-1, 1990, xiii+221pp.

The Asimov Chronicles: Fifty Years of Isaac Asimov, edited by Martin H. Greenberg. Arlington Heights, Illinois, Dark Harvest 1989; London, Century, 1991; in 2 vols. [see also below], London, Legend, 1991.
Legend 0712-64770-8, 1991, 496pp.

The Asimov Chronicles Vol. 2
Legend 0712-64970-0, 1991, 368pp.

Robot Visions. New York, Roc, 1990; London, Gollancz, 1990.
Gollancz VGSF 0575-05056-X, 1991, 384pp.
Vista 0575-60152-3, 1997, 512pp.

The Complete Stories. New York, Doubleday, 2 vols., 1990 -92; London, HarperCollins, 2 vols. [see also below], 1993-94.
HarperCollins 0006-47647-3, 1994, 612pp.

The Complete Stories Volume 2
HarperCollins 0006-48016-0, 1994, 464pp.

Cal. New York, Doubleday, 1991.
(no UK paperback edition)

The Ugly Little Boy, bound with The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff, by Theodore Sturgeon, New York, Tor, 1989.
(no UK paperback edition)

Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection. New York, HarperPrism, 1995.
Voyager 0006-48202-3, 1996, 434pp,
----, [8th imp.] n.d., 434pp, £6.99. Cover by unknown

Magic: The Final Fantasy collection.
Voyager 0006-48203- , May 1997, £7.99.

(* My thanks to Iain Bell for the loan of a box of Asimov's books which helped fill a lot of gaps!)