Transmaniacon by John Shirley (Zebra, 1979)
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
on Sep 19th, 2021. Artwork published in
.
Anonymous was a common type choice for science fiction covers in the 1970s. Here the top-heavy all-caps face can be seen in use on the cover of an early novel by John Shirley:
When I was really young I wrote a book called Transmaniacon main premise was – a guy wore the transmaniacon device, which enabled him to release hidden well-springs of “suppressed anger” in those he met. It was assumed those hidden wellsprings of fury could be found in anyone, somewhere hidden. This gave him the power to psychically manipulate crowds of people in certain ways – which is a hint about twentieth century history.
When the book came out in 1979, Shirley (b. 1953) was also a member of the Portland punk band Sado-Nation.
