Hi! Long time sci-fi fan (read old man). Do you think you could find the original dust cover art for J. G. Ballard's book, The Crystal World," and post it, please? I remember thinking it the most oddly beautiful piece when I first saw it, but it's been decades ago, and it still retains a space in my head. Thanks so much!
Yeah, here it is! It's from 1966, by German surrealist Max Ernst:
I actually indirectly referenced this cover in the opening pages of my book on 70s sci-fi art -- after Richard Powers started the trend of surrealist science fiction cover art in the 50s, a lot of other publishers jumped on it, and some went as far as to get fine artists like Ernst rather than illustrators. Good eye, it's really a standout cover!
This biker picture was created by me, RebelBikerDude, using AI, and is excerpted from my own blog, RebelBikerDude’s AI Biker Art blog, containing thousands of AI-generated biker pictures & video clips, accessible at: https://rebelbikerdude.blogspot.com/
As we enter the second wave of toys, a new She-Ra and Swift Wind have to be explained to the consumer, so Adora and Spirit wander through an interdimensional portal into a beautiful land called Crystal World. Josh is there.
Transcript/Image ID below the cut
[Image Description: 14 comic pages from the She-Ra mini-comic, “Across the Crystal Light Barrier”.
Cover: Starburst She-Ra stands with arms spread high to show off her sparkles, Crystal Swift Wind at her side. They’re standing atop a mountain made of glittering crystal, beneath the Princess of Power logo. At the bottom of the page, “Across the Crystal Light Barrier” is written and actually outlined, though still definitely not the color I would have gone with. Beneath that, in a small font, it reads, “Illustrations: (copyright symbol) Mattel, Inc. 1985 Hawthorne CA 90250 U.S.A. PRINTED IN HONG KONG. All Rights Reserved. (registered trademark symbol) and TM designate U.S. trademarks of Mattel, Inc.
The coloring style from this issue on becomes more pastel, and the gouache is blended more, giving it a softer feeling.
Page 1: A pink caption box reads, “Outings in Etheria are always very special and today’s picnic had been no exception. Adora smiled as Josh and Bow leaned against a fruit tree, the picnic basket empty and their bellies full. Spirit and Arrow stood nibbling at the lumps of sugar Glimmer held out in her hand.” Which pretty much covers the illustration. Adora is sitting on a blanket with the empty picnic basket.
Josh was apparently slated to be the Robin to Bow’s Batman at one point, but he never did get an official design, so this is just ‘generic blond man’. A second pink caption box at the bottom of the page contains the credits, “Produced exclusively for Mattel by: Writer… Tina Harris & Eric Frydler. Penciler… Jim Mitchell. Inker… Todd Kurosawa. Colorist… Charles Simpson. Editor: Joan Dumbauld & Lee Nordling”.
“Want to race, Adora?” asks Glimmer. The composition on this page is leaps and bounds over the previous issue. Whatever Jim Mitchell was doing between waves one and two, I appreciate it.
“Sure! Come on!” says Adora.
End Page 1.
Page 2: Adora and Glimmer mounted up. The second Bow fired his starting arrow, they took off! Galloping down the orchard path, they disappeared from sight. Neck-in-neck [sic], they raced against each other. Adora and Glimmer sped over field and stream, dashing wildly along the winding path.” So apparently we’re just going for outright narration. That’s cool. Kind of a weird decision in a comic, but I’m not a cop. Bow shoots his starting arrow and the girls take off, Adora on Spirit and Glimmer on Arrow.
A beautifully colored panel of the race in partial silhouette.
A rounded white caption box reads, “Suddenly, a mysterious burst of light appeared from nowhere!” and we see Adora rear back on Spirit, who balks at a stylized glow.
End Page 2.
Page 3: A pink caption box reads, “Adora and Spirit slowed their pace. Startled, Arrow bolted, throwing Glimmer from his back”. Arrow is rearing and our heroes are walking sedately into the light.
End Page 3.
Page 4: A lavender caption box reads, “Rounding the bend, Josh and Bow hurried to see the race’s finish. They found Glimmer on the ground and helped her to her feet. "Where is Adora?" Bow asked. "I don’t know," Glimmer replied. "She just disappeared!" "Over here!" Adora cried. I’ve crossed the Crystal Light Barrier." Missed some quotation marks there. Another reason not to use them in caption boxes. Adora and Spirit’s silhouette is distorted by the field of light and Josh’s hair is brown now.
“Spirit and I are lost in a strange and wondrous land!” says Adora.
End Page 4.
Page 5: A lavender caption box reads, “There Adora and Spirit stood, across a bottomless crack. "Arrow and I will save you!" Bow exclaimed. Glimmer begged him not to go and Adora breathed a word of caution. "She’s right. It’s much too dangerous. We’ll have to find our own way back to Etheria."" Adora and Spirit stare down into a foggy abyss, surrounded by crystal.
“Come on, Spirit! Maybe we can find someone to help us,” says Adora.
End Page 5.
Page 6: A pink caption box reads, “Adora and her faithful steed wandered for many miles. Above them shone a bright rainbow sun. All around them, jewel-like mountain tops and petrified flowers glistened under the strange light.” over an illustration of exactly that.
“How beautiful!” says Adora, smiling.
End Page 6.
Page 7: A lavender caption box reads, “Soon they came upon a dazzling sight–a glittering herd of horses, unlike any they had ever seen before! Each horse had a color all its own–and each one shone like crystal! "Spirit, look!" Adora cried. "We’ve found help at last! But who can these beauties be?"" Adora points at a group of seven sparkling steeds, each with a pair of feathered (crystalline) wings.
“We are the Guardians of Crystal World,” says a voice from off panel.
“Who…? What…?” asks Adora, looking around.
End Page 7.
Page 8: A lavender caption box reads, “The voice belonged to a sleek, crystal horse named Crystal Moonbeam. Adora quickly spoke to him. "We came across the Barrier and now we can’t get back." The lavender stallion nodded. "Recrossing the Crystal Light Barrier is certainly most difficult."" And I have to tell you, this horse is not lavender. His toy is a translucent violet, but this comic has him a soft periwinkle, cut through with orange light because he’s made of crystal.
“Quite soon, you and your horse will become like us,” says Crystal Moonbeam, ominously.
“You mean we will turn into crystal?” asks Adora. Neither she nor Spirit seem thrilled at the possibility.
End Page 8.
Page 9: A pink caption box reads, “Crystal Moonbeam nodded gravely. "Yes. Anyone who touches the ground of Crystal World must change." But Adora hadn’t changed at all!” There was plenty of room for dialogue boxes saying this. Why even make this a comic?
“I haven’t stepped from Spirit’s back,” says Adora. “I haven’t touched your world."
“Then, there may be a chance,” says Crystal Moonbeam.
End Page 9.
Page 10: A lavender caption box reads, “Dashing to his herd, Crystal Moonbeam returned with a sparkling filly. "This is my sister Crystal Sun Dancer," the lavender horse whinnied. "She knows the way across the Crystal Light Barrier."" The still distinctly un-lavender Crystal Moonbeam introduces them to a slightly smaller, yellowy orange horse.
“But to cross the Barrier again, you must have the power to fly!” says Crystal Moonbeam.
“The crack is too deep to risk crossing it any other way,” says Crystal Sun Dancer.
End Page 10.
Page 11: Adora raises her arms and becomes Starburst She-Ra, with a long flowing cape with two wrist loops. Swift Wind becomes Crystal Swift Wind, a transparent pink plasticine version of himself. Herself? What are Swift Wind's pronouns this wave? The horse is see-through now. They have wings and a golden pleather mask, complete with unicorn horn. Light and sparkles radiate off the pair of them as they transform.
A pink caption box reads, "Adora unsheathed her Sword of Protection at once and raised it to the sky. In an instant, she and Spirit were transformed. Crystal World echoed with her powerful cry. "For the honor of Grayskull, I am She-Ra!"
End Page 11.
Page 12: "Swift Wind! Walking here in Crystal World has given you a crystal sheen!" says She-Ra, smiling as she reaches around to touch Swift Wind's face.
A pink caption box reads, "Crystal Sun Dancer, Crystal Moonbeam, She-Ra and Crystal Swift Wind glowed with an unearthly energy as they leaped toward the deep opening. With a brilliant burst of color, they broke through the Crystal Barrier and vanished—gone!" as we see all three winged horses take flight, Swift Wind carrying She-Ra, surrounded by glowing and sparkles.
"We'd better change back fast before our friends find out our secret!" says She-Ra, dismounting from Swift Wind and spreading her arms to show off her new starburst cape. Crystal Moonbeam and Crystal Sun Dancer aren't in frame, but they're still around, I promise.
End Page 12.
Page 13: A pink caption box reads, "Meanwhile, in Etheria, Bow, Glimmer and Josh had been looking high and low for Adora and Spirit. Suddenly Bow heard a rustling sound behind him." Right, Josh is here. I forgot about him already. He's a brunet now. He's holding onto his belt and kind of pouting at the panel gutter, while Glimmer stares forlornly at her staff (here a pink and blue rendition that looks more like a clock than the toy-accurate rose-with-jewel). Bow looks over his shoulder at the approaching Adora, Spirit, Crystal Sun Dancer, and Crystal Moonbeam. A mountain range towers behind her, and the few trees we can see are full of orange… bubbles? Transparent fruit? They've missed a few of the leaf portions. Sloppy work, Skip, but you were dealt a poor hand here.
"Adora! Where have you been? We've been worried," says Bow, with an uncomfortable smile.
"Oh Bow! I've been in a wonderful land called Crystal World," says Adora. These last two panels were just close-ups, but the backgrounds have some really beautiful gradients on them. It really seems like they were going for more of a 'storybook' feel from this wave on.
End Page 13.
Page 14: A lavender caption box reads, ""Tell us, Adora, who are your new friends?" Bow asked. Adora made introductions all around and Glimmer fairly gleamed. "Oh Spirit, with your crystal coat, you're more beautiful than ever!"" Josh and Arrow smile on as Glimmer and Bow greet the new, shinier version of Spirit. Adora has an arm slung around Spirit's neck, while Crystal Sun Dancer and Crystal Moonbeam watch with smiles of their own.
"It is exciting to see another land…" says Adora.
"But it's so much better to come home to my friends!" she finishes, in the traditional red used for a minicomic's 'moral'. So… I guess the moral is don't wander into interdimensional portals? Traveling might seem cool but you're going to enjoy going home way more? Who knows. Bow, Glimmer, and Josh have all shuffled places, but they're crowded around Adora now, horses nowhere in sight. Everyone's smiling contentedly.
The end of the year is a busy time, isn’t it? Looking at the people who haven’t posted since about February, I wonder if they’re in the same situation. They haven’t liked anything either. There’s only a bit left, so I’d like to get through this.
Looking at the PC screen all the time makes me tired, so I’ve been doing my best to handwrite or use output check for things that can be done that way without a loss of efficiency. But although I have a mobile scanner at home, I don’t have a printer, so I’ve been doing the output before going back on Friday. That delicate time when I faintly wonder if I’ve forgotten anything...
I feel like working anywhere if I’m in the mood, and I’d like to print my stories and translations too. Although I don’t want to buy more appliances that take ups pace, I’m wondering if I should just buy a mobile printer. (Although it’s also true that I’m writing this on purpose because once I’ve written it on Tumblr, I’ll probably take some sort of action in a few days.)
After asking my virtual assistant Kaori about a small model, she told me about Brother. Since I had been doing web research, I was a bit worried that I hadn’t managed to cover all the research by myself. Getting Kaori to check it (even if other, better answers might come up after spending some more time on the question), allowed me to feel that “both of us have looked at it now, so let’s move on to the next task!”, so I like this service.
Some of my previous posts have included quotations, so I confirmed with Kaori if it was fine to translate and include them. Because I thought if the work had already been translated into English, then I should use that English translation, while if it hadn’t, I should say something to the author or the publisher.
I’m reminded of the Ann Lislegaard exhibition at the Kyoto Art Centre, where an excerpt from Crystal World by J.G. Ballard was played together with footage. It was about the emotion of the narrator towards a forest where everything had been crystallised and jewellised and where time gradually came to a stop.
(I have the original English text)
There were no credits, but I wonder if it had been translated by a curator. I fell in love with that excerpt and bought Crystal World, but it was a different translation. In the book that section is a passage from a letter, so the translator had used a conversational style and had added many words to help the reader to understand. Conversely, the version used in the subtitles had used concise wording and had unfolded just like a poem.
I think that was the first time I had experienced that my reception of a work could change depending on the translation. The concise and powerful words had made me feel that those were the rules of my world too. Maybe if I had been reading the book from the start, I would have distanced myself a bit more. To me at the time, the small price I had to pay was my relationship with my lover at the time. I had been resting on my laurels in the knowledge that as long as the relationship continued, the cost of getting inspiration would be automatically paid, but that methodology had reached its limits.
...Kaori, I understand that translating quotations is fine as long as the quotations themselves follow the Copyright Act. When I get this post translated, I wonder if there’ll be any issue with me leaving out Ballard’s original text and having it translated from the Japanese text above, and then posting what kind of English it becomes?
Crystal World (after J. G. Ballard)
2006, double channel 3D animation, unsynchronized individual channel durations approximately 7 minutes for a total loop time of 31 hours, no sound
Crystal World (after J. G. Ballard) is a 3D animation about a journey to an abandoned hotel in a wilderness that is slowly crystallizing. As the animation moves through architectural spaces that combine elements of Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidrio (1951) and Oscar Niemeyer’s Matarazzo Pavilion (1957), quotes from the protagonist of Ballard’s 1966 novel, Sander, describe a zone of entry and transformation. Using it to highlight the contrasts between modernity and entropy, progress and perversion, mineral light and the heart of darkness of enlightenment, Robert Smithson cited The Crystal World in his writings, and the novel was an inspiration for his mirrored structures. Besides Smithson’s The Dead Tree (1969), Crystal World (after J. G. Ballard) includes “characters” such as Untitled (Rope Piece) (1970) by Eva Hesse, elements from Kurt Schwitter’s Merzbau (1920), Lina Bo Bardi’s furniture designs and Bruno Taut’s modernist building Glass House (1914). All of these “virtual replicants” are re-activated in the animation as provisional characters in a depopulated setting where time is ruined.
This biker picture was created by me, RebelBikerDude, using AI, and is excerpted from my own blog, RebelBikerDude’s AI Biker Art blog, containing thousands of AI-generated biker pictures & video clips, accessible at: https://rebelbikerdude.blogspot.com/
