Jul 12
Click for larger imageGood Show Sir Comments: Better to beg forgiveness … than to get the cover art pre-approved.
Published 2007
(Average: 8.32 out of 10)
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Good Show Sir Comments: Better to beg forgiveness … than to get the cover art pre-approved.
Published 2007
(Average: 8.32 out of 10)Loading...
(9.25 out of 10) (9.18 out of 10) (9.01 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.92 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10)
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July 12th, 2017 at 11:33 am
The middle guy’s backpack leaf blower is belching out a storm of smoke.
July 12th, 2017 at 12:20 pm
Typical, the woman is denied cranial protection so we can see how blandly beautiful she is.
July 12th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
No publisher?? I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that it’s
BAEN
July 12th, 2017 at 1:07 pm
“We’re here to kick bubblegum and chew ass, and we’re all out – no, wait a minute…”
July 12th, 2017 at 1:26 pm
I wonder how many times BAEN had to go back to the artist and say ‘More ammo clips, more pouches,MORE MORE MORE!’.
July 12th, 2017 at 1:42 pm
Ass. From L to R you got wise, cute, bad, hard, sorry, and smart. Looming above is Asshat.
July 12th, 2017 at 1:45 pm
As cheesy as a 1970’s Eurovision contest….
July 12th, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Let me guess. For being a dirty hippy?
Tip to Michael Z. Williamson: send this one to Trump. He’s sure to enjoy it.
July 12th, 2017 at 3:28 pm
Since the US swapped colour-assignment for political parties, many Fox News viewers have come away from the film ‘Red Dawn’ with the idea that the heavily-armed invaders are the good guys.
July 12th, 2017 at 3:42 pm
Let’s win this one for Harry Truman!
July 12th, 2017 at 3:48 pm
According to wikipedia, he’s available.
Also, if you are wondering what his middle name is, Mad Mike isn’t telling:
“What does your middle initial “Z” stand for?
My father has no middle name. This distinguishes me from him. I used the name while growing up in Britain and hated it. I started using “Mike” in Canada. I like the “Z” because it is distinctive, but I can do without the name. So I’m not telling. Only one person ever guessed, and I offered to marry her. (She graciously declined the invitation, and we’re still friends 16 years later.)”
July 12th, 2017 at 4:01 pm
Is that a metalworker’s hammer that the cat in the hat on the left holds in his hand? Are they machinists? Are they striking? Are the armed fellows here to break up the strike? Is this actually a political novel?
July 12th, 2017 at 5:01 pm
@JuanPaul: finding out he was born in Birkenhead actually reduces the seriousness of this cover. I read the title in my head as ‘Berrer to asskh fer Guinness, la”. The moustache doesn’t help. However rugged he thinks he looks in those photos on wiki, all I can think of is Joe McGann saying ‘Eh! Eh! Caaaaalm down’.
(For the uninitiated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k2YEc6dozA and many more)
But if he was raised in Britain then how does he pronounce his middle initial?
July 12th, 2017 at 6:02 pm
Looks like the Ren Faire got fed up with all the steam punks ruining the vibe.
July 12th, 2017 at 7:02 pm
@Tat Wood—he pronounces it “eh?”
You can tell he’s gone full Canadian since he now feels the letter Z is somehow “distinctive.”
July 12th, 2017 at 7:07 pm
Did he nick the Z from Poppy Z. Brite?
July 12th, 2017 at 8:25 pm
I’m saying the Z. stands for Zippy.
Let Michael Zippy Williamson come on this site and tell me I’m wrong.
July 12th, 2017 at 8:30 pm
‘I used the name while growing up in Britain and hated it.’
That’s because you were growing up in Birks. If you had grown up in the civilised world, you wouldn’t have hated growing up. 😉
July 12th, 2017 at 8:40 pm
Z is pronounced “zed”, as all of us civilized people should know. There is no other way to pronounce it.
This cover is absurd, but it’s that old guy with glasses in the upper corner that really kills it for me. I mean . . . what is he doing there? What does he have to do with the plot of the book? Is that the author? (Ignore that last question. We know that Jim Baen himself is the only real human allowed to grace the covers of BAEN publications.)
July 12th, 2017 at 11:21 pm
It is indeed BAEN!coughing from smoke
Who else would use that particular crappy font? (Mike Zed’s a Puppy, of course.)
Whyyyy the giant floating old guy head?
@fred: More guns and ammo, yes; more feet, no. No helmet for the lady. WTF is that on the middle grunt’s back? Some sort of metal octopus? Or is he part Lovecraftian horror?
And why the floating old guy head? Is he the one they’re going to beg forgiveness from for killing the be-hatted machinist gang?
Is he their god Rumsfeld, speaking to them of known unknowns?
July 13th, 2017 at 12:07 pm
@GSS ex-noob. No kidding, my brain went “Click! Baen!” the instant I glimpsed the title font, and before I’d even looked at anything else. Must be one they use a lot.
July 14th, 2017 at 2:05 am
@Rachel J: Note it doesn’t even say BAEN on the cover. It doesn’t have to. No other publisher has bad enough taste to use that font. Or the random cluttered, weapon-filled, bad perspective art.
The people at the bottom seem to be begging forgiveness and not getting it.
Am more certain than ever that’s Rumsfeld as the floating face. Would fit the time frame and the ethos.
August 30th, 2017 at 7:57 am
Welcome to another episode of the thrilling, fun-filled gameshow
SPOT THE ONE WHO ISN’T WHITE!
[Applause]
Tonight’s cover is from Baen… like the other 1,084 covers from previous episodes… and our contestants must find the character that doesn’t look like a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant!
The timer starts… now! [Tick… tick… tick…]
DING!
The time is up… and no one could spot a character that didn’t look white. That’s all for tonight! Next episode we’ll be looking at whitewashed covers for Robert A. Heinlein books! Good night, everybody!
[End credits]
August 31st, 2017 at 5:59 am
Still think that’s Rumsfeld.
@ARY: You can’t tell about the two who are farthest right, but under all that wrapping, I’m sure they’re white as well.
August 31st, 2017 at 7:35 pm
GSS: a Military SF book with the title “White As Well” (or better still: “White As Hell”) would be a guaranteed hit with the target demographic.
September 1st, 2017 at 2:31 am
@ARY: it would describe yoooge amounts of their output, wouldn’t it?
As I said before, Mike Zed is a Puppy, who like to call themselves “alt-right”, and after the election and especially after Charlottesville, we all know what that means.
White As Hell indeed.
September 1st, 2017 at 11:58 pm
Baen knows it’s beyond redemption at this point; no point in asking for forgiveness now, guys.
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:55 am
@L.B.: Good show, sir or madam! 🙂
It’s a quirk of publishing history that they have Lois McMaster Bujold, who actually can write and isn’t typical of the house in other ways. She’s the only one of their authors ever to win a Hugo, much less repeatedly. IIRC. And her fantasy works are with other publishers or self-published.
There’s some less MANLY PEW PEW stuff coming from Catherine Asaro, Esther Friesner, and Lee & Miller (of whom Baen is their 4th publisher).
Coincidentally (or not), the authors named above are the only ones I and all my female friends ever buy from them.
I suppose they do well enough with the US straight white young male audience that they can survive largely ignoring the majority of humanity. Certainly they save money by not employing any proofreaders. EVER.
December 11th, 2021 at 4:36 am
Ah, Mad Mike.
We shared a hotel room a few times at WindyCon back in the 90’s.
December 11th, 2021 at 10:24 pm
@Lars: I presume he was less of an asshole back then? Before he went Full Puppy?
Also, I still maintain that’s the floating head of Rumsfeld.
January 5th, 2022 at 4:03 am
@GSSxN: I thought Rumsfeld too! Alternatively, Bob McNamara. Either way, blandly addicted to the BAENification of US foreign policy. PewpewkaPOW!