Good Show Sir

“You have to have a sense of humor, darling, to be alive. Even a bit mad. It helps to be mad.”
Peter Cushing

Welcome readers to a world of fear, pain, man-tigers, wizards, mind bending horror and damsels in distress. Here we have a collection of the scariest covers sent in by our followers, or should I call them… minions! mu HA HA HA HAAAAA!

Anyway, I hope people have a good Halloween weekend and if you are dressing up or at least watching the fabulous 1958 Hammer Horror version of Dracula, I hope you all have a great time.

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Libraryman’s Art Direction: Ok, now this is a scary book right? Well, what’s better than skulls? Am I right? I want a big one though, yeah I don’t care that real skulls don’t look that big, what am I an anatomist?? Oh and a crab claw. Gotta have a crab claw.
Published 1987

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Neil’s Art Direction: A flooded city burns in the background, they’ll be a rotting head in the water. Nah, thats not enough, lets add something else. A toad maybe.
Published 1993

Graham’s Art Direction: This is a collection of horror stories by a world-famous author, so I really want you to go to town on the cover art. Try and capture the gothic-horror aspect: make the reader feel that these stories could be taking place right now in his own neighborhood. [looks at this quarter’s finances] Ah, never mind, we’ll just send them something from one of those sci-fi books that got canceled.
Published 1976

(Average: 7.80 out of 10)

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Don Comments: “Helmets with bunny ears will overpower helmets with horns every time. So sayeth Ason the Incredibly Bored!”
Published 1973

Many thanks to Don!

(Average: 6.78 out of 10)

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Danielle Comments: The title phrase says – One man against a wonder planet. Yeah. I wonder why these guys are dressed like some weird bird-fetish group. I wonder why one is holding a ray gun, while the rest have swords. I wonder why they have to have a bird emblazoned on their chest. I guess it’s in case someone misses the fact that they’re full grown men dressed as giant birds
Published 1963

Many thanks to Danielle!

(Average: 8.50 out of 10)

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Radiano Comments: The Lathe of Heaven – the touching story of a man in toga cranially wired with King Kong.
Published 1983

Many thanks to Radiano!

(Average: 8.46 out of 10)

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Corwin Comments: In the future, designer space suits are in style, asynchronous space ballet is an Olympic sport, and we’ve all lost our pinkies.
Published 2008

(Average: 8.12 out of 10)

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Art Direction: The London underground, Pink Floyd concerts and the queue for Return of the Jedi. Do you know what they all have in common? They’re all… busy!! We don’t just need a strange bird attacking a unicorn, we need a full on boarder! With as much busyness as possible. I’m sure that’s sound logic… well pretty sure.
Published 1983

(Average: 5.71 out of 10)

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Kristen Comments: Sorry about the poor quality of the shot…in any case, it looks like the designer decided to throw something from EVERY short story in this collection onto the cover. At least I hope so, because if there were also armed dinosaurs, fighter jets, and authors working on home computers on board the Titanic, history books have been holding out on us.
Published 1988

Wow!
Many thanks to Kristen!

(Average: 8.37 out of 10)

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GK’s Art Direction: What do you mean you quit! You’re fired! I’ll have someone else finish the picture!
Published 1975

Many thanks to GK!

(Average: 4.89 out of 10)

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Elijah Comments: What’s amazing isn’t just how ugly it is (and it is very ugly), or even the fact that it’s a book by a great author (because this happens to great authors, and Bradley definitely did go downhill eventually). No, what makes this ridiculous is that it’s by a great author AND it’s a Tor book. I mean, Tor has ugly covers sometimes, but this looks self-published…
Published 1997

Many thanks to Elijah!

(Average: 4.86 out of 10)

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Terry’s Art Direction: You see, nothing says ‘saving the universe from a 30,000 year descent into barbarism’ like a floating dead brain and two eyeballs. Oh, and be sure to lace it with lightning, and oh yeah it is a space story so put stars and stuff behind it.
Published 1983 (maybe)

Still not exactly sure who the publisher is.
Many thanks To Terry!

(Average: 8.20 out of 10)

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