Missions Unknown » SA Places

Coverspotting in SA: January 2010

John Picacio — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:00:48 +0000

Books spotted 12/30/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry

Conrad A. Williams DECAY INEVITABLE Solaris Cover art by Dave McKean

Yay, abstraction! Good to see some abstraction in a genre cover illustration these days. It’s a Dave McKean and does the job well — grabs the eye and says “hey, check this out.”

Solaris is a UK-based publisher and [Read it all...]

Coverspotting in SA: December 2009

John Picacio — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:38:15 +0000

Books spotted 12/1/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry

THE DEAD THAT WALK Edited by Stephen Jones Ulysses Press Cover art by Les Edwards

Zombie book covers were all the rage this year, weren’t they? Just when I thought I was well and done with any more zombie covers, Les Edwards does one that makes it all seem fresh [Read it all...]

Going Down to San Antonio’s Ghost Tracks

Mission Control — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:28:53 +0000

One of San Antonio’s persistent legends is that of the Ghost Tracks. The story goes that many years ago a busload of school children stalled out on a lonely stretch of railroad tracks. Naturally, a train came along and cut the bus in two, killing the driver and the children in front immediately. The children [Read it all...]

Coverspotting in SA: October 2009

John Picacio — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:50:17 +0000

Books spotted 10/01/09 at Barnes & Noble (410/San Pedro)

David Anthony Durham THE OTHER LANDS Doubleday Cover art by Mikko Kinnunen Cover design by Michael J. Windsor

The first time I met David Anthony Durham, we were both guests at the 2007 Elf Fantasy Fair in the Netherlands. At the time, I don’t think too many of those 25,000 attendees [Read it all...]

Holy Joan Collins: San Antonio Invaded By Giant Insects!

Paul Vaughn — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:01:59 +0000

You can imagine my surprise, strolling through San Antonio’s Botanical Garden when I was accosted by hordes of gigantic bugs! I was immediately beset by flashbacks to bad Joan Collins movies (like there are any other kind). Fortunately these insects were not bent on world domination, they are part of a new exhibit, Dave Rogers’ [Read it all...]

Coverspotting in SA: September 2009

John Picacio — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:01:31 +0000

Books spotted 8/31/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry

Brom THE CHILD THIEF HarperCollins/Eos Cover illustration & design by Brom

Everyone knows Brom as a preeminent fantasy painter, but the guy can write too. This is a novel-length work with interior illustrations. Brom creates a terrific cover as usual, and I especially love the use of spot gloss on [Read it all...]

Coverspotting in SA: August 2009

John Picacio — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:00:06 +0000

Books spotted this month at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry

Actually, this installment should be called “Spinespotting in SA”. As a guy who draws and paints book covers for a living, I love seeing books face-out, but in bookstores, they’re usually not displayed that way. The spine is oh-so-important to the visibility and shelf life [Read it all...]

Fan’s Guide: San Antonio’s Riverwalk

Mission Control — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:01:07 +0000

Two landmarks are classic San Antonio: The Alamo and the Riverwalk. While the Shrine of Texas Freedom is worth seeing when you come to San Antonio, the Riverwalk is the place to enjoy a wider variety of sights, sounds and tastes of South Texas. Now, don’t put any stock in the opinions of people like [Read it all...]

Coverspotting in SA: July 2009

John Picacio — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:16:03 +0000

Books spotted 7/1/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry

Joel Shepherd BREAKAWAY Pyr Cover art by Stephan Martiniere

Love the strong diagonal here. Visually, it’s a tall mass-market paperback (in between the scale of a traditional mmp and a trade paperback) and therefore grabs your attention right away. I hear lots of griping about the price point of tall [Read it all...]

Putting the Science in Science Fiction

Paul Vaughn — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:12:43 +0000

I’m right in the middle of reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s excellent Mars Trilogy, a series of books that delves deep into the science and sociology of colonizing the red planet. These novels remind me of the importance of science in much of the literature I love. If we want the next generation of SF fans [Read it all...]