Monday, 20 December 2010

Burton in Space

Jonathan Burton, the extremely talented illustrator and designer who I interviewed here, has a number of cool things coming up (next year, for example, he has redesigns of some of the Kingsley Amis backlist for Penguin Classics--pictures to come when I get them). Most recently, there is his work on the Folio Society's new edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This book, and its first three sequels, were like catnip to me when I was a kid--I read my copies almost literally into pieces, to the point where I can't reread them now for fear that both the prose and the physical books won't hold up.


Here's Burton's cover: Marvin the paranoid android  in holographic ink, glittered cloth and embossing...



And here are some of his wonderful interior illustrations.







For more, see Jonathan's blog and site.
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8 comments:

  1. Matt Keeley20 December 2010 at 19:21

    Reissuing the Amis backlist? This is very good news indeed. Shame though the reprints are unlikely to make it to the US. Looking forward to seeing those covers.

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  2. Stuart Bache21 December 2010 at 05:35

    By far my favourite set of novels, it's great to see it illustrated so brilliantly. I'll be adding this to my birthday list I think (and making a note of the illustrator too for any future projects).

    As ever, a joy to read your blog.

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  3. Tulkinghorn22 December 2010 at 08:56

    Keep clicking here for images large enough to see:

    http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,Kingsley%20Amis,00.html?id=Kingsley%20Amis

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  4. JRSM22 December 2010 at 13:36

    Thanks, all. And Tulkinghorn, well spotted! I'll post them as soon as I can get nice big versions.

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  5. Matthew Adams23 December 2010 at 05:34

    I have never read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy.

    It's one of those books that all my geek friends told me about, saying I must read it. So now I can't pick it up without feeling some terrible burden of expectation.

    Maybe one day...

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  6. JRSM23 December 2010 at 13:24

    And to be honest, I couldn't even tell you if it's actually good or not--it's so much a part of my youthful reading DNA that I couldn't be objective about it. though if you ever do tackle them, stop at the end of book 4, as 5 is shit and 6 is written by someone else.

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  7. Steve1 January 2011 at 06:42

    I read the first three a few years ago. I've been tempted to get the Barnes and Noble hardback and read them all.

    This Folio edition looks really nice. Anyone know how many illustrations there will be?

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  8. JRSM1 January 2011 at 17:11

    Steve, I'm pretty certain that there are eight full-colour illustrations in the Folio edition.

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