Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "chronicles-of-prydain"
What's the worst book cover you've ever seen?
So I picked up Lloyd Alexander's classic story The Book of Three today, and I found its cover... striking. Enough so to make a whole blog post to rant about it, even though I'm fairly sure there's been great many discussion about this subject matter over the years. Might as well chip in with my own.
There's some pretty great art of this book lying around:
And then there's this asshole, the 80s Finnish edition I've got:
It looks a lot more like some angsty contemporary growing-up story with a whole lot of drugs and swearing. It really made me think I'd picked up the wrong book at first. I wonder what the artist, or whoever directed him to do this, were thinking while they drew this. I wonder what drove them to these artistic expressions.
But it could be even worse. At least it's got the horny guy still in the background, as the slightest indication about the book's true nature. It could be it has nothing at all.
For some reason there's this tendency I've always wondered, where book publishers tear down all of the great cover art and replace it with a bland image of some item tangentially related to the book's events, on blank background. For instance:
Since I spent some time dissing a Finnish cover, let's throw my countrymen a bone with an awesome cover of George R. R. Martin's book! Compare...
Or how about Harry Potter?
I'm a big fan. It's a well-drawn and evocative scene of the book, instantly draws you in and makes you want to read about what the hell's going on. And then this shit...
Why do you do this? Is it cheaper, somehow? Even though the original artwork already exists and you just need a permission to use it or something? Or is it because people are for some reason ashamed of reading anything that doesn't look all dark and gloomy and indecipherable? I don't get it.
If I ever manage to throw anything I've written at a real publisher - and I hope I will - I'm going to make a special note to put a real cover to it. I'm going to have it added to the contract and everything. I won't stand for this shit.
And if you want to show me some more terrible covers, go right ahead. I've gotten on a roll here.
There's some pretty great art of this book lying around:
And then there's this asshole, the 80s Finnish edition I've got:
It looks a lot more like some angsty contemporary growing-up story with a whole lot of drugs and swearing. It really made me think I'd picked up the wrong book at first. I wonder what the artist, or whoever directed him to do this, were thinking while they drew this. I wonder what drove them to these artistic expressions.
But it could be even worse. At least it's got the horny guy still in the background, as the slightest indication about the book's true nature. It could be it has nothing at all.
For some reason there's this tendency I've always wondered, where book publishers tear down all of the great cover art and replace it with a bland image of some item tangentially related to the book's events, on blank background. For instance:
Since I spent some time dissing a Finnish cover, let's throw my countrymen a bone with an awesome cover of George R. R. Martin's book! Compare...
Or how about Harry Potter?
I'm a big fan. It's a well-drawn and evocative scene of the book, instantly draws you in and makes you want to read about what the hell's going on. And then this shit...
Why do you do this? Is it cheaper, somehow? Even though the original artwork already exists and you just need a permission to use it or something? Or is it because people are for some reason ashamed of reading anything that doesn't look all dark and gloomy and indecipherable? I don't get it.
If I ever manage to throw anything I've written at a real publisher - and I hope I will - I'm going to make a special note to put a real cover to it. I'm going to have it added to the contract and everything. I won't stand for this shit.
And if you want to show me some more terrible covers, go right ahead. I've gotten on a roll here.
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