Jesse Marinoff Reyes:
William Shatner!
James Blish
He’ll always be Captain James T. Kirk, won’t he? The cover painting by master illustrator James Bama was originally commissioned by NBC to use on promo clips for the show’s first season, and also printed as a poster. Thankfully, it was also used for this first collection of stories adapted from the screenplays by noted sci fi writer James Blish. Whole lotta Jameses, a cosmic kismet. Bill Shatner remains one of JMR Design’s favorite iconic actors.
Graphics-wise, not only did the great James Bama make this cover iconic in its own right, he was the regular cover painter for numerous Doc Savage paperback covers, and also the illustrator of many of Universal’s classic monsters—on Aurora model kit boxes (one of the greatest product package series of all time—just one man’s opinion). Not to mention an extensive career doing covers for westerns, amongst many magazine and book covers and movie poster projects. He retired from illustration after a 22-year career and now focuses on painting—portraiture and western themes:
http://www.bighorngalleries.com/bama.htm
Star Trek
Bantam Books, 1967
Illustration: James Bama
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