Beautiful!
UPDATE: The sideways layout may be a reference to the occasional practise in the past of giving horizontal covers to various pulp and crime books. See here and here for more examples.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Cain
Spotted at the excellent John Gall's blog: Vintage US's new covers for James M. Cain's three most famous (and filmed) novels, created by Megan Wilson and Evan Gaffney.
Beautiful!
UPDATE: The sideways layout may be a reference to the occasional practise in the past of giving horizontal covers to various pulp and crime books. See here and here for more examples.
Beautiful!
UPDATE: The sideways layout may be a reference to the occasional practise in the past of giving horizontal covers to various pulp and crime books. See here and here for more examples.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Imminent Fancy Classics
Have a sneaky look at some of the Penguin Deluxe Classics coming from the US later this year.
First, Roald Dahl. Comics artist Ivan Brunetti tackles Willy Wonka...
..while Jordan Crane has a go at the Giant Peach. (I talked about Crane's work here and here, too.)
Then we have this unexpectedly upstanding-Edwardian-gentleman take on the denizens of H. P. Lovecraft's world, by Travis Louie.
And finally, three covers by Jillian Tamaki, illustrations turned into needle-and-thread pictures for three of what are being called 'Penguin Threads' (which are presumably this year's version of the Penguin Ink books).
Speaking of which, I never posted all of the final Penguin Ink covers, so here the ones I missed:
First, Roald Dahl. Comics artist Ivan Brunetti tackles Willy Wonka...
..while Jordan Crane has a go at the Giant Peach. (I talked about Crane's work here and here, too.)
Then we have this unexpectedly upstanding-Edwardian-gentleman take on the denizens of H. P. Lovecraft's world, by Travis Louie.
And finally, three covers by Jillian Tamaki, illustrations turned into needle-and-thread pictures for three of what are being called 'Penguin Threads' (which are presumably this year's version of the Penguin Ink books).
Speaking of which, I never posted all of the final Penguin Ink covers, so here the ones I missed:
 |
| Cover by Lina Stigsson |
 |
| Cover by Jen Munford |
 |
| Cover by Grez |
 |
| Cover by Daniel Albrigo |
 |
| Cover by M. M. Gonzalo |
 |
| Cover by Rob Admiraal |
 |
| Cover by Robert Ryan |
Insincerity Everywhere
Sharp-eyed reader CBlack spotted this duplicate cover image...
..to which I can add this third version:
..to which I can add this third version:
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Mabinogion Modernised
The Mabinogion is a medieval Welsh story cycle, drawn from a pair of manuscripts, its 11 tales mixing Arthurian myths, pre-Christian (perhaps even Iron Age) stories, folktales and other legends. Seren Books, a small Welsh publisher, has launched a series called 'New Stories from the Mabinogion', in which contemporary Welsh writers create new versions of these myths.
The four books in the series so far (I'm not sure if more are planned) all have lovely matching covers of cut paper, each featuring what I guess to be the meat-eating tree discovered by Gwydionin in the Blodeuwedd tale (modernised in a science-fiction version by Gwyneth Lewis). I'm very much a fan of the making and photographing of things like this, when it would be so easy to just create them in Illustrator or Photoshop.
I find that I actually already have two different versions of the Mabinogion in my library: the original English translation by Lady Charlotte Guest, illustrated by well-known fantasy artist Alan Lee, as well as a freeish series of novelisations by Evangeline Walton (with a cover also by Alan Lee).
The four books in the series so far (I'm not sure if more are planned) all have lovely matching covers of cut paper, each featuring what I guess to be the meat-eating tree discovered by Gwydionin in the Blodeuwedd tale (modernised in a science-fiction version by Gwyneth Lewis). I'm very much a fan of the making and photographing of things like this, when it would be so easy to just create them in Illustrator or Photoshop.
I find that I actually already have two different versions of the Mabinogion in my library: the original English translation by Lady Charlotte Guest, illustrated by well-known fantasy artist Alan Lee, as well as a freeish series of novelisations by Evangeline Walton (with a cover also by Alan Lee).
Monday, 14 March 2011
Duplicate Covers, Good Deeds
A duplicate cover image...
..noted while looking at the worthy Authors for Japan site, which is auctioning off literary things to raise money for the victims of the terrible multiple disasters currently unfolding in Japan.
..noted while looking at the worthy Authors for Japan site, which is auctioning off literary things to raise money for the victims of the terrible multiple disasters currently unfolding in Japan.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Peter Carey and the Paper Pubes
(Sorry about the title, but I couldn't resist.)
A couple of posts ago, I showed a couple of Australian designer Jenny Grigg's covers for Vintage Classics Australia. I first became aware of her work when she redesigned the Peter Carey backlist for his original Australian publisher, the University of Queensland Press, using lovely woodblocky letters and textures.
Unusually, when Carey jumped ship to Random House, the same designer was asked to redesign all of his works, which she did using what look like layers of folded and crumpled paper (hence the paper pubes on Illywhacker).
Carey's an unusual writer in that he seems to be held in much higher esteem overseas than he is here in Australia. Part of this is the standard (and sometimes unthinking and automatic) irritation Australians have with those who move overseas but keep pronouncing on Australia and its problems (see Germain Greer, Clive James, etc). But part of it must be that for every genuinely great book he writes (like Oscar and Lucinda or True History of the Kelly Gang) he produces a tedious dud (Theft, His Illegal Self, etc) that plays literary games that weren't worth the playing in the first place.
From one somewhat overrated author to another: Grigg has also produced a series of gorgeous covers for the Danish Linghardt og Ringhof editions of Ernest Hemingway's work. These, unusally, put the major graphic elements on the back covers, leaving the fronts bare of all but a little type.
Absolutely gorgeous.
A couple of posts ago, I showed a couple of Australian designer Jenny Grigg's covers for Vintage Classics Australia. I first became aware of her work when she redesigned the Peter Carey backlist for his original Australian publisher, the University of Queensland Press, using lovely woodblocky letters and textures.
Unusually, when Carey jumped ship to Random House, the same designer was asked to redesign all of his works, which she did using what look like layers of folded and crumpled paper (hence the paper pubes on Illywhacker).
Carey's an unusual writer in that he seems to be held in much higher esteem overseas than he is here in Australia. Part of this is the standard (and sometimes unthinking and automatic) irritation Australians have with those who move overseas but keep pronouncing on Australia and its problems (see Germain Greer, Clive James, etc). But part of it must be that for every genuinely great book he writes (like Oscar and Lucinda or True History of the Kelly Gang) he produces a tedious dud (Theft, His Illegal Self, etc) that plays literary games that weren't worth the playing in the first place.
From one somewhat overrated author to another: Grigg has also produced a series of gorgeous covers for the Danish Linghardt og Ringhof editions of Ernest Hemingway's work. These, unusally, put the major graphic elements on the back covers, leaving the fronts bare of all but a little type.
Absolutely gorgeous.
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