Life on Mars: Virginia Tech’s Sci-Fi Exhibition

Before Life on Mars, ABC’s new television series starring Jason O’Mara, Michael Imperioli, Harvey Keitel, and Lisa Bonet, there was Life on Mars, Virginia Tech’s online exhibition featuring cover art and interior illustrations of works written by H.G. Wells, Festus Pragnall, Miles J. Breuer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, S.D. Gottesman, Harl Vincent, Ross Rocklynne, Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, Hugo Gernsback, and Stanley D. Bell!

Perhaps the most interesting piece of art from Virginia Tech’s exhibit
is pictured above. It’s the “Cover by unknown artist showing a Martian as proposed by Hugo Gernsback in his article “Evolution on Mars”. From Science and Invention, formerly Electrical Experimenter Vol. XII Whole Number 136 (No.4) August 1924.” It looks very similar to artist Frank Paul's cover for Martianthology (2003), an anthology compiled by Forrest J Ackerman and edited by Anne Hardin!