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Apr 01

Times are tough in the publishing industry for the German megacorporation Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA which owns Penguin Random House. Even publishing the Morrissey Autobiography as a ridiculous “Penguin Classic” couldn’t reverse their financial woes. You might have read that as part of a major restructuring they recently sold off the venerable Penguin Classics line to, of all publishers, Baen Books.

Baen, being Baen, was quick to reissue many of the Penguin Classic titles with more alluring covers to attract the less discriminating literati. Unbeknownst to Baen though, they recently hired our sometime social media guru Tweet Jane as a copy editor and she was able to forward us the galley proofs prior to their publication. What a sad day for the publishing industry but a major scoop for Good Show Sir!
 

He's dead JimMoby Dick

 

He's dead JimLady Chatterley’s Lover

 

He's dead JimLittle Women

 

He's dead JimLord Jim

 
To confuse the readers even more, Baen is re-issuing some of their own catalog titles and pairing them with traditional Penguin Classics art masterpieces on the cover. Case in point:

He's dead JimThe Moon is a Harsh Mistress

 
Tag Wizard Comments: I’m sure our talented team of GSSers can do Baen one better. Try your hand repurposing your own favourites and send them along with our lovely submit button. I’ll check in during the day update this post with your submissions.

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.64 out of 10)
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Apr 01

My Little PornyClick for larger image

Good Show Sir Comments: Sturgeon’s Law: Ninety percent of sci-fi book covers are … Good Show Sir!

To encourage social distancing we recommend that our GSS friends read a copy of this one on the Tube. Guaranteed no one will come within 2 metres.

Researchers have discovered the first malware which can be transmitted from computers to humans. Symptoms include hallucinations and a complete loss of artistic taste. Scientists are calling this the “cornavirus”.

You might remember this from here.

Published 1970

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.20 out of 10)
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Aug 29

From the GSS Slack Channel:

Tweet Jane: Where did you guys disappear to? I had to get the cleaning lady to let me in the locked offices.

GSS Admin: Sorry, I’ve been on August holiday. I’ve always promised myself a month in Bangkok.

Tweet Jane: August holiday? You haven’t returned from last August’s holiday. Your voice mail and mailbox are full.

GSS Admin: Gotta run. The cabana boy is bringing over the cocktails.

Tag Wizard: Sorry, but I’ve, uh, been detained. It’s all a misunderstanding. My solicitor will have it all straightened out in no time at all!

Tweet Jane: Well what about the 2000th Post? We were planning to a have a contest, and prizes, and a big month-long rollout.

Tag Wizard: Oh yeah. Slipped my mind. Go into the submission form and see what’s laying around. Something with nice pair of jubblies is always a hit. The password is on a post-it note somewhere on my desk.

Tweet Jane: And I’m taking all the petty cash. You haven’t paid me in two months.

Univers 06

Samurai Ob/GynClick for larger image

Good Show Sir Comments: “What to Expect When You’re Expecting: Rosemary’s Baby Edition”

Thanks again to Alain for the J’ai Lu’s!

Published 1976

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.75 out of 10)
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Aug 28

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.40 out of 10)
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Jul 30

I got you covered! Don't worry!Click for larger image

Good Show Sir Comments: Since it will be at least another 8-month wait until April for the next Good Show Sir podcast, you might want to check this out. Hosts “Khaki & K” will fill that gaping podcast hole in your life with some pretty damn funny commentary on their COVER MY ASS pod. As they describe it:

“A weekly podcast where we freestyle ‘reviews’ of books we haven’t read, with tenacity, ingenuity and palpable desperation. We only judge a book by its cover!”

Guaranteed you will find some very familiar book covers here. Now if we can only get them to do a Dick Blade episode!

And be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Good Show Sir! Good show, indeed.

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.67 out of 10)
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Apr 09

Juiced and joining the Olympics weight-lifting teamClick to juice up front covers

As featured on yourrussianbride.netClick for back cover augmentation

It’s a Two-fer Tuesday: Russian Dick Blade … and friends!

Good Show Sir Comments: My Google Russian translator tells me the top line says “J. Lord” and РИЧАРД БЛЕЙД is “Richard Blade” and the last line on each is “Hero” and “Winner”. I am assuming they are some sort of omnibus volumes. Feel free to translate.

Thanks to Alex for sending this in.

Published 1994

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 6.47 out of 10)
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Apr 01

Always in search of new revenue streams we introduce:

Good Show Sir: The Podcast!

(Face it folks, your declining GSS After Dark membership fees aren’t keeping the shareholders happy.)

Good Show Sir was a pioneer in the blogging revolution. And now we are at the forefront of the exciting next chapter of the Internet: The Podcast.

So load up your iPods and try to find us on iTunes or Slacker or wherever you go to make the hours pass at your soul-killing day jobs. And enjoy:

Good Show Sir: The Podcast!

Join the Pod People

GSSTP, Part 1:

Welcome to our new format

GSSTP, Part 2:

Let’s hear from you, the listeners

GSSTP, Part 3:

More voices from the peanut gallery
Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.25 out of 10)
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Mar 11

Look at the calendar. It seems we have a very important day circled there. No, it’s not a Monday Bank Holiday. It’s the Good Show Sir 10th Birthday Gala! I guess we need to post OUR GREATEST COVER EVER! Which, unfortunately, Tag Wizard forgot to organize. So we will just have to fish something out of the slush pile. At least the title is somewhat relevant.

Your 15 minutes of fame is up ... 9 years ago!Click for larger image

Good Show Comments: The whole Good Show Sir experience was eerily foretold in B. Flackes’ classic science fiction novel “Ten Years to Oblivion”!

Thanks to all of our GSS After Dark club members for making it to the JuJu Chelsea for a wild evening of wining and dining. And what a surprise! Thanks to our good friends at Baen for picking up the tab. Didn’t you know? They bought us out last month in an unfriendly takeover. Well it’s been a good run.

We even ordered a very appropriate birthday cake:

Who ordered the beefcake?Click for larger image

Good Show Comments: Yeah, it’s photoshopped. We bought one of those edible photo cakes and even sent over a picture of our favourite book cover on a thumb drive for the baker to put on the icing. Unfortunately this is what was delivered to the party:

Right-click to removeClick for larger image

Good Show Comments: But thanks anyway to all the loyal kooks who have been showing up these many years and somehow keeping this shitshow going. And for all the commenters who have fallen by the wayside. And for the one-off drive-by’s who remind us that it was really a great book and the cover is very professionally done and shows something that was really in the story. Remember, the real Good Show Sir were the friends we made along the way. Or some such bollocks.

Oh no! Not another Harry Turtledove mashup!Click for larger image

Good Show Comments: … Let’s end the next decade with a bang!

Published 1951, 1964

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.56 out of 10)
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Jul 30

'Not embarrassing enough. She'll never get a job at Baen.Click for larger image

Tag Wizard Comments: Nicola Alter writes the Thoughts on Fantasy blog and last year she set out to create an over-the-top fantasy book cover including all the standard fantasy clichés. As she wrote:

“I’ve encountered a few covers that take it a bit far, but I thought it’d be amusing to go even further, and have a bit of fun with the tropes of my favourite genre… so here is my recipe for a no-holds-barred, all-boxes-ticked, epic high fantasy book cover (accompanied by examples from the most clichéd design I can muster).”

Well, we here at Good Show Sir! consider ourselves the experts on bad covers. So we’ll be the judge of that!

So check out her post where she walks you through the steps:

How to Make a Clichéd High Fantasy Cover

And be sure to visit the rest of her site and welcome her to join us here at Good Show Sir: the home of ethnic and erudite book cover curation.

Published 2017

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.33 out of 10)
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Dec 21

Lee Moyer, artist, designer and illustrator, has created a gallery of sci-fi cover recreations on his website.

We first heard about this pastime from our lovely and talented GSS ex-noob in a comment back on “The Light of Lilith”:

My people of GSS:

At a convention this past weekend, I went to a slideshow of bad SF/F covers. Most of them have been seen here. Then we re-enacted a few.

I am pleased to report that upon being shown our old pal ISTBE fractal centaur, the Artist Guest of Honor literally shrieked and recoiled, taking a step away from the picture. Quite literally taken aback and repelled.

In the reenactment, I played one of the bored background lizard women in
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=12947 (with my regular clothes on!) whilst the octopus was two people covered in jackets and hoodies.

http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=12956 could not be re-enacted as the hero could not actually support the damsel in that position with one arm, being a mere mortal.

————————————————————————

Since this teaser we have been able to access these lovely/terrible cover recreations as well as many others over on Lee Moyer’s site. I’ll let GSS ex-noob tell the tale:

1. We started off small — here’s me as the dead body (I’m not actually bald…)

GSS ex-noob gets a tag!Click to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

2. Then myself and my athletic pal posed for the bored background women, while rather a lot of people were the octopus.

No cephalopods were harmed during this recreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Filling out the gallery are a number of well-done recreations of many of our favourite covers. Maybe if we all ask really nice Mr. Moyer can reenact I Sing the Body Electric someday!

The Discovery RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

A Dream of Kinship RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

The Last Incantation RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

The Little People RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Beyond Apollo RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Sanctuary in the Sky RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Click to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Crabs RecreationClick to visit Lee Moyer’s Gallery

Enjoy! And thanks again to Lee Moyer and Ex-Noobie!

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.46 out of 10)
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