“hey guys, I know we’re sun waifs and all, but it isn’t very sunny and it’s getting cold out. Not to mention half of our party died when that ledge collapsed. Can we ease up on the frolicking and maybe build a shelter?”
“Please, Mary Lou Retton’s mom, stop! One more heavy frolicking boot stomp and you’ll send that nice lady wearing hotpants on one leg and a stocking and garter on the other to her DOOOM!”
“And so class, as we see from this slide, frolicking is not the relatively benign activity described by the proponents of legalization. No, frolicking is a gateway behavior. Its downward spiral is merciless. After the first rush of fun, it creates curvature of the spine, then a loss of both equilibrium and common sense, and finally, in its terminal stage, a complete breakdown of the self, leaving the user (or ‘frolic-head’ in underground lingo) a warped paranoid shell of a human being. Frolicking: just say no.”
So, one frolics wrecklessly at the cliff edge, another is hindered in their mobility by brambles and a third is too scared to move … nope, no heavy handed metaphors here …
Behold – the Blue Bird of Happiness. And his friends the Yellow Bird of Slight Irritation, the Green Bird of Ennui and the Russet Bird of Sudden Realisation of How Bad Things Have Got.
Two young ladies in eighties clothing frolic with the birds and flowers while a third, a young . . . man? woman? . . . with a disturbingly cartoony face looks on in utter horror – probably because the aforementioned frolicking is taking place at the edge of a cliff, with a lack of care similar to the Fool of a Tarot deck.
Q: I’m supposed to be painting the ‘sky’, but it’s been so long since I was out of doors, I don’t know what it looks like.
A: The people who buy your cover art will naturally look to the top left. Detail what you can remember there, and then let it fade into the nothing you feel as you go further and further down and right.
The tiny little bird at the viewer’s right appears to be committing suicide by plunging from the cliff. Just another casualty of the evil fiend, frolicking.
@JuanPaul (14)—the cover depicts what frolicking becomes after the frolickers have peaked. They are now in the downward slide, or as they would say, they are “crashing,” which, research shows, often leads to what is called the “bummer.” I think it’s safe to say this cover is indeed a bummer.
“We can dance if we want too,
We can leave your friend behind.
Cos, your friend won’t dance,
And if they don’t dance,
Well, they’re no friend of mine.”
Well, these are clearly Magical Nature Kids, right? One communes with the Birds, the second makes the land bloom with weeds and brambles wherever they walk, and the third perceives the existential horror of all life and consciousness.
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:27 am
She’s doomed.
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:36 am
Stephen Fry as a child discovers the true horror that is other people…
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:47 am
This is one of those public information films, isn’t it? The Spirit of Long and Perilous Drops?
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:50 am
“Now dance about and look natural! NATURAL!!”
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:52 am
“Oh no, I got stuck in these brambles! Oh well — I’ll just frolic my way out of them…”
June 22nd, 2017 at 11:53 am
Reefer madness?
June 22nd, 2017 at 12:16 pm
“Kevin was worried, his anti dancing bush had only stopped one of them.”
June 22nd, 2017 at 1:23 pm
“hey guys, I know we’re sun waifs and all, but it isn’t very sunny and it’s getting cold out. Not to mention half of our party died when that ledge collapsed. Can we ease up on the frolicking and maybe build a shelter?”
June 22nd, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Somehow not as terrible as Solarbabies…not quite.
June 22nd, 2017 at 1:53 pm
“Please, Mary Lou Retton’s mom, stop! One more heavy frolicking boot stomp and you’ll send that nice lady wearing hotpants on one leg and a stocking and garter on the other to her DOOOM!”
June 22nd, 2017 at 2:32 pm
“And so class, as we see from this slide, frolicking is not the relatively benign activity described by the proponents of legalization. No, frolicking is a gateway behavior. Its downward spiral is merciless. After the first rush of fun, it creates curvature of the spine, then a loss of both equilibrium and common sense, and finally, in its terminal stage, a complete breakdown of the self, leaving the user (or ‘frolic-head’ in underground lingo) a warped paranoid shell of a human being. Frolicking: just say no.”
June 22nd, 2017 at 4:10 pm
So, one frolics wrecklessly at the cliff edge, another is hindered in their mobility by brambles and a third is too scared to move … nope, no heavy handed metaphors here …
June 22nd, 2017 at 4:20 pm
Behold – the Blue Bird of Happiness. And his friends the Yellow Bird of Slight Irritation, the Green Bird of Ennui and the Russet Bird of Sudden Realisation of How Bad Things Have Got.
June 22nd, 2017 at 4:30 pm
Are we sure there is any frolicking on this cover? On closer inspection, I’m pretty sure everyone is having a bad time.
June 22nd, 2017 at 5:32 pm
Wot no Knees Up Mother Brown tag ? Surely some mistake !
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:13 pm
I hope sunwaifs imply the existence of sunbears. Hungry frolicking hating sunbears.
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:21 pm
Two young ladies in eighties clothing frolic with the birds and flowers while a third, a young . . . man? woman? . . . with a disturbingly cartoony face looks on in utter horror – probably because the aforementioned frolicking is taking place at the edge of a cliff, with a lack of care similar to the Fool of a Tarot deck.
What is up with those parrots?
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:48 pm
Thursday Evening Q&A at Unknown Artist Institute:
Q: I’m supposed to be painting the ‘sky’, but it’s been so long since I was out of doors, I don’t know what it looks like.
A: The people who buy your cover art will naturally look to the top left. Detail what you can remember there, and then let it fade into the nothing you feel as you go further and further down and right.
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:56 pm
The tiny little bird at the viewer’s right appears to be committing suicide by plunging from the cliff. Just another casualty of the evil fiend, frolicking.
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:56 pm
This is your brain on frolicking.
June 22nd, 2017 at 6:58 pm
@DSWBigT—
“. . . let it fade into the nothing you feel as you go further and further down and right.”
Artistic advice, or pillow talk from a bedroom deep in Trump country?
June 22nd, 2017 at 7:27 pm
Sydney J. Van Froloc
June 22nd, 2017 at 7:53 pm
@ Anna T.
Maybe that look of horror is directed at the rubbery, flaccid half arm protruding from the abdomen of his companion.
June 22nd, 2017 at 8:09 pm
FROLIC COUPON INSIDE
June 22nd, 2017 at 10:44 pm
OMG. I’ve read this, with a different cover, and recall it as being quite good.
This would have put me off a decent fantasy read. Don’t think the author read the book either.
Thanks, SFBC!
June 23rd, 2017 at 4:31 am
@JuanPaul (14)—the cover depicts what frolicking becomes after the frolickers have peaked. They are now in the downward slide, or as they would say, they are “crashing,” which, research shows, often leads to what is called the “bummer.” I think it’s safe to say this cover is indeed a bummer.
June 23rd, 2017 at 12:08 pm
“We can dance if we want too,
We can leave your friend behind.
Cos, your friend won’t dance,
And if they don’t dance,
Well, they’re no friend of mine.”
June 23rd, 2017 at 10:25 pm
Oops, of course I meant “artist” in my last comment.
@Dave M: poor young “no friend” in the lower right, left behind.
@BC: I think you’ve got it (Pun about “side bum” here).
Apparently the miserable one is very bummed, must have been a bad frolic for him. Perhaps the bad anatomy represents how he’s seeing the whole thing.
June 24th, 2017 at 6:37 am
Well, these are clearly Magical Nature Kids, right? One communes with the Birds, the second makes the land bloom with weeds and brambles wherever they walk, and the third perceives the existential horror of all life and consciousness.
June 24th, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Full Frontal Frolicking
June 29th, 2017 at 3:13 am
@BC oh ya, been there