Nov 10
Click for full imageTam W’s Art Direction: This is a great work of fantasy, so naturally we want it to look as retro, cliched and formulaic as possible. I’m talking men in tights! If you do decide to depict a wizard turning into a bird, don’t forget to catch him in the act. And make it man-sized, never mind what the novel says!
Published 1975
(Average: 7.92 out of 10)
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November 10th, 2011 at 10:25 am
Changing him into a bird doesn’t sound so bad (ask the previous recipient of the spell who, now a crow, walks away from the scene, but HALF a bird is a bit of a problem. He’ll never get of the ground with those legs.
November 10th, 2011 at 10:35 am
I’m imagining him taking off and yelling “BIIIIRD-MAAN!” as he flies towards the sun’s energy-giving rays.
November 10th, 2011 at 11:42 am
The problem the city gents had with marketing the book was distinguishing it from all the other “Wizard” and “Earthsea” related titles. The glut of them, if you will. They wanted to show this was a “Wizard of Earthsea”. Not the “Wizard of Earthsea”. Not any happenstance “Wizard of Earthsea”.
Their solution was to make the “a” bigger than anything on the front–the author’s name, the Penguin logo–and also obscure it behind ornamental vinework.
DUMB.
November 10th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Best episode of medieval blind date ever!
November 10th, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Note how big the Penguin Books penguin’s head is getting….
Oh my God, it’s going to explode!
November 10th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
As keeps happening with the Earthsea book covers (and indeed the anime and TV versions), the characters have been whitewashed: the character with the curtain is Vetch, and the one looking surprised is Jasper (Ged is the one changing into the hawk). Now here is the description of Vetch and Jasper in the book: “…a heavyset fellow called Vetch … He had the accent of the East Reach, and was very dark of skin, not red-brown like Ged and Jasper and most folk of the Archipelago, but black-brown.”
November 10th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
This cover is the reason I didn’t discover Earthsea until I was 21. One day someone will answer for this.
November 10th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
A penguin with a large head is called a puffin.
A children’s book from Penguin is called a Puffin.
A rip-off Penguin biscuit from Asda is called a Puffin.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/penguin-wins-its-suit-as-puffin-gets-the-crumbs-in-battle-of-the-biscuits-1273690.html)
November 10th, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Yes, I have this one! It was my sister’s first encounter with Le Guin…strangely, she didn’t seem put off by the cover, despite her artistic training.
November 10th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I am confused. No one is carrying or holding a sword, dagger, mace, quarterstaff, jousting lance, spear, morningstar, quarterstaff, sling, bow, crossbow, catapult, battering ram, or glowy wizardy hand thingy in what I assume is a cover for a fantasy novel.
November 10th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
PUFFINS AIN’T PENGUINS!!!
November 10th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Judging by the curtain, the artist also seems to be confused about the difference between ‘wizard’ and ‘conjurer’. (Also, sparrowhawks aren’t that size, so either a lot of shrinking is about to happen or Ged’s changing into a roc.)
November 11th, 2011 at 1:23 am
I sense I have offended the ornithological community.
I’m sorry.
I was distracted by the a.
November 11th, 2011 at 5:47 am
While considerably goofier-looking than his previous attempts at creating perfect beings, Doctor Frankenstein’s newest failure was, nonetheless, every bit as belligerent.
November 11th, 2011 at 5:48 am
Also I think the string lights are an excellently hokey touch.
November 11th, 2011 at 8:06 am
“Behold! The unfortunate soul who hung up his Christmas string lights too late… and was cursed by Father Christmas to become — THIS!!”
November 11th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
He’s half man and 90% bird, kinda like a centaur is half man and 80% horse.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Oi! Are you looking at my bird?!?
November 12th, 2011 at 12:03 pm
We have sparrowhawks regularly nesting in my back yard. The smallest raptor, they’re cute little blue-gray things. THAT looks more like a golden eagle!
This looks like we’ve interrupted an Edwardian boys’ school performance of “Jupiter and Ganymede.”
November 13th, 2011 at 4:21 am
That isn’t a string of Christmas lights–it’s a string of tings.
November 13th, 2011 at 4:31 am
Anybody a fan of the DQ commercials in the States? This is a rock and roll falcon. “It’s great to be back in Boston, yeah!”
September 3rd, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Actually, now that I look at it again, maybe a hawk is emerging from a rift in space in front of Ged. That could be what’s going on there.
June 17th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
Didja see the legs on that bird??
June 18th, 2015 at 10:16 am
Which is a worse way to be a half-bird, this or the other way round?
June 18th, 2015 at 11:52 am
I’ll leave that question to the philosophers.
😉
June 18th, 2015 at 12:12 pm
@anon: how about left vs. right?
June 20th, 2015 at 9:33 am
@DSWBT: Ouch!
November 24th, 2019 at 5:11 pm
I checked this exact printing of the book out of the school library based on the cover, and I was VERY CONFUSED when I figured out from the text, about seven-tenths of the way in, that the main characters were black. Very. Confused. Literally had to go back, start over, and re-do all the mental pictures in my head.
This was perhaps the first time I realized that cover illustrations might not dutifully and faithfully represent the contents of the pages. Upon further consideration, I then went back and checked out a lot of other science fiction works with terrible, dreary 1960s/1970s covers and found the stories to be very good, unlike the covers.
So when 1980s Baen came along, at least their cheerful Renaissance Fair covers made me want to read the books instead of repelling me.