Amazing Stories 1980s

The issue January 1988, volume 62, number 5 was illustrated by Terry Lee. The cover art on the 1980s issues shows the development of style and imagery in science fiction with realistic detailing with shadows and highlights along with intense color.

In the issue, the front cover illustrates an alien-like creature seemingly looking into a mirror inside of a spaceship with outerspace imagery in the background. The creature has very defined muscles and bones showing through their skin. There is a lot of curves and bumps that make up the texture of the creatures body. It also has two eyes visible right next to each other, hinting that it looks the same on the other side of the head not shown, equaling up to about four eyes on the creature. It also has huge nostrils that almost take up half of the face. The alien is looking into a mirror that reflects a male human face back at it. Most of the art is saturated in red except for the mirror and light reflecting off of it, bathing the alien with blue light. 

The 1980s issues begin with a lot of human imagery and other worlds, but middle and later years include creatures that seem to be inspired by animals, insects and amphibians. The January 1988 issue seems to be inspired by Star Trek. Star Trek was very popular in the 80s with four movies coming out throughout the decade. It was a franchise that features characters that are human as well as alien-like. Some examples of Star Trek characters that have similar alien-like features are Neelix, Worf, and Martok, to name a few.