Space Oddity

 

This came up on my radar yesterday and... given my own involvement with the song written in 1969... delighted me hugely. The following from the UltimateClassicRock website...

"The lyrics of David Bowie‘s 1969 classic ‘Space Oddity’ have been used as the basis of a colorful, if somewhat scary, illustrated children’s novel by artist Andrew Kolb.

A .pdf of the entire book can be downloaded for free at Kolb’s website. (Which as of today, Aug. 29, seemed to be a little difficult to load due to excessive traffic.) In just under 40 pages, the book tells the story of brave astronaut Major Tom, who launches himself into space and wins the adoration of the press reporters down on earth.

Then, he explores even further with a space walk, only to watch his craft suffer critical damage from a meteor storm, leaving him trapped in space with time to send just one final message of love down to his wife.

Of course that’s just one possible interpretation of Bowie’s lyrics. Many people believe it’s not an accident, but choice that sends Tom out alone into the great beyond.  The thinking goes that after seeing the beauty of space, he decides to leave Earth and all its problems behind once and for all."

Today Wired Magazine has picked up on the story.

I really hope that the illustrator finds a publisher for the little book, since it is obviously one I simply must have!