Good Show Sir

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Noel Comments: In an ideal world, these would be the UK’s next Eurovision entrants.
Published 1978

(Average: 7.68 out of 10)

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Billy Awesome’s Art Direction: This cover needs a reptilian lady of the night and her pimp, and a pixie-hatted space businessman.  Oh, and something something time travel, so put a couple of proper Victorians and one of those tricorn hat guys in there somewhere.  Tie it all together with an orange Creamsicle theme.
Published 1977

(Average: 8.33 out of 10)

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Scott B. Comments: Who’s the cutest little invader? You are, Wandl! Yes you are!
Published 1961

(Average: 6.68 out of 10)

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Good Show Sir Comments: Look out Jeff, we’ve got a T-Rex… and he doesn’t look impressed with my one-piece body suit.
Published 1975

Many thanks to Erin for sending this in!

(Average: 6.73 out of 10)

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MisterBOB Comments: Boobs and some teddy bear creature ready to defend her honour, but keep it real – furry rodents need sunglasses.
Published 1981

(Average: 7.09 out of 10)

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Have you ever picked up a book and thought, “WOW… who gave that cover the green light?” or “I would LOVE to be seen reading this on a bus!” That’s what lay behind the formation of this site. 1,000 posts later and here we are with three of your top covers, and one that we’ve never published before…

Yes, it’s finally here – and I know at least seven of you have been eagerly awaiting it! Thanks for all your input on The Pre-1000 post. Perhaps, together, we can create something truly beautiful (or at least slightly less shambolic) for Good Show Sir’s 5 year anniversary in March.

The Best of Jim Baen’s Universe I
Eric Flint, David Mattingly
Many of this site’s covers have an amazing quality – one that’ll make you burst out laughing in both admiration and confusion. This example can make grown adults stagger around respectable bookshop interiors, giddy with laughter and half blind with tears. The art is spectacular, the font is special, and there is so, so much happening it could make your mind explode. Would you catch me reading it in public? Well, maybe… but I might have to pretend it belongs to my flatmate.

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Hunters of the Red Moon
Marion Zimmer Bradley, unknown artist
There are so many books that could be mentioned here, so many loved for what’s on the front and contained within. But staying away from the more obvious top rated covers, this one is a particular favourite of a good few (including myself). Having taken the photo and purchased the book immediately, I discovered this: to my joy, it did indeed include a naked man wrestling a lion-man within the very first chapter. No snake or mountain of fire though, but still, a perfect symbiosis of cover and content. Genius.. simply genius!

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Time Spike
Eric Flint, Marilyn Kosmatka, David Mattingly
The following cover, another Baen/Flint/Mattingly classic (GSS editorial impartiality hooo!), has been sent in multiple times as well, even though it was one of the first to be featured. I wonder why? Let me settle into this comfortable armchair I like to call “psychology”. *Ahem* Well, sometimes a significant book cover experience just has to be shared. Through sharing we can gain understanding. Acceptance. An appreciation of an event’s true personal impact. And the knowledge that you can’t really surprise attack a T-Rex by time-travelling into its open jaw.

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Attack of the Rockoids
Steinberg & Steinberg, Michael Cox
<cue epic baritone voiceover> But there has been one special cover, one sent in more than any other! One… that I have yet to post. Mainly because no one has ever sent me a genuine photograph of the book itself, but the same scanned image every time. It’s also self-published, which we tend to avoid — given how hard it’s been to find a publisher for Dr J. R. Asimov’s Good Show Sir quadrilogy, I know the pain.

Please enjoy Terrible Book Cover Number 1,000, Attack of the Rockoids.

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Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: You do what I ask, boy? You make that CGI busty women with plenty of sparkles with yer Windows Millenium Edtion?!? Yep… that’ll sell… that’ll sell a lot… now bring me more of that whiskey!
Published 2002

Thanks again for your comments, suggestions, corrections, company and banter. Long may the irritable server ferret Sauron gaze kindly upon us.

And to our top commenter, favourite self-published Swedish indie author, and generally jovial site veteran A.R.Yngve, sitting on 1,469 comments: Well done, Sir… well done!

(Average: 8.63 out of 10)

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Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: Jumpsuits… my friend… they are the future. Running, walking, swimming, investigating giant alien blob space ships with your laser ray gun… what can’t you do in one? Practical, unless you need the toilet…
Published 1979

Many thanks to Sarah B!!

(Average: 5.39 out of 10)

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Dead Stuff With Big Teeth comments: Theodore Sturgeon’s plan was to explain everything about the novel, except the cover. And no, that is not a huge obnoxious lens flare or an errant price tag.
Published 1983

(Average: 6.35 out of 10)

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Dead Stuff with Big Teeth’s Art Direction: Gentlemen…perhaps what this cover needs is both a man, and a horse! Yes! And another man with a mullet, showing he doesn’t know how to ride a horse. And… a girl wearing nothing but body paint, standing at the top of a staircase! Because, gentlemen: nobody would otherwise pay money for something a woman has written!
(the senior partners, followed by everyone else in the room, erupt in a perfect storm of applause. The junior copyrighter wipes a tear from his eye)
Published 2003

(Average: 7.37 out of 10)

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Good Show Sir’s Art Direction: Ting! It’s genius, you see. As many tings as you can get on there – I want the cover covered in ting! Oh and maybe a women in a cat suit… but don’t you dare leave her un-tinged!
Published 1987

Thanks to Ethan for sending this in!

(Average: 7.93 out of 10)

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