Jun 28
Max Bathroom Art Direction: “I want this book to look well underground. Do we have any freelance artists who were so terrible that they couldn’t even get into the UAI?”
Published 1995
Max Bathroom Art Direction: “I want this book to look well underground. Do we have any freelance artists who were so terrible that they couldn’t even get into the UAI?”
Published 1995
June 28th, 2021 at 9:41 am
OK, we’re all wondering: how does he go to the toilet?
June 28th, 2021 at 10:29 am
@THX 1139: he’s got a groin on the back of his head.
June 28th, 2021 at 11:40 am
The book is worse than the cover. Maybe worse than any possible cover. Even money the UAI member is a tattoo ‘artist’.
https://nocturnalrevelries.com/2019/10/13/satanskin-james-havoc/
June 28th, 2021 at 12:03 pm
Does that mean “Satan’s skin” or “Satan’s kin” or an Eastern European Satanist named “Satanskin”…
… or just “b***ocks”?
June 28th, 2021 at 12:12 pm
It’s like the kid the kid who created the Abzorbaloff grew up (for some value of ‘growing up’) and got into Satanism.
June 28th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
OK, so he (or she?) has a candle and a dagger, like they’re preparing for a Satanic ritual – but if you’re an actual demon, do you need Satanic rituals? You don’t have to summon other demons, you can just pop over to hell and ring their doorbell. Or just call them on your hellphone or whatever demons use nowadays.
Satan’s skin…hmm. Perhaps this is actually satanic _cosplay_, and this guy is basically a Furry, only he wears a demon costume rather than a dog-man costume?
June 28th, 2021 at 2:01 pm
Give the artist a break, folks. He drew feet.
June 28th, 2021 at 3:19 pm
@fred I think you may be right. Question is, would that even make a decent tattoo? Trying to visualize it on the thigh of an elf or other fae creature.
June 28th, 2021 at 5:37 pm
Thanks for giving us the gist of Dominic Cummings’s blog without us having to pay for the privilege.
June 28th, 2021 at 5:58 pm
Yet another avatar (or is that rip off?) of the recently deceased S. Clay Wilson’s famous Checkered Demon.
June 28th, 2021 at 6:04 pm
Any GSS Latin scholars out there? I’m not sure if the last word in the demon’s motto is “Fossam” or something else. I think it loosely translates as “You’re sliding steeply down to hell,” more or less. Maybe it’s what the editor said to the cover artist when offering this particular commission.
June 28th, 2021 at 6:13 pm
Is this even a book? It looks like some kid made a doodle while they were bored in class.
June 28th, 2021 at 7:09 pm
This cover is so bad it looks purposefully, professionally bad and could have come from some major publishing house for a novel about some angsty teen boy.
June 28th, 2021 at 7:29 pm
@BC I studied Latin for 3 years in high school. Let me meditate on it for a few moments………………..nope, I got nothing. Maybe “studied ” is a generous term.
June 28th, 2021 at 7:33 pm
The RAF motto ‘Per Ardua Ad Astra’ is usually translated as ‘The Way to the Stars’ but it’s closer to ‘during’ or ‘towards’. What ‘Fussam’ might mean is anyone’s guess. If that U is really an O then ‘fossam’ might be a garbled version of the root word ‘fodere’, to dig. Maybe it’s a lost archaeologist wanting directions to ‘the dig’. Or, more appropriately than the author/artist intended, it’s ‘the pits’.
June 29th, 2021 at 2:46 am
Book by James Havoc.
Cover by James’ younger brother, who was bored in math class and has just gotten into heavy metal. \m/
(There has literally just been an earthquake here as I type. Duuuude.)
@THX: maybe the crotch face pukes it out, like a fountain?
@fred: and your link leads to one on the publisher, who is a real piece of work:
http://www.creationbooksfraud.com/
And said publisher is also the author. And most likely the artist. Who is a fugitive from justice, but surprisingly not for this piece of absolute crap.
“Fossa” is a trench. “Fassa” is unkempt.
So “Through Difficulty To A Ditch” is about as close as it comes to making any sense.
Perhaps this is the demon of being forced to dig ditches and becoming unkempt.
June 29th, 2021 at 5:40 am
After looking at the links, I have to say we’re kinda scraping the bottom of the garbage barrel for definitions of “book” here.
June 29th, 2021 at 5:54 pm
“Per Ardua Ad Astra,” or “Per Aspera Ad Astra” (Kansas State motto) usually translates as “To the stars through adversity,” or through struggle. That’s what pricked my interest in this cover’s motto, which, following @Juan Paul’s lead, I have given up on. I’ll go with @GSSxn’s translation, and think nothing more of it.
June 29th, 2021 at 6:50 pm
My school had Per Ardua Ad Astra as its motto, and told us it meant “Through hard work to the stars”.
The Fossa is an animal native to Madagascar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_(animal)
So the translation is obviously “Through hard work to the largest mammalian carnivore on Madagascar”. I mean, it’s obvious when you realise the demon has the head of a fossa on his groin! And kneepads. And shoulder pads. That’s a lot of hard work, right there.
June 29th, 2021 at 7:04 pm
Nicely done, @Dr Bob!
June 29th, 2021 at 11:18 pm
@Dr Bob: GSS!
This book should have had the motto “Per Ardua Ad Excrementum”.
June 30th, 2021 at 1:26 am
All I know is that the fancy, proper name for the back of the human knee is “popliteal fossa”.
https://teachmeanatomy.info/lower-limb/areas/popliteal-fossa/#:~:text=The%20popliteal%20fossa%20is%20a,the%20thigh%20and%20the%20leg.
Make of that what you will.
June 30th, 2021 at 2:07 am
I have trouble believing any real “ardua” was put into the making of this book, and if it was, that’s just sad.
June 30th, 2021 at 2:22 pm
My motto is ” Per Ardua Ad Futon.”
July 1st, 2021 at 1:43 am
@Tor: I’m “Per Ardua Ad Sofa” myself.
January 17th, 2023 at 2:23 am
Have we considered the last word is maybe “Possa”, some declension of “Possum”, and thus meaning “through adversity towards an omnivorous marsupial”?
March 1st, 2023 at 6:36 pm
@GSS
is that what he has in his mouth?
It’s not his tongue blowing in the wind, that’s the tail of a disappearing green tailed possum…