Feb 21
Click for full imageTom Noir Comments: Honestly, I’m rooting for the rat.
Published 1979
(Average: 8.24 out of 10)
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Tom Noir Comments: Honestly, I’m rooting for the rat.
Published 1979
(Average: 8.24 out of 10)Loading...
(9.25 out of 10) (9.18 out of 10) (9.01 out of 10) (8.97 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.93 out of 10) (8.92 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10) (8.88 out of 10)
Lastest Tweet
February 21st, 2012 at 9:03 am
What an awful title! What is that, a cross between “boring” and “horrible”?
February 21st, 2012 at 9:28 am
That rat means business! He’s rolled up his sleeves!
February 21st, 2012 at 9:51 am
Watch out – a rat can break your arm with one beat of its wing! What?
February 21st, 2012 at 10:50 am
In eager anticipation of seeing The Secret of Arrietty, I presume this is a version of ‘The Borrowers’…for horrible people.
February 21st, 2012 at 10:53 am
I’ll assume that the man-child is supposed to look swollen-headed and bubble-eyed. It’s the background that irks me. If that rat is anything less than cat-sized, the window is less than knee-height off the ground. The ceiling wouldn’t reach to a man’s waist. The whole thing is truly…borrible.
February 21st, 2012 at 11:50 am
I had this book. I read this book. I don’t have it any more.
If I recall aright, the Borribles were sort of like evil hobbits, Peter-Pan runaway kids turned into vicious elfin thugs. The rats spoke in a stupid lisp (I can still remember “those howwible Bowwibles” — actual quote). They’re all unpleasant and they fight. The end.
Yeah. A classic kids’ fairy-tale.
The cover is pretty unpleasant. I really don’t want to contemplate that rat’s bottom.
February 21st, 2012 at 12:16 pm
A classic of socialist children’s fiction, which has seen much better covers. China Miéville cites it as an influence.
February 21st, 2012 at 12:51 pm
@Jaouad. But is “socialist children’s fiction” actually a genre?
February 21st, 2012 at 3:03 pm
@Rachel J: Ooh, genre discussion! 😉 Maybe it’s a genre which comprises only this book?
February 21st, 2012 at 3:59 pm
The book also became the musical BORRIBLE SIDE STORY, which bombed.
When you’re a Rat, you’re a Rat all the way
To your first piece of cheese to your last mousetrap slay…
February 21st, 2012 at 5:26 pm
I seem to remember when the Borribles trilogy was out of print in the early 2000s, old copies like this were changing hands for idiot money on ebay. If that thing on the cover is what I think it is, it’s actually an evil Womble!
February 21st, 2012 at 6:31 pm
A fantasy cellar without cobwebs? Unthinkable.
February 21st, 2012 at 7:03 pm
This is the violent scene they cut from Ratatouille.
February 21st, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Art Direction: “I want a biggish rat fighting a smallish, vaguely-elfin boy, on a pile of books, in a basement. Think Nutcracker meets West Side Story. Just make sure the perspective is clear, we don’t want one of those covers where you can’t tell what size anything is supposed to be.”
February 21st, 2012 at 11:19 pm
It’s nice to see someone give a rat’s ass about this book cover…
February 22nd, 2012 at 2:46 am
I think the rat has a nasty weapon. He is going to nail that kid.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:39 am
Unbeknownst to all, Master Splinter led a bouble life as an avid sewer-and-cellar fight club participant, and refused to fight in anything but the absolute nude.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:40 am
Also he had a really big ass for a rat.
February 22nd, 2012 at 11:43 am
@Graff: Given that the rats were called “Rumbles,” and with their speech impediment it came out “Wumbles,” I would say you must be right …
What is a “Womble”?
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:47 am
@Alessandra: These are the Wombles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeBuGrCCqX0
A British pop culture behemoth in the 1970s which spanned music, TV shows, books, toys, a film and lots of picking up litter. They keep cropping up here and there, so they’ve never really gone away. Their theme tune, once heard, is never forgotten.
February 23rd, 2012 at 1:18 pm
This was one of my favourite books when i was a kid. The bad guys (the rat thing in the picture) are called the Wendles and are a dark take on the Wombles. A great book for 10-14 year olds i’d say.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
I’m the Daddy now, said the elfin faced nutcase.
February 29th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
@Alessandra @THX: I suddenly feel really, really old!
February 29th, 2012 at 5:37 pm
@Graff: Oh, don’t! It’s not age, it’s culture. I’m perfectly old enough for the Wombles. It’s just that I’m a Yank, and I had never, ever heard of them before.
It was much easier to get British books than British TV back in the ’70s. Heck, if my English gran hadn’t given me a kid’s book of monsters-you-can-make, I wouldn’t have known about Daleks until high school.
March 12th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
That’s a rat? So, that’s a tail? I thought he has some major issues with parasites!
October 1st, 2012 at 5:20 am
Yet another book recommended to me by others, but I could never get past the cover art to read. I want to read a book about giant rats beating up on evil elves? Called something that looks like “Horribles” misspelled? Uh…no.
Judging from the comments here, I made a good choice.
November 3rd, 2012 at 12:52 am
Actually it’s a bit like an L. Ron Hibbard novel…the so-called heroes are so obnoxiously unlikeable that you end up REALLY wanting those rats to win. Sorta like Gollum attacking Mrs. Frisby
November 3rd, 2012 at 12:58 am
Actually it’s a bit like an L. Ron Hibbard novel…the so-called heroes are so obnoxiously unlikeable that you end up REALLY wanting those rats to win. Sorta like Gollum attacking Mrs. Frisby. Course, as awful as this cover was a sudden ceiling collapse seems the best possible end to the encounter.
September 17th, 2013 at 1:27 am
It’s actually a good series. The Borribles are pretty rotten in the first book, but things change over the course of the series. And there is some decent cover art: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/–MneOABQNk4/UK_FhVILiTI/AAAAAAAABN4/ef6JcwF-30U/s400/4285980955_b3a0de70cd_z.jpg
September 17th, 2013 at 2:48 am
@dpn: While I grant you that there is much less bottom, I’m afraid that the cover you’ve posted is…er…in my uncanny valley. So to speak. X(
Different strokes for different folks, and all that.
September 17th, 2013 at 4:14 am
@DSWBT—maybe because it’s a modern epic we’re supposed to apply different standards, or none.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:12 pm
@Dead Stuff: This is obviously some new definition of ‘decent’ that we were previously unaware of.
Then again, art is in the eye of the beholder…
September 22nd, 2013 at 4:08 am
“Decent” meaning it would score about a 5 on this site. If I could find my copies of the books, I would post them to find out. GSS ratings don’t lie.
September 23rd, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Maybe publishers should push for ratings on their front covers as a marketing tool! I know I would pick up a book with a red star and the following info:
9.34/10 Good Show Sir Rating!
“Font Problems tag!!!!!” – Bibliomancer
I’d be all like, woooaaa that cover must be amazing and fork over my money for an instant classic!
September 23rd, 2013 at 3:18 pm
@SI — Great idea! I could use a new revenue stream. My Chinese Good Show Sir site is attracting a lot of eyeballs but few click-throughs. My advertisers are now paying me in dick pilz instead of Bitcoins.
September 23rd, 2013 at 4:10 pm
Everytime I see that sight I have but one thought…. Star Wars mixed with Predator… genius…. GENIUS!
September 23rd, 2013 at 4:52 pm
First, to keep Admin. happy, I’ll say something about this cover: Amazingly clean and even pointing job on those bricks.
Now, Bibliomancer, I must compliment you on your outstanding website. “Find your old classmates before they find you!†is a classic! I looked but I didn’t click. My momma didn’t birth no foolish children—She found me abandoned in her shopping cart at the local Pigglee-Wigglee.
By the way, Bibliomancer, haven’t we meet before? Aren’t you also His Serene Excellency Vice Count Abidemi Ekwueme Olamilekan Smith CEO, COO, CFO, and First Janitor of the Twenty-Seventh Royal Bank of Nigeria?
You owe me $367, 851. 92 (Three hundred sixty seven thousand eight hundred fifty-one dollars and ninety-two cents), Dude!
September 23rd, 2013 at 6:31 pm
@Kripslod — Yes, how thoughtless of me. Your money is waiting for you. Just click on the “Punch the Grizzly Bear in the Ass and Win an Ipad” banner ad and it will take you to a page where you can enter your Social Security Number, Bank Account number, user name and password and Credit Card info. I can then wire your money to you in a jiffy!
September 23rd, 2013 at 7:02 pm
@Bibliomancer—posters come, posters go, GSS is large and contains multitudes, but somehow you still manage more frequently than any other to make me fall off my chair.
😉
September 23rd, 2013 at 7:10 pm
@Bibliomancer
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. I did just as you instructed and now I eagerly await what’s coming to me.
P. S. Does anyone know what it means when your anti-virus software starts singing, “Daisy, Daisy! Give me your answer, do. I’m half crazy …â€
September 24th, 2013 at 10:07 am
The cover that inspired Lemon Demon’s song “Knife Fight”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZjhHwndOE
September 24th, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Seldom get the chance to say this: Worst Rat’s Ass EVER!
September 24th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
This was a cover artist who, literally, didn’t give a Rat’s Ass!
March 24th, 2014 at 8:34 pm
The London Times Educational Supplement has edgier tastes than one would expect.
September 15th, 2015 at 8:59 pm
Regarding tagging the cover with “blunt weapons”, it may look that way but looks are deceiving – according to the book, the Rumble is actually wielding a stick with a nail embedded in the end, i.e. basically a spear. Of course, according to the book, the Borrible would also be wielding a similar weapon rather than a knife so the artist gets docked some accuracy points no matter what.
Contra dpn, I think the series is good but only the first book is great. And Borribles, leaving aside the miltaristic, authoritarian tribe of Wendles, are for the most part pretty nice to each other throughout. Not so nice, obviously, to Rumbles, though that’s absolutely a mutual hatred.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:02 pm
@ Jon T. – Tag Wizard is never wrong.
September 16th, 2015 at 12:55 am
One might even say, the Tag Wizard is it.
September 16th, 2015 at 2:58 pm
I just wanna say that if the quote you’re using as advertising copy contains the line “warts and all” in reference to the book in question, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe find a different quote?