Commissioned by the United States Postal Service and created by Stephen Hickman, this booklet displays a pane of five stamps in a row, celebrating the Science Fiction genre.
Released on the 25th of January 1993, it won the 1994 Hugo Award for Best Original Artwork.
These stamps provide examples of:
- Artistic License – Space:
- The red background is highly unusual, and the presence of planets indicate that this is not a planetary sky. Possibly a nebula, but the presence of planets with atmosphere would indicate against that.
- The central white star which provides the background for the humans in one of the stamps, has an unusual corona.
- Conveniently Close Planet: There's nearly a dozen stellar objects, ranging from maybe rocky planets to gas giants, to a central star, all within the single pane of five stamps.
- Full Moon Silhouette: The central stamp has two humans flying across a blue-white star in the background.
- Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The five stamps that make up each of the four pages of this booklet are a single piece of art, designed to have a different central image in each of the five stamps.
- In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: The central stamp has two humanoids in metallic-silver spacesuits, wearing bubble helmets that give them the appearance of snub-nosed rocketships.
- Mile-Long Ship: The ship in the lower background of the centre and centre-right stamps is the largest ship on the entire pane of stamps. The red spaceships give a general idea for how large it is.
- Retro Rocket:
- The stamp on the left has three dart-like silver ships, with excessive fins and one or more thrusters.
- The humans in the centre stamp are wearing jetpacks and a snub-nosed bubble helmet that makes them look like their suit is designed for rocketing around in the atmosphere.
- The stamp on the right has three red rockets with an oblong shape and three fins. A line of these ships appears, growing smaller and smaller, in each stamp to the left of this one, ending in the centre.
- Standardized Space Views: Since its purpose is to celebrate the Sci-Fi genre, most of the stamps display a range of stellar objects. There are artificial satellites, colorful planets, stars, a Retro Rocket, and a Mile-Long Ship.
