Cover Art to Avoid

I had that Andre Norton "Breed to Come." I never thought anything was wrong with it.

Funny and painful. (The Rifleman cover. Oh, dear.)

This post is great, and this

Alessandra Kelley said:

http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/

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is an indisputable gem.

I want to read all of these books.

Drachen Jager said:

The world's worst cover art. I excluded the actual worst one because I don't want to post such offensive material on my website, if you're curious it's called Satan Burger.

http://brassbolts.blogspot.com/2011/10/fashion-friday-book-cover-art.html

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Oh boy, I am still laughing over some of these.

Thanks for the share!

And WTF on Satan burger?!?!

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This is excellent!

Yes, I have never seen that Agnes and the Hitman cover, either. What edition is that? The original US cover (same for hardback and paperback) is quite attractive.

The Rifleman tie-in novel cover is pretty standard design for a late 50s/early 60s TV tie-in paperback. I've seen many worse examples of the genre!

On edit: I was disappointed by the Satan Burger cover. Presuming we're talking about the same edition, let me summarize for those who don't want to look at it: it's a fairly well-composed, slightly grainy black-and-white photo of a naked person crouching on a restaurant table above a plate, presenting their rear end to the camera. The font is a bit tacky, but it really isn't a design disaster in my opinion. It's Mellick's most tasteful cover by a mile, too--artsy nude photographs are so much more appealing to me than the gory pinup caricatures I've seen on his other books.

I think perhaps you are a little to harsh with covers from another era...

The Andre Norton one is from the late sixties or early seventies . SF&F back then was just taking off and while some books had Frank Frazetta covers, most did not. There is also the fact that in the fifties and sixties, space was still pretty unknown, thus you got a lot of green men and flying saucers on covers. The readers from back then would not have been turned off as it was pretty common.

You might try reading some of Ms Norton's work. It was very early SF and she was later named as the first Grand Dame of SF&F. If my memory serves. A honor I think she well deserved...

As to the Rifleman cover, it was a studio shot and look at the price of the book from Dell. That had to be late fifties or early sixties...

Would these covers past muster today. Not really, but then again, I wouldn't say they are all the worse covers ever.

Of course, opinions vary...

I didn't see anything wrong with the Rifleman cover initially. And then I looked at the position of that log and went, "Ooooooh."

Still don't see anything wrong with the Norton though. It's pulpy and weird, sure, but it has its own charm.

In my misspent youth, I had to do a thesis paper on book covers in the SF&F field, from 1965 to 1987 (the year I did the paper).

Without droning on, marketing was still finding its way. In the pre-Star Wars era, SF was still mostly identified by pulp images (bug monsters and scantily-clad babes) or pompous abstract paintings meant to evoke a futuristic vibe. Fantasy got a huge boost with the Tolkien revival of the early-seventies (when Frazetta duked it out with the Brothers Hildebrandt for cover styles.)

It's not so different today. We have some stunning artwork, but there are still tropes that help identify genres and writers. Sometimes, with very little representation of the actual characters, setting, or plot.

ROFL - its great looking through old covers sometimes, but I agree with the "other times" assessment - a lot of them would have been considered brilliant designs in their day. THey still are a bit tragic. Some of their ilk hold up though and that makes it all the more sad!

I'm just glad none of my covers have made such a list! At least if they did I could only blame myself - I figure why pay somebody else for their artistic talent when I can take the blame myself? lol.

omg... the Amazon page for Satan Burger!! Oh gawd! That stuff is gonna show up on my stream next time I go there....

Jesus' butt plug? For real?? oh... brain bleach, immediately!

Oh, my eyes! I think every author's worst fear is that someday they'll get published only to be stuck with a cover art just as bad as these.

I hope that Blazing Embers cover was a joke...

What in the name of arse is going on with the old guy, the bath and what looks disturbingly like a child?

That's erotica for the seniors among us, apparently.

But nonetheless disturbing.

Rofl

D.M.Drake said:

Rofl

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If that squid is actually using all those swords in the book? I'd TOTALLY buy it.

The best bit has to be that the octopus is holding swords in its tentacles.

I like the two women just standing there watching in a terribly disinterested fashion. Like any minute now they're going to decide that watching a nearly naked man sword fighting a squid is boring and go get a latte. And the fighting doesn't exactly look like a desperate battle to the death either. More like street theatre. They'll split the take at the end of the day and go for a couple of beers together.

Why is the ginge fighting the squid wearing his underwear? Did he forget his kecks?

Dunno. He's got a nice backside, Becky.

I liked the abstract covers, too, Alessandra. They were a little more thought-provoking than the bug monsters and the bored babes. (I haven't the faintest idea where that paper went. It got a good reception, but this was in the days before thesis work went online. And I've moved three times since then.)