Neon-magenta typography dominates the August 1987 cover of Asimov’s Science Fiction, with the magazine’s name stretched wide across a stormy, illustrated backdrop. In the corners, the period details are part of the appeal—“192 pages” is splashed like a boast, and the cover price is printed alongside the month and year, anchoring the artwork in late-1980s newsstand culture.
Beneath the masthead, the scene turns cinematic: lightning forks through a dark sky while a futuristic cityscape rises in the distance, all hard edges and glowing atmosphere. A large, softly lit female face hovers above the horizon like a dream or a warning, while a man in the foreground twists with clenched energy, as if caught mid-escape or mid-confrontation—classic science fiction cover art built on tension, scale, and mystery.
Reader-facing copy lines stack along the left, calling out featured names and a prominent “Viewpoint” teaser, the kind of editorial signposts that made genre magazines feel like curated worlds rather than single stories. For collectors and fans of retro sci-fi illustration, this Asimov’s Science Fiction August 1987 issue is a vivid snapshot of the era’s visual language—bold color, dramatic lighting, and that unmistakable promise that something strange is about to happen just beyond the next page.