David Bowie Songs Reimagined as Pulp Fiction E-book Covers: Area Oddity, Heroes, Life on Mars & Extra

Within the final yr, display screen­author Todd Alcott’s hob­by has blown up right into a legit facet profession.

This Etsy promote­er isn’t ped­dling kom­bucha SCOBYs, let­ter press­ing new child announce­ments, or repur­pos­ing previous barns to be used as lower­ting boards.

No, Alcott’s artful for­tunes fall sq.­ly at the inter­sec­tion of pulp fic­tion and rock and roll, with clas­sic track titles, lyrics, and oth­er cun­ning ref­er­ences replac­ing the cov­er textual content of pre-exist­ing vin­tage paper­backs.

David Bowie’s life­lengthy fas­ci­na­tion with house trav­el, tor­tured anti heroes, and out­ra­geous fash­ion make him a nat­ur­al match with Alcott’s ongo­ing challenge, which has lav­ished sim­i­lar atten­tion on such lumi­nar­ies as Bob Dylan, Radio­head, Discuss­ing Heads, and Elvis Costel­lo.

As Alcott, who con­ceives of his mash ups as trib­utes to his very long time musi­cal favorites, instructed Open Cul­ture:

Bowie dressed as an androg­y­nous alien, went out onstage and instructed his audi­ence “You’re not alone, give me your palms,” I can’t consider a extra encom­cross­ing ges­ture to a mis­match. No mat­ter how bizarre you had been in your com­mu­ni­ty, you’d all the time discover some­one such as you at a Bowie con­cert. Dur­ing a time of my life once I felt incred­i­bly iso­lat­ed and alone, (Bowie was one among) the important thing artists who made me really feel like I used to be a part of a giant­ger world, an artis­tic con­tin­u­um.

Imply­whereas, Alcott is have a tendency­ing to anoth­er con­tin­u­um by posthu­mous­ly pair­ing such late greats as Bowie and Queen’s Fred­die Mer­cury (“co-author” of the deep sea-themed Underneath Pres­certain cov­er, above) with the form of adven­tur­ous, occa­sion­al­ly steamy learn­ing mate­r­i­al that had been among the many corridor­marks of their Fifties’ boy­hoods.

A lot of these things have discovered their strategy to used e book and thrift shops, the place, tat­tered and worn, they professional­vide an enormous trove for some­one like Alcott, who brows­es together with his favourite acts’ cat­a­logues deeply imprint­ed on his males­tal laborious dri­ve.

It should’ve been a grand day when he hap­pened throughout the above Seventies sci fi cov­er. Just a few deft tweaks, and Life on Mars, a nonex­is­tent “new adven­ture from the writer of Area Odd­i­ty,” was born.

(Onerous­core followers, be aware of the doc­tored pub­lish­er within the higher left cor­ner)

Heroes, which takes its inspi­ra­tion from the 1981 X‑Males com­ic Days of Future Previous, is crammed stuffed with such East­er eggs. Can you see all of them?

What a match­ting trib­ute to the Starman’s endur­ing maintain on the general public’s imag­i­na­tion.

Browse Todd Alcott’s Bowie-themed pulp fic­tion col­lec­tion in his Etsy store.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Lis­ten to Fred­die Mer­cury & David Bowie on the Iso­lat­ed Vocal Monitor for the Queen Hit ‘Underneath Pres­certain,’ 1981

The Artwork Col­lec­tion of David Bowie: An Intro­duc­tion

Behold The Paint­ings of David Bowie: Neo-Expres­sion­ist Self Por­traits, Illus­tra­tions of Iggy Pop, and A lot Extra