Posts tagged with cover-art

Jul 27 2023

The original cover art CAN'T be that bad

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Okay, this one is new to me: Juniper Books is a company that specializes in what I can only describe as fancy book slipcovers. If you want your romance novel/sci-fi series/YA thriller to look like it belongs in a historical library, they have the dustjacket for you. I was pretty excited about...

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Jul 11 2023

Agree to disagree?

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According to LitHub, famous romance novel cover model Fabio does not agree with the current trend toward more fundamentally kind, laid-back, and mentally healthy male protagonists in romance novels...

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Jun 15 2023

Another one for the shelf

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I'm super into the minimalist cover art featured on Gladstone Press's edition of Pride and Prejudice, which is currently on sale for $11. (All of their covers are great.) I'd like it even better if they had produced an entire set of Austen's novels...

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Dec 2 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Pulp! the Classics edition), by Lewis Carroll

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This week's Book Giveaway is the Pulp! the Classics edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is basically all about that cover art: if the twisted hippie take on Judy Garland (...right?) makes you laugh...

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Sep 16 2019

Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo, by P.G. Wodehouse

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On a recent trip to Canada, I picked up Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo, a beautifully packaged little collection of P.G. Wodehouse stories from Arrow Books, who blithely describe it as "A Wodehouse Pick-Me-Up!". Mulliner's Buck-U-Uppo consists of three short stories: two Mulliner tales, including the title story (about a meek curate who turns into an ass-kicking, name-taking problem solver...

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Jan 8 2019

My point

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And speaking of British versus American covers, check out this 80th anniversary edition of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, from the U.K.'s Virago Modern Classics. Look how awesome and original it is (how did they make embroidery seem so... insidious?), and...

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Jan 8 2019

Compare and contrast

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LitHub recently published an article on one of my favorite pastimes: comparing US and UK cover art for the same books. Overall, I'm sticking with my long-held opinion that the UK gets better covers than we do, although...

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Aug 30 2018

I want one!

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I don't know anything about this book, but I LOVE the cover and I'm in awe of how they managed to make the food look plausibly vintage, yet avoided falling into the trap of making it look like...

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Jun 7 2018

Beige pleather and inadequate fun

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The MyModernMet online store recently launched a line of clutches designed by Elena Myloslavskaya of BAGatelle Studio. The three designs feature classic cover art from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, and cost $78 apiece. You'd think this would be right up my alley, but...

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Apr 24 2018

If only

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If money (and bookshelf space) were no object, I would become a serious collector of Edward Gorey-illustrated book covers. As a book designer and illustrator for Doubleday Anchor in the mid-1950s, Gorey designed about fifty book covers...

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Mar 30 2017

A vast improvement

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And speaking of Neil Gaiman, I didn't realize that there were more faux-vintage covers for his books! I had already seen (and loved) the new-old cover for Neverwhere, but full props to the publisher, the cover artist(s), and Gaiman himself, whom I would not have pegged as...

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Mar 2 2017

100% covetable

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I recently ran across these absolutely gorgeous new editions of four classic Mary Stewart novels via the website Mary Queen of Plots. A little poking around the internet reveals that the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton, was also responsible...

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Nov 10 2016

We approve

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Last week on Twitter I mentioned Australian graphic designer Jennifer Wu's amazing Tess of the D'Urbervilles cover, which cheers me up whenever I look at it. (Currently v. necessary.) Ms. Wu informs me that this cover is part of a larger project called #LoveRomance . The #LoveRomance campaign is devoted to championing romance writing and highlighting its exclusion from...

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Nov 3 2016

Who knew?

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Today, the website Cup of Jo posted an interview with a trio of New York Times Magazine employees about creating eye-catching cover art: design director Gail Bichler, associate photo editor Stacey Baker and prop stylist Randi Brookman Harris. The whole thing is a fascinating read, but...

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Nov 2 2016

Seriously, a vast improvement

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I can't find out much about this book cover mock-up (I found the original image here, but the link for artist Jennifer Wu's homepage doesn't seem to be working), but everything about it makes me...

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Jun 1 2016

Share with a friend, or just give yourself a fake twin?

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BIG NEWS: according to the Huffington Post, James L. Mathewuse—the artist behind the Sweet Valley High book covers that looked so intriguing when I was in elementary school—apparently takes commissions! For as little as $200, you could...

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Feb 9 2016

My favorite is his Richard III, but I don't want it on a t-shirt

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Literature-inspired clothing line Out of Print has just released a pair of new designs featuring Milton Glaser's cover art for William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Tempest...

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Nov 25 2015

Pride and Prejudice and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Quarto Classics Reimagined), by Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll

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As longtime Wordcandy readers know, I collect editions of Pride and Prejudice and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I only have so much shelf space, so I try to be discerning, but every once in a while I see more copies that I absolutely need to own...

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Nov 11 2015

So. Much. Better.

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Speaking of paperback vs. hardcover editions, I recently caught my first glimpse of the original hardcover version of Anne McCaffrey's 1967 scifi novel Restoree, and it is absolutely spectacular...

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Nov 10 2015

Unexpected

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Last month, Literary Hub published a fascinating essay by graphic designer Linda Huang about the differences between hardcover and paperback book cover art. Ms. Huang works for Vintage & Anchor Books

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Oct 22 2015

WANT 2.0

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And speaking of glorious cover art design, the latest volume of my beloved Bad Machinery is out, and I think it's the coolest-looking one yet. (Plus it features the series' weirdest storyline, and considering the rest of BM, that's saying quite a lot.) The Case of the Lonely One is...

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Oct 21 2015

WANT.

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Okay, I am in love: The Casual Optimist introduced me to Pelican Books' latest editions of Shakespeare, featuring absolutely amazing covers by graphic designer Manuja Waldia...

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Oct 13 2015

Wasteful

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While poking around a local bookstore, I finally had a chance to see Penguin's Classics Deluxe edition of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The cover art is absolutely gorgeous, and I was immediately tempted to buy it... until I saw the price ($25! For a paperback!) and felt the weight (3 pounds! Also for a paperback!)...

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Aug 4 2015

I have no self control.

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The Penguin Classics Deluxe line continues to quietly release reprints of classic novels with cover art that ranges from "totally respectable" to "I COVET THEE"...

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Apr 23 2015

No. Just... no.

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I thought the webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a cute, if far-fetched, idea that stretched on a little too long. I didn't actually finish it, but I definitely liked the first third or so, and I can see why it was such a success. But I am not sold on the visual appeal of these...

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Mar 26 2015

90% amazing, 10% creepy

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io9 just posted several examples of the unbelievably detailed interior artwork from this upcoming 50th anniversary deluxe edition of Frank Herbert's Dune. The art—by Sam Weber—is incredible (and that image of Baron Harkonnen is going to haunt my dreams), but...

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Mar 26 2015

Fantasy v. Sexy Halloween Costume

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The blog Muddy Colors recently featured a fascinating column by Lauren Panepinto, the Creative Director for Orbit Books. In her post, Panepinto discusses the difficulty (and importance!) of achieving attractive, dynamic cover art for fantasy novels...

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Feb 19 2015

Meh.

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Okay, this makes me a little sad. It's the 150th anniversary of my beloved Alice in Wonderland, and Puffin Books is celebrating with a new edition illustrated by Rifle Paper Co. founder Anna Bond. Don't get me wrong: I love Bond's work, but it's so tasteful...

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Feb 10 2015

Once again, we get stuck with the boring cover.

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Much to my displeasure (again), I see that Kerstin Gier's Spanish readers are getting both a much faster translation of Silber, the first book in her new trilogy, and infinitely funkier cover art than we do here in the US...

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Nov 25 2014

I covet.

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I'm not a big fan of H.G. Wells's 1895 novel The Time Machine, but I am totally in love with the many and varied cover images it has inspired. Seriously, the story has been graced with some...

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