Comments on: Winning Colours

By: Don Hilliard

Don Hilliard — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:35:40 +0000

@Nix: It REALLY varies. If the book in question is available in hardback or paperback on the regular market, SFBC’s version usually has the same jacket or cover art; if it’s an oddity – generally an omnibus edition – it’ll have a separately-commissioned piece.

These range from the sublime to the ridiculous to the gawdawful. I submitted their cover art for Anne McCaffrey’s original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy to Good Show Sir! a while back – it’s pretty horrible, and they’ve been using it now for at least a quarter-century. (Another ludicrous one was their cover for a briefly-published omnibus of the Red Dwarf novelizations: either the artist had never seen the show which hadn’t aired much if at all in the US at the time, SFBC didn’t get the appropriate permissions to use the actors’ faces, or both…so we got a white Dave Lister and a Cat with a human body and an actual cat head!)

By: Nix

Nix — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:11:11 +0000

Really? Excellent! (But, of course, it’s an SF book club. They tend to be a bit more accurate than, er, major SF publishers like Orbit. Oops.)

By: Don Hilliard

Don Hilliard — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:55:51 +0000

@Nix: “(The classic example of this is every single cover of any of the Earthsea books ever published. Is Ged ever depicted as dark-brown-skinned? No.)”

Actually, yes, once that I know of: the current Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club omnibus of the Earthsea trilogy has a lovely and accurate cover painting by Leo & Diane Dillon. (I suspect their son was the model for Ged.)

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:01:35 +0000

I love my 1970s box set of the Earthsea trilogy (back when it was only three books) but not only is Ged pasty instead of ruddy brown, Vetch is pasty instead of dark-skinned black. cos everyone in the world (all worlds) is white (unless they’re green).

and let’s not even mention that hideous travesty of Earthsea, that live-action mini-series with generic Anglo-Gaelic “medieval” cliches popping up everywhere, in the design, the casting, the music…*shudder*

You wouldn’t know from any of the Familias Regnant covers that Heris is Black, Esmaya is Hispanic, or that Cecilia isn’t a 20-something babe (she’s a 90-something babe)

By: Nix

Nix — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:38:09 +0000

Black people always get turned into white people on the covers of every fantasy book unless the inside *screams* ‘black’, because cover artists are white or something. (The classic example of this is every single cover of any of the Earthsea books ever published. Is Ged ever depicted as dark-brown-skinned? No.)

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:52:19 +0000

oh, I have this with a horse on the cover! will submit.

that Orbit cover is not too bad, really, apart from who the hell is that girl anyway? Captain Heris Serrano, a 40-something black woman? Lady Cecilia de Marktos, a rejuved 80-something redhead (who doesn’t wear armour like that at any time)?

By: Nix

Nix — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:36:46 +0000

The thing about the first three books in that series is that they really *should* have had horses on the front cover. Instead, even the first one had spaceships.

By: SI

SI — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:15:58 +0000

The armour is interesting. It seems to cover most of her vital areas. Luckily her face isn’t something deemed necessary for living.

Now to be fair it could have a visor.

It kinda reminds me of the old intros to games like Red Alert. Really cheesy character acting mixed in with a bit of drawn things on there.

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:29:40 +0000

It’s not so bad; a good example of the ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin’ cover art approach for this sort of genre book.

And the power armour is really cool. Which I find worrying about me.

Happy christmas everyone.

By: CSA

CSA — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:27:02 +0000

You’re right MI, thats definately the default photoshop filter’s “Emboss” and “Glowing Edges” used in their full glory to excelent effect.
The girl is turning away to cry because she’s upset she doesnt get glowing edges too.