Good Show Sir

Have you ever picked up a book and thought, “WOW… who gave that cover the green light?” or “I would LOVE to be seen reading this on a bus!” That’s what lay behind the formation of this site. 1,000 posts later and here we are with three of your top covers, and one that we’ve never published before…

Yes, it’s finally here – and I know at least seven of you have been eagerly awaiting it! Thanks for all your input on The Pre-1000 post. Perhaps, together, we can create something truly beautiful (or at least slightly less shambolic) for Good Show Sir’s 5 year anniversary in March.

The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe I
Eric Flint, David Mattingly
Many of this site’s covers have an amazing quality – one that’ll make you burst out laughing in both admiration and confusion. This example can make grown adults stagger around respectable bookshop interiors, giddy with laughter and half blind with tears. The art is spectacular, the font is special, and there is so, so much happening it could make your mind explode. Would you catch me reading it in public? Well, maybe… but I might have to pretend it belongs to my flatmate.

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Hunters of the Red Moon
Marion Zimmer Bradley, unknown artist
There are so many books that could be mentioned here, so many loved for what’s on the front and contained within. But staying away from the more obvious top rated covers, this one is a particular favourite of a good few (including myself). Having taken the photo and purchased the book immediately, I discovered this: to my joy, it did indeed include a naked man wrestling a lion-man within the very first chapter. No snake or mountain of fire though, but still, a perfect symbiosis of cover and content. Genius.. simply genius!

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Time Spike
Eric Flint, Marilyn Kosmatka, David Mattingly
The following cover, another Baen/Flint/Mattingly classic (GSS editorial impartiality hooo!), has been sent in multiple times as well, even though it was one of the first to be featured. I wonder why? Let me settle into this comfortable armchair I like to call “psychology”. *Ahem* Well, sometimes a significant book cover experience just has to be shared. Through sharing we can gain understanding. Acceptance. An appreciation of an event’s true personal impact. And the knowledge that you can’t really surprise attack a T-Rex by time-travelling into its open jaw.

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Attack of the Rockoids
Steinberg & Steinberg, Michael Cox
<cue epic baritone voiceover> But there has been one special cover, one sent in more than any other! One… that I have yet to post. Mainly because no one has ever sent me a genuine photograph of the book itself, but the same scanned image every time. It’s also self-published, which we tend to avoid — given how hard it’s been to find a publisher for Dr J. R. Asimov’s Good Show Sir quadrilogy, I know the pain.

Please enjoy Terrible Book Cover Number 1,000, Attack of the Rockoids.

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Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: You do what I ask, boy? You make that CGI busty women with plenty of sparkles with yer Windows Millenium Edtion?!? Yep… that’ll sell… that’ll sell a lot… now bring me more of that whiskey!
Published 2002

Thanks again for your comments, suggestions, corrections, company and banter. Long may the irritable server ferret Sauron gaze kindly upon us.

And to our top commenter, favourite self-published Swedish indie author, and generally jovial site veteran A.R.Yngve, sitting on 1,469 comments: Well done, Sir… well done!

(Average: 8.63 out of 10)

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DPN Comments: Cat-man had only moments to reflect on some of the poor decisions he made in his life.
Published June 2011 / August 2012

(Average: 6.31 out of 10)

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Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: It’ll be just like our D&D game we played last night… except John from Accounting can be the hunk attacking a skeleton… and Dianne the Receptionist can be the sword-wielding damsel in a cape!
Published 2000

(Average: 7.79 out of 10)

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Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Comments: Most boys go through a phase where they wish they could summon a nude She-Hulk to this world. Though most boys put more thought into the relative scale.
Published 1989

(Average: 7.84 out of 10)

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Tom Noir Comments: The dame walked into my office wearing nothing but a pair of high heels and a V2 rocket. The expression on her face said she was about to go ballistic.
Published 1990

(Average: 8.29 out of 10)

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Frank Comments: I suppose I can understand how this got sorted in with the romance paperbacks, just from the color. But this is why I look through theromance paperbacks, so I can rescue the books that need it and put them over in the SF&F section.
Published 2002

(Average: 7.45 out of 10)

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Marmontoast Comments: Evidently, there really is a bird-like entity in the novel, deciding humanity’s fate. If only it could answer its mobile phone!
Published 1994

(Average: 8.15 out of 10)

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Tom Noir’s Art Direction: Now look Horne, you’re a good artist, but you’ve got a thing or two to learn. See, this cover of yours, it’s just not realistic. Does this guy look like he just walked out of an explosion? No. He still has body hair. The fire would have burned it all off! Take this back and I don’t want to see it again until it looks like he’s fresh from a wax job.
Published 1994

(Average: 7.46 out of 10)

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Matt Comments: All randomness aside, it’s the quality of the drawing that really stands out here.
Published 1997

Many thanks to Matt!

(Average: 8.60 out of 10)

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MisterBob Comments: Look darling, there be tentacles! But what about my little alien baby, maybe cat nanny can stay behind and continue to look bored.
Published 1984

Many thanks to MisterBob!

(Average: 6.45 out of 10)

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