After writing about Chinese/Japanese cover cliches, I was contacted by the extremely talented Alice Smith (about one of whose covers I wrote here). She has recently done a cover and internal illustrations for the about-to-be-published Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, a Chinese-American novel by Marilyn Chin.
Said Alice, "I too, went profusely through all the cliches over and over... from samurai swords (so brilliantly NOT RELEVANT to this book), to moons, dragons, meat cleavers, pretty ladies, not-so-pretty ladies, birds, sea waves, geishas, kimonos, shadows, Chinese menus, noodles... And on the final design - I fandango'd: blossoms, peonies, a panda, and all the animals of the Chinese calendar - how many points do you get for all those cliches? And how many points do I lose for a German typeface (Weiss) on the cover?"
Ms Smith was kind enough to let me repost some of her internal illustrations for the book: see more of her amazing work at her blog, and I hope to have proper interview with her here soon.
9 comments:
Cliches or not it's a beautiful cover. I think it's wonderful the artist has the sense of humor to contact you regarding the new book.
Agreed. The cover is really neat and original, mainly because the artist seemed to go so far in the other direction. The interior illustrations are even better.
Gorgeous. I'd buy the book just for that cover.
I agree with Claire. I'd buy it for the gorgeous cover and inside illustrations alone. It's really lovely. I can't wait to read the interview!
Yeah, it's got cliches, but first, they're not the same cliches that have been used 700 million times before, and second, it's creative and eye-catching and in general doesn't look like it was thrown together in 30 seconds by someone with a collection of stock photos and a passing familiarity with PhotoShop. This is the best cover I've seen on anything in a long time. Ms. Smith should be proud.
Addendum (God, I love that word): I just realized the somewhat ridiculousness of the phrase "not the same cliches that have been used 700 million times before;" what I meant was the same crap used in the covers shown in the older post that you linked to. This cover is a sight better than just another contribution to the dragon/neck/fan pile. And even if it did use those same elements, it would still look better on the basis of style.
That's just it: any "cliches" are used to vibrantly and unexpectedly that they stop being so. It's only when the unoriginal is used, well, unoriginally, that you have a problem. Alice Smith's cover is just amazing.
SO vibrantly, I mean.
This is awesome!! I love the artwork! It's so beautiful. I totally want this cover art version. I loved the book. It was so good! :)
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