Still something new...

I've been collecting Powers books since about 1993 or so, and I have this huge list of works that he has done...and still I manage to find stuff not on my list! As for as science fiction goes, there are still plenty books and magazines, etc., that I don't own, but I would be very surprised if there was an undiscovered paperback Powers sci-fi cover at this point. Even a hardback sci-fi cover would surprise me. There are certain publishers that Powers worked with, and most of those publishers have been extensively cataloged. I've seen pretty much every Ballantine and Berkley paperback at some point...I know which are Powers and which aren't.
That being said, there still other genres that aren't cataloged as well. Hardback fiction being the my personal 'undiscovered country'. Outside of the initial provided list worked out by John Anderson many years ago, finding fiction covers is work done by other fans, and by me randomly browsing bookstores and online. It's almost impossible to pick out a Powers cover from eight walls of generic fiction, spine out. It's a bit easier on the Internet, and eBay in particular. If I'm lucky, someone has labeled the cover as Powers (sometimes correctly, sometimes incorrectly). If not, I sometimes just spot a Powers cover out of the blue. This book was listed as Powers. There were actually two unknown books I found recently with Powers covers, one of which I've bought. Haven't gotten around to buying the other yet.

The Riddle of Samson by Andrew Grave
Harper & Brothers 1954



Funny thing is, this book isn't all that collectible. Once I know it has a Powers cover, a simple search revealed several copies for decent prices. But finding the books in the first part is the tough part.
One of my personal pet peeves when buying used books:


Unless the book is generally library specific, like the Gregg books, or it is super rare, I don't like buying library discards. I dislike the idea that someone picked up a book at a library book sale or yard sale for a buck, and then turned around and tried to resell it on eBay or Alibris or some such for an over-inflated price. This book wasn't bad in price, fortunately, as it wasn't even listed as a library discard. When I see library discards selling for $25-$50, books that shouldn't be worth that much as a privately-owned copy...

Anyway, I just noticed that my blogs have a limit on storage space for photos, which is at 16%. If I run out of space, I may use some free Flickr accounts for space, though I don't like the way linked images display on blogger.com. They are often cropped on two sides. I'll just have to keep an eye on that, though if I've gone this long and only used 16%, I should be okay for awhile.

Oh the horror!

Continuing (again) on the Ballantine, let's look at a couple of Powers' horror covers. There aren't many of them, probably less than 20 total, but they are some of my favorites. They still have the same vibe as the sci-fi covers, but usually with some kind of creepy twist. This is one of the more interesting.

Tales of Love and Horror edited by Don Congdon
Ballantine Books 522K
First Ballantine Edition 1961



Crustacean head and centipede bra! The cover is a story in itself, particularly with the title of the book...makes you think. Total nightmare material. Also, one thing about Powers' sci-fi/horror covers is that while they are thematically correct for the book presented, they rarely represent a specific story or concept in the book. They are most definitely 'mood setters' rather than illustrations from the story itself.

Tales to Be Told in the Dark edited by Basil Davenport
Ballantine Books 380K
First Ballantine Edition 1960



This cover seems to suggest tribal horrors surging up from the dark, with its mask-like face. I'm not sure if I've seen the original for this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's part of a larger piece, with the seemingly random stripes on the right side of the image. It wasn't uncommon for pictures to be cropped or reworked for a cover.

(Stories from) The Clock Strikes 12 by H.R. Wakefield
Ballantine Books 531K
First Ballantine Edition 1961



Most of these books are collections of older horror stories, this one being an abridged version of the original The Clock Strikes 12 printed by Arkham house in 1946 (the same famous for publishing H.P. Lovercraft's works). Powers also did a couple covers for Lovecraft compilations that I will post some other day.
The detail in the cover above is fantastic. You really have to study the image on the left to see that it is a female figure with another long-armed, bandy-legged figure standing in front of a clock. Fun stuff.
If you look on the back cover, you see the cover posted in the previous post. Next to that is a book by Fritz Leiber, Jr.

(Nine Great Tales of Horror from) Nights Black Agents
by Fritz Leiber, Jr.
Ballantine Books 508K
First Ballantine Edition June 1961



I am 99.9 percent sure this is NOT a Powers cover. It is often labeled as such, but it looks nothing like his other work at the time. And while it's true that Powers does, on occasion, break form and paint something different, this doesn't look anything like a Richard M. Powers painting to me. The brush strokes are very different than what you see in 99 percent of everything else he has ever painted. Other than being an amorphous, vaguely skeletal figure, it really has little in common with his other pieces. Look at the first three and then look at this...the puzzle piece doesn't fit!

Until next time!

All the pretty colors...

Continuing the Ballantine theme, I've always enjoyed many of the covers because they generally seem to have some of the more colorful of Powers' work. Bolder brush strokes and orange, red and yellow dominate, helping the image jump. Some of his later work has more detail, which tends to muddy up when brought down to paperback size. I'm sure the printing process has something to do with it, as well, with a higher dot size, making the image fuzzier and sharper at the same time.
It's nice to be able to present these covers in higher resolution and size. Reds are the first to go when compressing jpegs. They get very noisy and blur into the edges of surrounding colors. It's also nice to be able to include the back covers. Some have Powers' artwork, some don't, but either way they are interesting to see and read.

Re-Birth by John Wyndham
Ballantine Books 104
First Ballantine Edition 1955



Star Science Fiction No. 6 edited by Frederik Pohl
Ballantine Books 353K
First Ballantine Edition 1959



Most of Powers' Ballantine covers were science fiction, though there are a couple fiction and the occasional horror cover, like this colorful piece.

The Other Passenger by John Keir Cross
Ballantine Books 480K
First Ballantine Edition 1961



Pretty and creepy, all rolled up into one painting! And who knew needlepoint was scary?

Reach for Tomorrow

The early Ballantine covers were certainly some of the more interesting of Powers' works, and most resembled Surrealism, I think. This cover is one of his more 'famous' works.

Reach for Tomorrow by Arthur C. Clarke
Ballantine Books 135
First Ballantine Edition 1956



The horizontal presentation was unusual for publications at the time, and I believe this is the only Powers cover presented as such (off the top of my head). It was later reprinted in a cropped and vertical format.

Reach for Tomorrow by Arthur C. Clarke
Ballantine Books U2110
Third Ballantine Edition 1964



Reminiscent of Yves Tanguy, this style is an ideal example of what Powers brought to the sci-fi book cover scene. Most artwork at the time was realistic in style, if not subject matter (women being molested by aliens or men with ray guns, typically). It is this oft-copied style that confuses many collectors (or book sellers) when identifying Powers covers. There are many covers with amorphous under-sea objects sprouting from the ground that are misidentified as Powers work, such as this cover for Amazing.


The differences may not be apparent to most, but I've been looking at his work for a long time and can pick out the fakes 99.9 percent of the time. Brush strokes, colors, the style of the people, all of this comes together in an actual Powers painting. I'll bring this up on occasion, with examples of misidentified works, and some that are still under consideration. At some point I'll talk about how Powers is very similar to other artists of his time, as well, particular with non sci-fi and juvenile works. There is a definite '50s and '60s style that Powers slides right into in a less pioneering manner than with his sci-fi work.
I'm thinking once or twice a week would be an appropriate posting method, to prevent burnout on my end and to prevent overkill, as well. Let everyone absorb instead of bombarding the blog with posts and images. I've also decided to put an unobtrusive watermark on my scans. I have no doubt that people will download these images to desktops, etc., and all of that is okay. I just know, from experience with my photography, that this stuff will appear on eBay and other Web sites without asking permission. It's not anything that 10 seconds in Photoshop couldn't remove, but I don't want to be obnoxious about it. They are just book scans, after all. But I'm the one doing the work.
Until next time!

Welcome! A new beginning?

I started The Powers Compendium in February of 1999. At the time, I was looking to design a Web site and wanted to do something different from what I had already seen at the time, in those relatively early days of the Web. I had about 80 books I had collected with covers by this artist, Richard M. Powers. I figured, hey, that's kind of cool, let's make a little web site about the guy and his artwork. So...one giant list and over 1,000 publications later, I ended up with this huge database of Powers work.
The site has gone through various redesigns and restructuring. My two biggest problems were 1) the site was basically just a huge list of books, and 2) I've been limited on storage space for images. I've never wanted to spend money on any of this, other than all of the money I've spent on books, so I have about 60 megabytes available for the Powers Compendium. This has meant fairly small, low quality scans of my collection. I've struggled between my desire to make the site attractive and the need to make it somewhat useful and user friendly. But it really is just a HUGE list of books. There are many ways to arrange the books...title, author, publication date, genre, etc. And there is no way to make everyone happy. Many have wished for thumbnails. Thumbnails take up tons of storage space - at least 1/6th of my storage space! Plus, how do I go about fitting 1,000 thumbnails on my pages and still keep the site navigable? I've thought about all of these things and basically had to settle with what I had. I actually think that the sites days are numbered...at least in it's current form. I can't even update it anymore because I'm out of storage space (and I haven't updated for almost two years). And I don't have the energy to do a complete overhaul (again).
So, in comes the blog. I have another blog, moominstuff, where I talk mostly about photography and Polaroid film quite often. I like the format, and the continual progression of ideas. And I appreciate the seemingly endless space for storage of images. So in comes the Compendium. I seriously just thought of doing this at work in, like, two seconds. It just appeared as a thought out of nowhere, and so it begins! The rebirth of The Powers Compendium, or at least a somewhat attractive stepchild. A chance to show off Powers' work in a better light, and a chance to step outside the format of "list and images". And I can do all of this bit by bit, taking my time, enjoying the process and maybe giving others something to look forward to.
So, most often I will probably just post images and the facts, and maybe a few comments or opinions. Other times I may choose a theme. I may offer insight into why I collect Powers' works and how I've done it, etc. I don't know yet how it will evolve. I know my photo site has moved from random photo posts to in-depth reviews and really long faqs. With this blog, we shall see.
So, I hope all the Richard M. Powers fans enjoy this and comment on posts. And I hope I introduce some new people to the works of Powers. So to start things off, here is a random book from my collection. The scans aren't going to super hi-rez 20 megabyte scans, but I will do my best to keep them fairly large and nice looking...probably around 1/2 a meg jpgs. And, obviously, you click on the images for larger versions. And you get to see all of these books in their wonderful, poorly-printed glory.

Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl and C.M Kornbluth
Ballantine Books 335K
First Ballantine Edition, 1959



Those thumbs on the back of many Ballantines helped me discover a few new covers back in the day.
I'll update as often as I can. Smaller posts should be easier to keep up with in a consistent manner. Keep checking back!