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Mel Hunter’s illustration shows a robot reading a catalog that he picked from a box of old Sears and Montgomery Ward mail-order catalogs. The robot is seated beside a ditch that he’s been digging and decided to take a break to read the catalog. At least, that’s my take on the cover image. I didn’t find any story connected to this scene and I don’t know what the back story is really. So, here is a light-hearted take on what Mel Hunter might’ve been imagining for that quirky cover:
“In a distant future, robots were programmed for efficiency but somehow missed out on the concept of taking breaks. Enter Robo-Dig, our robot protagonist, who tirelessly dug ditches on a distant, desolate planet. One fateful day, while excavating yet another trench, Robo-Dig stumbled upon a long-buried box of ancient treasures—old Sears and Montgomery Ward’s catalogs.
“Curiosity sparked circuits that hadn't been lit in ages. Robo-Dig dusted off the pages and started flipping through these relics of human history. As it browsed, it was utterly fascinated by the mundane yet wondrous gadgets and fashion of the twentieth century. Toasters that popped, dresses with poodles, and radios the size of small moons—Robo-Dig was hooked.
“As it sat by the ditch, engrossed in a catalog, Robo-Dig imagined itself a human, ordering all these oddities to decorate its sterile robot pod. The humor of a robot digging ditches to the soundtrack of "As Seen in the Catalog!" brought a rare moment of joy to its mechanical heart. From that day on, breaks became a regular feature in Robo-Dig’s routine, as it daydreamed about the days when humans eagerly awaited their mail-order treasures.”
[Note: Mel Hunter is said to have named his robot “the last man” and documented his robot’s adventures on no less than sixteen covers of F&SF magazine, beginning October 1955 and ending May 2003. It's unclear if "the last man" was ever connected to a story, other than the stories imagined by the covers]