Tutis Has a Rival

It's been a while since anti-geniuses Tutis released a book, so I haven't had the chance to mock them. However, Brian Busby and Bookride have had a bit of a look at Alphascript and Betascript, a German-based print-on-demand publisher of tens of thousands apparently randomly packaged Wikipedia articles (all at great expense: would you like a bound copy of the 487-word article on the Pet Shop Boys single 'One More Chance'? It's yours for US$54!). What's especially wonderful about these books, which I assume are produced with little or no human involvement, is that most of them come with various other, often unrelated, articles jammed in to bloat the page count, and the covers seem to have been similarly designed without heed to sense or relevance.

Here are some examples...

Conscription really did pull in some terribly young soldiers

Young Conservative

Lithuanian nobles like comfy chairs as much as everyone else

If this is was Brazilian spy's idea of field research, I can't say I'm surprised the agency was disbanded.

It's always a sign of publishing quality when you steal a watermarked photo for your book cover

It took 3 editors to put the wrong building on the cover of this book.

The politics of Egypt are surprisingly London-centric

Domingo was always wrecking 'Three Tenors' concerts by doing sax solos.

Australian government outsourcing scandal!

It goes underwater if you leave the cargo bay doors open.

To be fair, she really doesn't look very aggressive.

I just... what.. hang on...

They're just really excited about dangerous, toxic carbon fuel schemes

He/she looks good for his/her age.

Though the 1790s were a horribly racist time, all credit to the Marylebone Cricket Club for letting a underage black girl play for them in the 1790s. Of course, they did use the cunning ploy of calling her 'Robert' so that the half-blind imperialists in the audience would be fooled into thinking she was just another white man with amusing facial hair.

Both naval vessels and hands can carry guns--near enough.

This image is actually probably more apropriate than was intended.

Fucking European cultural imperialism, keeping all of the Bangladeshi debaters out of their own federation

This is a book about a single from a Swedish death metal band. That is a picture of some pretty flowers.

I consulted the Wikipedia article for the 'rear of the Year' competition to see how the two other articles were connected, but I still remain in a state of pure, blessed ignorance. However, it was gratifying to learn that 'There is only one, genuine, Rear of the Year award and a list of contenders is never supplied to bookmakers so that their suppositions about the outcome are pure conjecture.' Take that, Swedish Academy!

Mosaics

I'll be back properly next week, but in the meantime, via the blog of the excellent Peter Mendelsund (who I interviewed here), see these lovely mosaical covers for Stephen Jay Gould (by Sam Potts for Harvard University Press)...

That gap in the design will be filled by future volumes

and for some of the work of Clarice Lispector (I've only read The Hour of the Star, which was excellent, so here's an opportunity to read more) using a striking photo of her when young (covers by Paul Sahre for New Directions).

Here's the original photo:

Apologies for the Delay

I'm on holiday for the moment--back soon.

Mohr Creepiness

Over the last week I've read two novels from a new-to-me publisher, Canada's ChiZine Publications, who specialise in "dark literary fiction", ie well-written horror and fantasy. Horror is not usually my bag, partly because I quickly tire of supernatural stories unless they're tremendously well-written--I need it to be scientifically rationalised horror, ie Alien or The Thing rather than Stephen King nonsense. Of the two, David Nicle's Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism, a tale of eugenics, forced sterilisation and parasitic lifeforms, was excellent, while Tony Burgess's People Live Still in Cashtown Corners, while well-written, was ultimately mystifying and unsatisfying (the second book by him I've found to be so, despite his excellent script for the blackly comic language-as-disease movie Pontypool).

But what of the covers? Well, all of ChiZine's cover design work is by Erik Mohr, sometimes working with Corey Beep. As you can see below, they've produced some wonderful designs. Indeed, it was Eutopia's cover that first grabbed me...

..that girl's eyes being both completely black and spot-varnished, so that tiny beads of light catch on them and follow you around as you move the book. Look at that expression: you just know she's hiding a set of fangs behind that pursed mouth.

Other ChiZine covers I particularly like:

Fuckity-Doo-Dah

Another quick post that's really a link to more thorough content elsewhere: Brandon Duncan has, over at his site Corporate Demon Blog, posted a thorough and fascinating look at the background to a cover design: in this case, the marvellously titled The Fuckness. Have a look.

And here's another Duncan cover design for the same author:

I suspect that Mr Prunty is not completely at peace with his fellow man.

Richard Merritt Follow-Up

When I posted about the striking new Vintage Classic Nancy Mitfords recently, I didn't know the designer until the art director of those covers showed up to let me know: they were the work of Richard Merritt. Looking through his other work was very interesting, as I would never have guessed that the creator of these covers was the same as the creator of his previous book covers. This is not a criticism, by the way--it's just that the delicate and subtle Mitford images are quite different from the colourful, dynamic and cartoonish work, full of odd angles and detail bursting out of the frame, that he has done elsewhere. It's intriguing to see such a difference in styles, and make sme want to know what else he'll come up with in the future.

Compare:

versus:

(The last two being picture books Merritt wrote and illustrated--and, indeed, where are Santa's pants?)