This book deeply disturbed me the first time I tried to read it in the 1980s. My young mind had already devoured numerous sci-fi novels for grown-ups, and several Ray Bradbury short-story collections earned him a life-long place in my literary heart. But these illustrations by Ian Miller really freaked me out!
Have a look for yourself in the gallery below. I sacrificed a battered copy of this edition of The Martian Chronicles to the gods of art and Internet immortality so that you may revel in the strange, unearthly, and somewhat maniacal art. Enjoy the stark beauty of Miller’s Martian landscape, and the creepy-crawly nightmares he conjures up for this most famous of Ray Bradbury epics.
Collector’s Guide: From The Martian Chronicles; Bantam Books, 1979 Illustrated Edition. Words by Ray Bradbury, pictures by Ian Miller.
2022 Updates: First, I apologize. Good luck finding this edition. I used to have a link to it for you, but times have changed, and it grows increasingly rare. Perhaps because some maniac was destroying copies to scan for his blog.
But I have heard from many people over the years as a result of this post. Some were thrilled to find this gorgeous edition for the first time, and others because they had read it years before and were looking for it.
Reader Colin Law contacted me to share an image where he cleaned up and stitched together ALL of my scans of this book’s illustrations into a single, glorious collage that makes a kick-ass desktop background. Below is a very small preview of the result, just so this post will load quickly. But you can download the full 25MB, high-res, print-quality version by clicking this link: https://marswillsendnomore.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/martian_chronicles_ian_miller_poster.jpg.
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Etherdave said:
I have several different editions of ‘The Martian Chronicles’ but this is by far my favorite. I take it down from the shelf at least two or three times a year.
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Mars Will Send No More said:
I’m with you on it being a personal favorite. This summer, one reader sent me an image file where he put together all these illustrations to use as a desktop background. It’s pretty awesome!
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