PEEKABOO FUZZIES

Endpaper illustration for Adventures of Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper

Dec 21, 2024

A pair of adorable furry creatures poke their heads out from the cover of dense tropical vegetation. Their huge eyes are strikingly green, cat-like and glossy so that the treetops reflect in the light. Their noses lie long, wide, and flat. Their mouths aren't pronounced like an ape, but thin lips and the slit of their mouths does seem ape-like. Long tufts of light brown hair sweep outward around the eyes like a flaring mane, giving their faces a disproportionately wide countenance. Hair over the pate is smoothed back of their heads. Cat-like ears—soft rounded triangles—are set above and just outside their big eyes. One thick-fingered paw, lacking claws or nails of any sort, extends as if pushing the alien foliage aside. — PEEKABOO FUZZIES (1983), Acrylic on Watercolor Board - 16" x 22"

The Fuzzy Sapiens created by H. Beam Piper first appeared in the early 1960's and they were a welcome contrast to the menacing aliens that seemed to dominate science fiction of the day. Not only were they "irresistibly cute," the stories seemed to foretell issues more of today's world - slaughtering peaceful and playful animals for their fur and discussions on what characterizes intelligence.

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