THE STARLOST (1973) That Never Was

I frequently embark on Google safaris, looking for cool stuff to post on the site or images to illustrate the posts I write. In a recent search for material relating to the 1973 television series The Starlost (a show that I still possess an inexplicable affection toward), the image above turned up. Now, I was pretty sure that there had been no Starlost TV novelizations, but that image looked friggin' authentic, so I dug deeper into the labyrinthine depths of the interwebs.

I still haven't determined exactly where this faux book cover originated, but it is definitely a hoax. Still, as a graphic designer myself, I have to give the unknown Photoshop artist his props. The fonts, layout and cover copy text are all delightfully true to the publishing styles of the Seventies. The careful "distressing" of the image works really well, too, adding to the illusion that this is a scan of a vintage paperback cover.

And it's because it is so well done that I decided to share it here. I like to think of it as a glimpse into an alternate universe, where The Starlost was a "runaway hit television series," instead of the creative and commercial disappointment that it turned out to be in this reality....