Out of This World

When I was a kid I didn't much like to read. I far preferred looking at pictures. One of my favorite books was "Conquest of Space," by Willy Ley. The illustrations were by Chesley Bonestall, and they were breathtaking. I spent hours and hours gazing at the landscapes on alien planets, and travelling among distant galaxies. It's astonishing how accurate so many of the meticulously researched and detailed paintings were, judging from images sent back by wandering spacecraft. Ley described with astonishing prescience today's space program, and Bonestall's paintings imagined men floating high above the earth in pictures eerily similar to the photos we've become familiar with. For a while I wanted to be Chesley Bonestall when I grew up. Fate and a lack of his work ethic (not to mention talent) took me in other directions. This is as close as I can come. I can take comfort in the fact that Ley and Bonestall weren't especially funny. But then, hey, there are those who'd say I'm not either.