Aug 24
Art Direction: We’ll have some guy looking like he’s in a furtistic space disco being attacked by a giant man with a glowing forehead. Why, you ask? Well, we all know psychic powers are clearly symbolised by a lens flare. Just like every sword is reflecting a magical light from somewhere making it go… TING!
Published 1983
August 24th, 2011 at 10:47 am
“Ah, there’s nothing I like better than playing with my action figures!”
August 24th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
“… I lost my heart to a starship trooper…”
August 24th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
This is one of those great titles where you can rearrange it anyway you like and it will make the same amount of sense:
“Witch of the Web World”
“World of the Web Witch”
“Web of the World Witch”
etc.
August 24th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
By the way, does anyone else see hallucinogenic rainbow colors when they look at that cover, or am I having another flashback?!?
August 24th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
That looks a little like one of those oldschool red-green 3D images.
August 24th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I think that might be the legendary “One TING To Rule Them All.”
August 24th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
BNC cables connected directly to the brain. Now there’s a novel idea. Good to see a TING! and a lens flare working in combo.
Judging by the metre-long list of WITCH WORLD books on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_World), there must be plenty more dodgy covers where that came from.
August 24th, 2011 at 7:53 pm
He’s got two laser blasters but only one holster.
August 24th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
No no he’s give those giant hands a space manicure!
August 25th, 2011 at 5:49 am
Why is it that psychic flares are always cross shaped? Are they trying to make some sort of comment about religion? Why no psychic flares that look like a Star Of David?
August 25th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Oh, poor Andre, you have so many bad covers. Would you believe this is actually a fantasy novel?
August 25th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
@fred: he’s got a sword (major TING) and a gun. But its still all wrong. He’s got the sword in his right hand with scabbard on left hip – all fine – but his gun is in his left hand, with the holster on his right hip. He’d have to draw across his body, unlike any cowboy film I’ve ever seen. Or cop show. Or, indeed, anything.
August 26th, 2011 at 12:25 am
Ms. Norton was writing back in the day when fantasy and sci-fi weren’t clearly delineated. See also http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2010/10/witch-world/ .
August 26th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
@Tom. I don’t see the colours but the giant head seems to float in towards me.
September 5th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Let me touch you with my mildew hands!!
May 10th, 2019 at 5:16 am
To inanity – AND BEYOND!
May 10th, 2019 at 5:41 am
NITE-LIGHT MAN VS THE COLOSSAL CHROMATIC ABERRATION
May 10th, 2019 at 6:32 am
Which world?
May 10th, 2019 at 3:51 pm
This probably looks 1000% more amazing if viewed through 3D glasses under a black light.
May 10th, 2019 at 4:16 pm
Black velvet – the connoisseur’s canvas.
May 10th, 2019 at 4:21 pm
Blast ’em in the pinkie. PEW PEW
May 10th, 2019 at 4:52 pm
Really, I kind of like this one. If there are witches/warlocks in it, they must be up to date and properly technological, as the many head-cables (and flares) show. And the lil’ fellow just swatting at the big hands is rather cute. No, no, bad hands! Go away!
May 11th, 2019 at 1:49 am
Head-cables tend to make me think the person is hooked up to something, a computer or a virtual reality device of some sort. Is he pestering the lil’ guy by remote control? Is the Witch World actually a VR game with this “web” of which the title speaks being some sort of, I dunno, networked arrangement of computers? Is he the Dungeon Master messing with one of the players? [1]
@Outis: any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology?
@Bibliomancer: if you look at the expanded pic, the little guy is stabbing the pinkie, not blasting it. That’s a very ting!-y sword.
[1] Probably reading in things here the author didn’t intend. But the author is dead, so according to literary theory we can assume whatever we want! That’s how it works, right?
May 11th, 2019 at 6:27 am
If you shake the big guy’s head, it snows inside.
May 14th, 2019 at 5:18 pm
@B.C.: The whole cover is so disco-tastic, I think it would have to be full of glitter with a colour changing light underneath. Or maybe if you touch his head it’s a giant plasma globe.
October 4th, 2019 at 10:06 pm
“Foolish rebel! No employee defies the Great and Powerful Bezos and lives to brag about it…”
October 5th, 2019 at 4:35 am
The rare Ting!Flare.
As the “Witch World” books are basically sword and sorcery, I’ve no idea why Giant Head is plugged into cables.
Right on a level with the guy with the bird hat on the first volume, just differently awful. You all remember him:
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=3352