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May 10

Not quite what he was praying forClick for larger image

Max Bathroom Comments: Even the killer bug thinks that’s a daft hairdo.

Published 1987

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.47 out of 10)
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22 Responses to “Mantis”

  1. THX 1139 Says:

    These novelty photo frames are getting ridiculous.

  2. fred Says:

    Who doesn’t love a good sexual cannibalism book.

  3. Max Bathroom Says:

    @fred
    We’ve all lost our head over a woman one time or another, haven’t we?

  4. JuanPaul Says:

    I guess the mantis’ left eye is the dominant one.

  5. Bibliomancer Says:

    Mantis: “I’m sensing some red flags about my new girlfriend.”

  6. drlemaster Says:

    Um, does that mantis have a pupil in its compound eye? I mean, he has a woman with a bad haircut in the other eye, so I guess that is a relatively minor issue, but still might want to get that looked at.

  7. Bruce A Munro Says:

    A tragic tale of an upstanding young giant insect gone wrong.

    (Presuming the author went the boring route and this is about a woman who seduces and decapitates men, wouldn’t it make more sense to have the bug showing up in her eye, rather than the other way around? But I suppose that sort of thinking is one of the things preventing me from making the big bucks as a genre fiction cover illustrator).

  8. Tor Mented Says:

    @drlemaster: That is a pseudopupil.
    I know because that was my nickname in many school courses.

  9. Tat Wood Says:

    Maybe women with 80s hair are the currency where they are and this mantis is their equivalent of Daffy Duck seeing a business opportunity.

  10. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Are we even 100% sure that’s a woman?

  11. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @Tor Mented: don’t be hard on yourself. After all, through hard work and dedication you eventually became a quasigraduate.

  12. Tor Mented Says:

    @Bruce: And still quasi after all these years.

  13. fred Says:

    Back cover. My money is on male.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mantis-by-K-W-Jeter-1987-Trade-Paperback-/265670663492?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c1#viTabs_0

  14. fred Says:

    Apparently Mr. Jeter coined term ‘Steampunk’, and he has more worthy covers.

    https://trashmenace.blogspot.com/2018/02/kw-jeter.html

  15. Emster Says:

    Cover was especially confusing, checked out a review… man preying on women (but perhaps only in his own mind a la Fight Club). Typically female mantis eats the male mantis after mating, so mantis as his “evil spirit animal” doesn’t quite fly. Ho hum.

    Regardless, @Max Bathroom, excellent find as far as horrid covers go.

  16. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @fred: oh, _that_ Jeter. I’m familiar with his steampunk and SF work, not his horror.

  17. Max Bathroom Says:

    @Bruce A Munro
    Many think that he’s a better horror writer than a steampunk or SF one. Regardless of the godawful cover, Mantis is a clever and slickly written thriller rather than an out and out horror story, though.

  18. Tracy Says:

    This cover bugs me for some reason.

  19. THX 1139 Says:

    Malcolm McLaren spots Annabella Lwin in that launderette.

  20. Max Bathroom Says:

    @THX 1139
    GSS!

  21. A. R. Yngve Says:

    David Attenborough’s least successful documentary: “Mantis Anarchy in the UK”.

    “And here, at the Roxy Club in Covent Garden, a colony of praying mantises seek out the new Punk scene, lured by the chords that to them are reminiscent of mating calls…”

  22. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Not to be confused with the Carl Lumbly TV series, which made more sense.

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