Jun 14
Click for full (newly unchewed) image
E Comments: According to my husband, his dog chewed up the cover of this book. I think the dog was making a statement. Like why the hell are those people sitting in a hollowed-out asteroid?
Published 1984
(Average: 6.92 out of 10)
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June 14th, 2011 at 9:18 am
Hollowed-out asteroid… or is it a giant ball in the 1984 intergalactic baseball championships for dead souls, angels versus demons? Here we see massive catchers mitts made out of meteors and moon bases after all…
June 14th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Famed graffiti artist Rowena managed to “tag” the asteroid on the left.
June 14th, 2011 at 11:21 am
There’s a delicate balance a fantasy cover artist has to uphold, teetering between the sublime and the ridiculous…
…or you can just leap into the abyss of the ridiculous straight away.
June 14th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
In the sport of flaming daemon bowling it’s widely know the best balls have a human centre.
June 14th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
I’ve got this in a much less bogus cover and it is actually a good read! This cover screams – actually, it just screams.
June 14th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Subtlety is to fantasy book covers what subtlety is to Jim Carrey.
June 14th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Evidence of trying FAR too hard to learn why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
June 14th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
That flaming yellow winged red-eyed pointy eared fanged beclawed unicorn horned demon with hairy cloven feet just isn’t menacing looking. Maybe give it an earring?
June 14th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
The poor dog probably took one bite and spat this one right out.
@Fred, you are so right about the earring. The fear factor is increased exponentially. But am I the only person who thinks that the demon is wearing a Jawa on his left arm?
June 14th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
If the flying saucer in Asteroids wins you 500 points, imagine how much the nudist demon will get you.
June 14th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
I can’t sleep until I know the complete blurb that the dog ate… what was it?? Could it be:
– “Beyond mastery of the five magical farts lay…”
– “Beyond mastery of the five magical facts of life…”
– “Beyond mastery of the five magical copy editors…”
June 14th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
@Jane, if it had a flaming sword I’d say it was a Headless Monk. But it’s probably just a generic Popeil(TM) Pocket Wizard. The never ending series – Beyond mastery of the six magics lay the SECRET OF THE SEVENTH MAGIC.
June 15th, 2011 at 4:42 am
That’s a Jawa handpuppet that the demon with the physics-defying flames uses in his ventriloquist act.
What I’m really puzzled about is the fishbowl? bubble? magic sphere of magicking? that the two humans and freaky naked dwarf are crammed into. How many minutes of air do you think, they have left?
June 20th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
WOMAN- Honey, there’s a large monster outside our hollowed out ball!
MAN- Dang it, woman! There’s a smaller thing trapped in our hollowed out ball with us! Be more concerned with that!
June 21st, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I think the large yellow chap is the maitre d’, bringing the couple the bat souffle. Unaware that his nephew is capering around their table, ruining the evening.
June 30th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
I think the little demon inside told the man inside that the big demon outside was saying stuff about his mother, so the man made some terrible remarks to the demon outside about his own mother. Then, enraged, the demon was going to walk over and give the man a thorough throttling. But his friend (the little floating Death-wanna-be) is trying to hold him back, saying “forget it man, he’s not worth it…”
October 11th, 2019 at 10:07 am
Demon envy began to set in.
October 11th, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Nothing makes sense here including the fact that Large Demon has a tattoo of ET on his chest.
October 11th, 2019 at 2:37 pm
Yet another totally rational explanation for the intergalactic space object Oumuamua.
October 11th, 2019 at 4:47 pm
Another album cover illustration rejected by Iron Maiden.
October 11th, 2019 at 5:42 pm
The big demon looks like he is visiting from a Micheal Moorcock cover.
October 12th, 2019 at 3:50 am
@JuanPaul: All the parts visiting from other covers is the only thing that explains this. Maybe they were all background bit players on half a dozen other covers and Rowena just put ’em all on this one.
October 12th, 2019 at 8:27 pm
Somehow Morrill’s work projects a sense of “I am not afraid to tackle feet” derring-do, but if you note—there’s not a real, clearly delineated, foot in sight. I skimmed through her file and it’s pretty much the same for all her covers, they evoke the promise of a well-rendered foot, yet invariably resort to cheap tricks like random fog or exaggerated perspective lines and other low tactics to avoid the awful moment of truth—good feet are really hard to draw.
October 13th, 2019 at 5:47 am
Someone really ought to lance that and drain the humans.
October 13th, 2019 at 6:28 am
“Don’t bring an imp to a demon-fight.”
(Although it’s Headless Monk rather than the demon who’s doing the damage: did he bring the demon along just to carry him around? Evil mage conspicuous consumption?)
October 13th, 2019 at 7:56 pm
@BC: you’re right. There’s either booties, pointless fog, or random rocks. All those detailed arms, legs, and butts, and nary a foot to be found. This one features booties and cloven hooves.
Feet really ARE hard to draw; you can be nominated for a jillion awards, be a Worldcon guest of honor, and have your work loved by Middle Eastern dictators, all without drawing feet. Take heart, UAI grads!
Although one of the paintings Saddam had does feature feet on both damsel and dude. They are… meh. One of his lower legs is downright ecch.
@Bruce: Headless Monk is remarkably lacking in detail compared to the rest of the cover (and her oeuvre). Looks like a splotch of something from the previous owner’s lunch in this photo.
October 13th, 2019 at 10:43 pm
@Bruce: Did the Demons run?