The real problem is, the illustrators esp. pro ones aren’t really paid enough to read the book and do a “Tribute” to it, they are lucky to get a synopsis or plot outline. I’m going by traditional “Big Publisher” stuff.

The coolest (and true!!!) story on that issue was how popular Frazetta got/is… He was cranking out pictures fast, but it was out of the question to make him read every “Modern Penny Dreadful” and many were quite awful. So, some publishers said “Just send us your pictures! We prefer the sci-fi/fantasy stuff of course. Just send us the pictures, Fraz! We’ll have one of our hacks hammer out a story based on it!”

My favorite from that era is the very “Gay Looking” cover for one of Lin Carter’s works, “The black Star” I think… I love Lin Carter. He’s a hack, but without his enthusiasm a lot of authors I love would have faded to obscurity and I like his stories, “hackworthy and very tribute like” aside:-)

What also freaks me is the multiple use of the same artwork on different stories, though I’ve seen it a-plenty and at the same time stuff published on different shores (USA versus UK) having different covers. Notably the “Fighting Fantasy” game books, to name one example out of many.

And heavens, what a wonderful bunch of folks at that site responded when I sent in some comments. I wound up exchanging long emails with them about kooky art direction, vague guidelines, horrific deadlines, mid-painting changeups, bizarre typography/logo choices and “Wait, they embossed WHAT?”

The GSS crew truly do love our weird, wild genres, and the jabs come from warm hearts.

It is terrific to see BB cover Good Show Sir. Cheers!

I personally don’t care what is in the cover, but I read this shit in public. I don’t want someone thinking that I am reading I, Robot because I saw it in the theater and wanted to relive the experience in written form. Nor do I want to perpetuate the stereotype that sci-fi is for unwashed nerds who can’t get laid by having a half-naked woman (or topless burly man for that matter) on the cover.

Hrm, maybe I need a paper back book cover for books with stupid covers…

The same publishers who changed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to Sorcerer’s Stone or Ascent of Everest to Conquest of Everest? How else could they communicate with the filmmakers who changed The Madness of George III to The Madness of King George so that US viewers wouldn’t think that it was the third in a series?

I grew up staring at those Remington covers…. weird centipede dragons, multicolored sky, stylized mountains and the pumpkin-fruit-trees. They were so fascinating, well before I read the books.

So, yeah, the covers failed to be a spot-on, literal representation of the contents.

But they were spot-on representations of the contents nevertheless.

So weird that I would end up meeting Barbara years later, in Northeastern PA. I knew her for a bout 10 years before I ever found out about the Hobbit and LOTR covers…. was shocked walking into an exhibition at the local gallery and seeing the Wilderness print on the wall. Even weirder, I had known her mother’s house, which was two houses down from my college-girlfriend in St. Paul, MN.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Remington

(NB: I started the article above; thankfully, others have made it into a real, if sketchy, page)

I agree that many of the comments seem to be more directed at the book’s content than the actual artistic interpretation thereof. I think it’s interesting that a little “caveat” appears in the “About” section stating that the stories themselves are probably great, but then the covers are bashed for representing silly things that appear IN those stories – verbatim, in many cases.

In addition, there appears to be a tendency on the site to hold artists responsible for cover designs – so that when an excellent painting is ruined by poor color reproduction, cropping, and typography, it’s the artist’s fault.

What’s really bad is that the covers that truly just have “bad art” – and there are plenty of those – give the entire field of fantastic illustration a black eye. The best work in the field is as good as anything being painted anywhere. If anyone is interested in really seeing the very best the field has to offer – in person – check out the IlluXCon fantastic art symposium, where dozens of the best artists in the field and hundreds of original paintings are on display every year – http://www.illuxcon.com.

(Honesty alert – I run the IlluXCon symposium – but it really IS a valuable counterpoint to Mr. Barol’s “showcase.”)

I DO judge books by their covers, and I say with all seriousness that I somehow end up *loving* books with appallingly eye-searing covers like these.

You have done me a solid, Mr. Barol. I am in your debt!

The really sad thing is that some of these “eye-searing, over-the-top” covers are remarkably faithful to scenes in the book (Apprentice Adept, hardcover Nine Princes in Amber), while some deviate from the book to actually make them tamer!

Perhaps this explains my continuing desire to risk being escorted from the premises by large, uniformed persons because I chose to wear orange socks with a conservative charcoal suit to certain business meetings.

Er … not really. UK publishers can produce some stunning covers. Try this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qjiBGR4JL.jpg

Bad cover art does not recognize borders.

dont forget
A world Called Camalot

who could refuse a fur covered princess and her pet talking koala astride a 6 legged horse (dottle). flinging firebolts everywhere…

the books are a campy as the covers, its true breain bubblegum

hooray for The Collin!!!

However, looking at this web site – at all of the covers of books I hadn’t read (and a distressingly large number that I had – but with different covers), I think I understand now what someone suddenly faced with a collection of covers like this might think.

I fear I could populate 25% of this website with pictures of book covers I still have – and that’s after donating at least half of my collection to the local public library for their book sales.

And – to be fair – she didn’t divorce me for my taste in books. Or at least, that wasn’t what she said.