Jun 03
Published 1972
Published 1980
Whitney Comments: I’m sending in two different covers of the same book. They are both wretched.

Published 1972
Published 1980
Whitney Comments: I’m sending in two different covers of the same book. They are both wretched.









(Average: 8.90 out of 10) Tagged with: Ballantine Books • Ballantine Del Ray books • Dean Ellis • evil book • evil children • font problems • John Wyndham • sky-eyes • strange animals • unknown artist • wtf
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June 3rd, 2011 at 9:00 am
But it’s a tradition, everyone who does a cover for The Midwich Cuckoos has to take a large dose of LSD before starting the artwork. It needs to be in by the time to sober up. The last bloke only used three colours so could you make sure to get all these in?
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:00 am
At least the bottom one looks like the artist read the book, even if the giant baby is the moon version of the Teletubbies sun, but what the hell is the top one about? Was the Midwich Cuckoos some kind of gateway to Eastern mysticism? Did they get the covers mixed up with a Carlos Castenada tome?
June 3rd, 2011 at 11:22 am
Red/blue pied stacks of jester-baby body parts?
This… This is not what The Midwich Cuckoos is about.
June 3rd, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Well, I see an egg, which has cuckoo connotations!
June 3rd, 2011 at 2:18 pm
At least they haven’t renamed the book Village of the Damned.
June 3rd, 2011 at 4:22 pm
..once in a while…to comment is carrying coals to Newcastle….
June 3rd, 2011 at 8:50 pm
I’ve been to Newcastle. There were only a few cuckoos…
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:34 pm
The top looks like a Carlos Santana album cover while the bottom looks like the inspiration for the E*Trade baby commercials.
June 3rd, 2011 at 11:22 pm
You know, I was going to pass on The Midwich Cuckoo, but that recommendation from the Hartford Times has really swayed me.
June 4th, 2011 at 4:27 am
A brilliant book. I never understood why the two movies were called “Village of the Damned”, I think the cuckoo imagery is a better title…
However, neither cover artist (shown here) had any idea what the book was about.
June 4th, 2011 at 4:32 am
Yeah, that’s what you want to see out the window…a giant blue baby.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
If the readers come into the book expecting THAT, they’re bound to be disappointed.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
The blue-baby cover has a logo with such “whimsical” fonts, you expect something more lighthearted.
“THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS — a wacky adventure in a cozy British village. You haven’t seen mischief until you’ve met the Midwich kids’ gang!”
June 7th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
A tip of the hat for the top photo. That green carpet matches the background of the, er, illustration. Good show, sir!
June 12th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Mom! Monkey laid an egg!
Cover 2 at does represent the book, although maybe it’s like seeming thinner stood next to your fat friend.
June 17th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Quality carpet btw!
June 20th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Cover 2 looks like the night version of the baby in the sky from Telletubies.