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Credits
by Blake Wilfong

All stories in Free Sci-Fi Classics not authored by me, Blake Wilfong, are selected from the public domain. These are:

WARNING: I have edited these works--abridging, modernizing spellings, Americanizing words, correcting errors, etc.--at my discretion. Thus the editions appearing in Free Sci-Fi Classics should not be considered "canonical" or "standard". Though I have endeavored not to alter meaning or intent, I claim copyright in the compilation and editing of these works and their illustrations.

All photographs and artwork in Free Sci-Fi Classics are my own original creations, or come from royalty-free stock image sources or the public domain. Here are mini-reviews of the stock image sources, followed by detailed credits for every image in Free Sci-Fi Classics.

Corel MEGA GALLERY
and
Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000
Corel Corporation

Consisting of 1,000+ fonts, 50,000+ vector clipart images, and 60,000 photographs from the fabulous Corel Professional Photos collection, Corel MEGA GALLERY was already an indispensable aid for WebMasters. Its successor, Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000, contains most of the same material, plus 20,000 more photos and enough additional clipart and Web art to reach the staggering 200,000 mark. Almost every conceivable topic is covered, from fashion models to demons. The photos are low-resolution and overcompressed--but at a street price of just $50 for the newer version, who cares? One of the best deals around has gotten even better.

The license agreement for Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000 requires me to state the following: the images from Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000 on this Web site may not be saved or downloaded and are only to be used for viewing purposes.

Corel Galleria
Corel Corporation

This fabulous Web site hosts the entire Corel Professional Photos Collection (and other products) along with an excellent search engine. Thumbnails and high resolution watermarked images are FREE, but it takes major ingenuity to find uses for them. The site's primary purpose is, of course, to sell its 80,000+ images. Each is available in several resolutions priced from about $4 to $20. For those who can afford to buy stock photos piecemeal at these prices, Corel Galleria is a treasure-trove.

The usage guidelines for the photos require me to state the following: The images from Corel Galleria on this Web site may not be saved or downloaded and are only to be used for viewing purposes.

Picture Factory #1
Photodex Corporation

This CD-ROM of 2,659 medium-resolution images sports a fast and friendly search engine. There are few photos of attractive models, but a wide variety of other topics are covered, including background textures. At $20, Picture Factory is a fine addition to any stock photo library.

MasterClips 150,000
IMSI

MasterClips 150,000 consists of 14 CD-ROMs packed with about 2,000 fonts, 54,000 vector clipart drawings, 47,000 engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive Series in TIFF format, 41,800 low-res JPEG photos, 5,200 hi-res JPEG photos, and more.

Ignore the buggy, clumsy search engine. (You can browse images with the included printed catalogs or your own software.) Ignore the poorer quality photos that look like video captures. Ignore the photos of recognizable individuals since they're not model released. What's left? A cornucopia of useful material--and a bargain at $70 street. After all, 150,000 is a very large number!

The usage guidelines require me to state the following: The images used herein were obtained from IMSI's Master Photos Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA.

Famous Nineteenth Century Faces
Art Direction Book Company

This large format paperback book contains more than 1,000 copyright-free engravings of yesteryear's famous people. The images vary in quality due to the wide range of public domain source materials from which they were taken, but most are superb. Stock images of famous people are surprisingly rare, so at just $12.50 this collection is a steal.

Dictionary of American Portraits
Dover Publications, Inc.

This large, hardcover book contains thousands of black-and-white portraits of famous people. Most are photographs; some are engravings or paintings. Even more so than with Famous Nineteenth Century Faces, quality varies widely depending on the source materials.

As is typical with the Dover "Pictorial Archive Series", no more than 10 images from this book may be used in a single publication without written permission from Dover Publications, Inc. Furthermore, some of the images originate from other collections, and require courtesy lines.

Despite its steep price (about $80), narrow scope (Americans only), and licensing restrictions, this book is a good value simply because royalty-free images of famous Americans are hard to find. If you need them, buying it may be more a matter of necessity than choice.

Graphic Textures
Allegro New Media

This CD-ROM contains 101 nontiling textures in the form of medium resolution TIFF files. Themes include stone, wood, brick, basketweaves, money, computer graphics, brushed metal, etc. Included is a color poster showing all 101 textures for easy reference. This title dates from 1993, and appears to have been discontinued--which is appropriate since it simply cannot compete with newer stock image libraries.

Photo-Objects
Hemera Technologies Inc.

I wish all stock photo libraries were such a joy to use as Photo-Objects. This two CD-ROM set contains over 10,000 photos--most of which are already removed from their backgrounds for your editing convenience! Everything about this package is done right: thumbnails and keyword indices for the entire collection are stored on both discs to minimize swapping; the search engine is powerful and lightning-fast; the export utility is versatile and user-friendly; the images are stored in glorious high resolution; and a glossy color catalog is included. Best of all, I found this gem on sale for just $40.

Detailed Image Source Information

The following listings document the source of every component of each image in Free Sci-Fi Classics. Descriptions of the modifications I made to these components are included. I also scanned my own photographs and color-corrected, cropped, resized, sharpened, and removed compression artifacts from all images as necessary.

Table of Contents
Alien world painting
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
All portraits
from sources shown in authors' biographical notes, see below
Header for all sections except Table of Contents
Alien world painting
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Computer generated alien world
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
All "Editor's Notes" Boxes
Book with hand writing with pen
Book from Photo-Objects: removed hands & text, added writing & shadow of hand, adjusted pages
Hand/pen from Photo-Objects: pasted over book
Sleeve from Photo-Objects: removed hands, rotated, pasted over hand/pen
Hans Christian Andersen
Portrait of Hans Christian Andersen
from The New Practical Reference Library, 1919, public domain
In a Thousand Years
Aircraft engraving
from Stories for the Household, 1889, public domain
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Portrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from The New Practical Reference Library, 1919, public domain
The Los Amigos Fiasco
Electric bolt
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Electric chair
from www.pdimages.com, public domain
Noose
from Corel Galleria: removed background
Firing revolver
from Corel Mega Gallery: removed watch
Rudyard Kipling
Portrait of Rudyard Kipling
from The New Practical Reference Library, 1919, public domain
With the Night Mail
Dirigible over city
from MasterClips 150,000
Goodyear blimp
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Graf Zeppelin
from MasterClips 150,000
Human-powered dirigible "White Dwarf"
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Meteor
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Navy blimp
from MasterClips 150,000
Murray Leinster
Portrait of Murray Leinster
Original artwork by Blake Linton Wilfong
The Mad Planet
Handshake across Earth
from MasterClips 150,000
Burl amid mushrooms
Mushrooms from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background
Burl from Corel Galleria: removed background, fixed clothes, pasted over mushrooms
Saya
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed ring
Lobster
from MasterClips 150,000: removed background, added claw, tinted red
Burl in water
from Corel Galleria: added spear
Laughing face
Photography by Blake Linton Wilfong
Tarantula
from MasterClips 150,000
Terrified face
Photography by Blake Linton Wilfong
Rodin's The Thinker
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background
Burl inspecting dead beetle
Mushrooms from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, added missing part
Beetle from Corel MEGA GALLERY: broke up, bloodied, pasted over mushrooms
Burl from Corel Galleria: removed background/swimsuit, pasted onto rest of scene
Ants on limb
from Corel Galleria: converted to grayscale, tinted branch yellow
Grasshopper
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, smoothed edges
Moth flying into flames
Flames from Corel Galleria: removed window crossbar, enlarged
Moth from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, pasted over flames, added antennae
Jack London
Portrait of Jack London
from Dictionary of American Portraits
Courtesy Library of Congress
A Relic of the Pliocene
First mammoth
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Second and third mammoths
from Corel Galleria
Fourth mammoth
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed from background
Edgar Allan Poe
Portrait of Edgar Allan Poe
from The New Practical Reference Library, 1919, public domain
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Flaming Earth
Flames from Corel Galleria: removed window crossbar, enlarged
Earth courtesy NASA, copyright-free: pasted over flames, covered with flames
Comet
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
Saki
Silhouette
from MasterClips 150,000: removed hand, adjusted chin
Tobermory
Cat portrait
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Elephant painting
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: added "blood" (red tint) to tusks
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
The Mortal Immortal
Cornelius Agrippa in laboratory
Lab from Corel MEGA GALLERY: expanded to make room for Agrippa
Agrippa from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, added to lab
Flask with flashy background
Flask from Corel Galleria: removed background, tinted to gold hue
Background from MasterClips 150,000: added flask
Bertha
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: feathered edges
Man in ice world
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Mark Twain
Portrait of Mark Twain
from Famous Nineteenth Century Faces
From the London Times of 1904
Videophone demonstration images
from MasterClips 150,000
Police outline of body
Original artwork by Blake Linton Wilfong
Gavel
from Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000
Gallows
Framework from Corel Galleria: removed background and nooses, added noose
Noose from Corel Galleria: removed background, added to framework
Futuristic floating videophone
Palace in Forbidden City, Beijing from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Blank videophone w/background from MasterClips 150,000: pasted over palace
Added shiny screen, button, and speaker grill
Jules Verne
Portrait of Jules Verne
from Famous Nineteenth Century Faces
In the Year 2889
City skyline
from MasterClips 150,000
Sleeping wife on videophone screen
Wife from Corel Galleria: added feathered border
Metal textures from Graphic Textures: cut circles, added to wife image
Added shiny screen, buttons, lights, and rivets
Jupiter
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
Sky advertisement
Sky from MasterClips 150,000: added feathered circle
Oval globe from Corel MEGA GALLERY: changed colors, pasted onto circle
Buildings from Corel MEGA GALLERY: separated, removed from background, pasted over sky
Added lettering inside circle
Mummy
from Corel Galleria
Voltaire
Portrait of Voltaire
from Larousse, 1912: lightened nose
Micromegas
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Earth
courtesy NASA, copyright-free: scaled to correct relative proportions
Hand picking up sailing ship
Ship from Corel MEGA GALLERY: repaired and extended background
Hand photo by Blake Wilfong: removed background, pasted over ship
Hands holding Earth
from MasterClips 150,000
Plato's Dream
Earth on Pedestal
Pedestal from Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000: removed background and cherub
Earth courtesy NASA, copyright-free: removed background, pasted on pedestal
The Star (Centennial Version)
Comet impact photo
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
H. G. Wells
Portrait of H. G. Wells
from The Graphic, 1899, public domain
A Dream of Armageddon
Nuclear blast/mushroom cloud
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Loggia sunset scene
Ocean sunset from Picture Factory #1: removed land
Loggia silhouette artwork by Blake Wilfong
Model from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, pasted onto scene
Airplanes
from MasterClips 150,000: removed extra airplanes
War aftermath
from Corel MEGA GALLERY: tinted red
The Star
Star with Neptune
Star from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Neptune courtesy NASA, copyright-free
Brilliant star
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Sailor on starscape
Starscape from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Sailor from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, pasted over starscape
Scientist with brilliant star and formulas
Scientist from Corel Galleria: removed background
Brilliant star from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Formulas researched and added by Blake Linton Wilfong
Jupiter
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
Lightning
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Ship with tidal wave
Tidal wave from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Ship from Corel MEGA GALLERY: removed background, pasted over tidal wave
Vocanic eruption
from Corel MEGA GALLERY
Mars
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
Blake Linton Wilfong
Portrait of Blake Linton Wilfong
Photography by Blake Linton Wilfong
The Good Witch
Witch
from Corel GALLERY Magic 200,000
The Star (Centennial Version)
Comet impact photo
courtesy NASA, copyright-free
About the Author
Photo of Blake Wilfong
Photography by Blake Wilfong

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