Happy Cthulumas!

My guaranteed-best-of-the-year seasonal greetings card arrived early this year, and it's another corker from Les Edwards (in his Edward Miller guise), which manages to skillfully combine his love of Lovecraftian horror with the seasonal tradition of pantomine...

All together now: "It's behiiiind yoooouuuu!"

Cthulu Christmas copyright Les Edwards, 2007

December 14, 2007 | Filed Under Art | 3 Comments

Cover Debate: Mike Carey's 'Dead Men's Boots'

On the off-chance you've been following the discussion that's sprung up in the comments section of the previous thread and have been getting annoyed flicking back and forth between here and Amazon to compare the two covers and see what all the fuss is about (I know I have), here they both are:

The version on the left is the one that was originally circulated by Orbit. The version on the right is the one that it was replaced with, and that will be on the cover of the book when it hits the shelves towards the end of the month.

Please feel free to add your own comments on the relative merits of the two on either this post or the previous one, should you feel the urge.

August 17, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books | 16 Comments

'Matter' by Iain M Banks - cover art revealed

My mate Ed Ashby seems to have managed a bit of a coup. Or at least, I'm assuming so as I haven't seen the cover art for the brand new Culture novel, Matter [Amazon] splashed across all the sf news blogs just yet.

In fact, I don't know if it's even official. It's on the Little, Brown website, sure, but there hasn't been a post to the Orbit Books blog... so either this is actually an early draft artwork that some LB website intern has managed to upload by mistake and the guys at Orbit are going to kill me, or it really is the finished product and very few others have seen it yet, in which case, full kudos to Ed!

Of course, the other possibility is that I've had my head under a rock, everyone has seen this already and the previous two paragraphs - plus the newsbite I just posted to UKSFBN - will come back to haunt me (cue a rash of comments with links to 'New Banks cover' posts written months ago...)

But just in case this is still news to a few folks, here's the artwork:

Update, 19:05 hrs: Yup, it's official!

August 9, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books | 2 Comments

Client website update: new-ish look for Brian Ruckley

Orbit Books have finalised the brand new jacket design for the UK and US paperback edition of Brian Ruckley's debut novel, Winterbirth, and they asked me to integrate some of the new artwork into Brian's site design:

I do like the new cover art: I think the imagery reflects the harsh, chilly landscape and bitter, confrontational atmosphere of Winterbirth quite nicely...

July 12, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Work | 1 Comment

Client website updates: Les Edwards & Edward Miller

Spent most of last week with my head down, working hard on the July update for the two sites I run on behalf of Les Edwards and his artistic alter-ego, Edward Miller.

Les is a truly terrific artist; I've been a fan of his work since I was a teenager and our house is decorated with prints of some of mine and Jo's favourite pieces: 'The Darkest Part of the Woods' and 'Atkinson Revenant' in the dining room, 'The Croglin Vampire' here in the office, 'Cities' and 'Blood Follows' in our living room (actually, 'Blood Follows' is the original artwork, but we don't like to show off...) and we've just acquired a print of 'This is Now' for the bedroom. We would have bought the original artwork of that one as well, but we were reliably informed that a certain author (whose mini story collection it graces) beat us to it...

Anyhow, there are about 50 new images across the various galleries on the two sites. Generally, the first few images in each gallery are the new ones (although I'm working on ideas for the best way to make that a bit more user-friendly and obvious). Here are some of my favourites from the new batch:

The afore-mentioned 'This is Now', which was used on a Subterranean Press chapbook of three Michael Marshall Smith short stories given to attendees of the 2007 World Horror Convention in Canada:

Edward Miller artwork for 'This is Now' by Michael Marshall Smith

The quite lovely artwork for the Subterranean Press edition of Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (note to Gollancz with regards to their original UK cover: this is how it should've been done, folks...)

Edward Miller artwork for 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' by Scott Lynch, Subterranean Press edition

And here's the artwork for the Gollancz UK (just to show they're back on the ball...) edition of Chris Wooding's forthcoming novel The Fade:

Edward Miller artwork for 'The Fade' by Chris Wooding

They're all 'Edward Miller' rather than 'Les Edwards' pieces, I know, but that's because there's just something in the use of colour, form and texture in the Miller work that really appeals to me.

I also sent Les a few questions for an interview piece, which I posted yesterday evening over on www.uksfbooknews.net. He has some interesting things to say about the use of fantasy art in book design, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

And I shouldn't leave without mentioning that Les is having a summer sale between now and the end of September. Buy any of the fine art prints available on either website (the vast majority of the images are available as prints, apart from the pencil sketch prelims and anything where the copyright of the work is no longer owned by Les) and you'll enjoy a 20% discount on the usual prices.

July 3, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Work | Leave a Comment

Genre Cover of the Month - Hmmm…

Sorry folks, but I haven't quite managed to get my act together and post the second GCOTM poll just yet. As a result, I think I might need to have a bit of a re-think about the general concept...

Trophy image by 'fishing' via sxc.hu The first poll went well, with 97 votes registered before I closed it (which, I believe, means it was actually statistically relevant) and I got some very good email feedback in terms of how useful this sort of thing could be for publishers and booksellers alike. The trouble is, it obviously requires a timely commitment from me, in terms of performing the necessary post-writing and image-manipulation admin, in order to get the new item out for the beginning of a given month. And I obviously missed the boat for March (apologies to everyone who sent in suggestions, but please see yesterday's post on work scheduling for possible reasons why...)

So, what do you folks think? I could make it a quarterly thing rather than monthly to begin with, and then if interest really does take off I could increase the frequency. Or I could just post individual examples of what I - or anyone else who cares to nominate a cover - thinks is a great bit of effective cover design, and we could then discuss individual cases on their relative merits. Or should I focus on comparing and contrasting - editions prepared for different markets, similarly themed / targeted titles, that sort of thing - instead? Or do a bit of all of the above?

Lots of possibilities, and it is a subject area I'm definitely interested in exploring further. I'm just wondering what the most effective way forward might be and what you folks might be interested in reading about. Answers on a comment-shaped postcard would be most welcome...

April 18, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | 5 Comments

Take a look: KrazyDad.com's Graphic Novel Explorer

Via When Gravity Fails, a link to a rather fun (but, by the sounds of things incredibly intricate and difficult to write) Flash application by Jim Bumgardner of KrazyDad.com, the graphic novel explorer.

Cover images are collated from Amazon.com, organized by price and dominant colour and then arranged on-screen in a random field of mini-images, each of which expands into a larger image when you mouse-over, and that you can then click on to get more info on at Amazon.com.

So far, Jim has also put together something similar for the covers of assorted science fiction magazines and the cover history of MAD Magazine.

I reckon it's a great way of making random discoveries and something that could have come in very handy back when I was a bookseller, given the number of "I can't remember the title, but the cover was green..." enquiries I used to get.

I also think it would make be great as the visual equivalent of a Tag Cloud if it was released as a blog widget, although judging by a quick read of Jim's methodology, that might not be do-able. But still, you could load up a database field with ISBNs and have the information pulled from your Amazon of choice into a personalised cover-cloud on your own site. It would be a great way of letting your readers know what sort of books you were most interested in.

April 16, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Comics & GNs | 2 Comments

Genre Cover of the Month for February '07

We have a winner! With a very respectable 42% of the 98 votes cast in last month's poll, the GCotM accolade for Feb '07 goes to éditions Bragelonne's cover for their French-language translation of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Les Mensonges de Locke Lamora.

Bragelonne cover for 'Les Mensonges de Locke Lamora'

I really liked this cover myself, for two reasons: firstly because I thought it might have been a Les Edwards / Edward Miller creation (although after a quick email to Les I discovered that this wasn't the case), and secondly because I'm a sucker for the architecture of imaginary places. I tend not to be all that good at visualising locations when I'm reading a book, so it's always fascinating to see how someone with some genuine artistic talent can interpret a scene or setting for a book I've enjoyed.

So yes, this cover would definitely have made me - personally - pick the book out from a table display. But then judging by the pattern of voting - an early lead for Ink, followed by a determined surge for both Les Menonges and Already Dead - perhaps the classic fantasy look doesn't have quite the same pull for everyone.

I'll see if I can get in touch with the editor, artist and author to get their individual take on the cover sometime this week. And I'll be posting the nominated covers for March later in the week as well; I want to look into a way of linking the poll to the original post with the cover images a bit better this month. I rather suspect that some folks might have been put off clicking on the poll because they didn't know what, exactly, they were voting for. And I likewise suspect that some folks ended up voting for the book, rather than what they considered, objectively and personally, to be the strongest cover.

Early days though, plenty of time to fine-tune as we go along, eh?

April 1, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | Leave a Comment

Quick reminder: March GCOTM noms still open

Nominations for the March '07 Genre Cover of the Month accolade are still open, folks.

It's the end of the month now, so we've probably seen most of this month's covers (and I'm gradually putting together the next Books Received post over on UKSFBN, so there might be a few there you haven't seen). But if you've seen anything new that you particularly like this month, then please do feel free to nominate it. Details of how to do so over on the main GCOTM page. If you could get your noms in by the weekend, that would be great.

And voting is still open for the February '07 inaugural GCOTM accolade, for the next couple of days at least. I'm actually going to close the poll on Friday 30th to allow me to prep a post declaring the winner over the weekend.

A quick glance at the current position suggests that Les Mensonges de Locke Lamora may well walk off with it, but that could still change...

March 27, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | Leave a Comment

Genre Cover of the Month - Vote Feb '07, Noms open Mar '07

Okay then, here we go with the first selection of nominated covers for the inaugural Genre Files Genre Cover of the Month accolade...

A quick note before we start: Nominations are now open for the March '07 Genre Cover of the Month, so please do head on over to the GCoTM page of the site for details of how to nominate your favourite covers during the coming month.

The Nominees

This month I've selected six book covers for the shortlist, based on the nominations sent in by various people (many thanks to everyone who participated) plus one that I've included myself.

[Clicking on a cover will take you to the relevant Amazon info page, where you'll be able to see a slightly larger cover image...]

The Voting

Please remember, I'm asking you to vote for the strongest book cover, not the best book itself.

It doesn't matter whether you've read the book or not, or whether you liked it or not if you have. What I'm interested in is, in your opinion, which of the six covers is the most effective. Not necessarily the most eye-catching or the most aesthetically pleasing, although both of these factors are important.

In essence though, I'd like to know which of the six covers above would be most likely to persuade you to pick up the book in a bookstore, or to click on a link online, and either buy the book there and then, or at least want to find out more.

In short: which book cover does the job of selling that book the best?

Please use the Feb '07 Poll to register your vote, or send me an email instead and I'll register the vote on your behalf.

If you'd like to discuss the covers, or add a comment as to why you registered your vote for a particular title, then please do feel free to use the comments for this post.

The Winner...

Will be announced when voting closes on March 31st. I'll email the author, publisher, artist / designer to let them know, and ask for any comment they might have on the design of the cover, then post whatever responses I'm able to elicit.

Unnecessary Footnote

Please, don't bother voting dozens of times for your favourite cover. Ballot-stuffing isn't big, or clever, and it's not like we're deciding the fate of the world here or anything, y'know..?

March 1, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | 12 Comments

Poll Results: Feb '07 Genre Cover of the Month

March 1, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | Leave a Comment

Quick reminder: Cover of the Month, Feb '07

Today's the last day for nominating the best book covers you've seen this month for the Genre Files Feb '07 Cover of the Month accolade. Full blurb, guidelines etc. here.

And many thanks to everyone who's sent in their suggestions already. I'll look those over and try to get the first voting form sorted out tomorrow, but it might have to happen after the weekend, schedule allowing etc.

February 28, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | Leave a Comment

Take a look: Jasper Morello

Charley Parker's Lines and Colors is one of my favourite blogs (one of only six in my 'read every day' list, as it happens). Recently it featured a rather stunning piece of animated film called The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.

Directed by Anthony Lucas and written by Mark Shirrefs, it's a series of rather superb silhouette animation pieces that tells the story of one Jasper Morello, an airship navigator from the city of Gothia.

Charley sums it up nicely in his blog post on the piece: "The films are set in a somewhat dystopian world with a decidedly steampunk look and feel. It's in the graphical representation of that world, full of arcane Victorian machinery, elaborate airships, cranes, gantries, gears and attendant intricate objects that the silhouette format becomes a brilliant choice."

The Gothia Gazette is the official website for the series, and has details of a DVD release, which unfortunately is only available in the Antipodes at the moment.

Here's the first trailer, and you can find other sections on Wired.com. Quite lovely stuff, do take a look.

February 12, 2007 | Filed Under Animation, Art | 2 Comments

Cover of the Month - Feb '07 open for nominations

Right then, I've posted a general page of rules & regs etc. over at the appropriately-named Genre Cover of the Month page.

Please feel free to nominate-away, as you see fit; the more participants the merrier, etc. Nominations will close at the end of the month and I'll set up a poll so you can vote for a winner.

February 7, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | Leave a Comment

'Genre Cover of the Month'… what do you think?

I'm thinking of experimenting with a 'Genre Cover of the Month' feature / accolade, to run alongside the series of pieces I'm going to be writing soon on the art, craft and science of genre book covers. It'll be for a number of reasons: to generate research material for the articles, out of interest to see what sort of response this sort of thing might be able to generate, and as a bit of fun as well.

Decisions - Yes, by 'Woodsy' via www.sxc.hu Here's the general idea:

1) Any reader of The Genre Files will be welcome to submit up to three covers for a given month's accolade. Ideally, they should be covers of new books first published in that particular month, but we'll see how that goes.

2) At the end of that month I'll select a shortlist (length dependent on number of entries) of either the most-nominated, or just the best-looking (in my humble opinion) of all the covers that have been submitted that month.

3) I'll set up a poll so folks can vote for the cover that they feel should win the accolade. Voting will stay open for the following month (or two) to allow as many TGF readers as possible to participate.

4) I'll then declare a winner (bearing in mind that February's winner might not be unveiled until April or May), and attempt to get in touch with the author, publisher, publicist and cover artist (if applicable) in question, for any comment they might like to make as to why they chose that particular cover design, what techniques they used to achieve the effect etc.

5) There might also be a 'wooden spoon' category, depending on how mean I'm feeling, to give folks a chance to name and shame the worst covers they see (although we might have to find a way of omitting self-published authors, it'd be like shooting fish in the proverbial hogshead).

6) I might (depending on how generous and/or flush I'm feeling) send some sort of Amazon voucher themed prize to the person who nominated the winning cover in the first place, as a thank you.

7) We'll see how it goes. Like I said, it's an experiment at this stage and if it doesn't take off, then no harm, no foul.

Do let me know what you think, folks. Would you be interested in joining in? Or is it a dumb waste of time? Or is it already being done on hundreds of other blogs, and I've just been too damn lazy to check? Comment away, and in the meantime, I'll get some rules & regs drawn up and posted to a permanent page.

February 2, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Books, Marketing, Publishing | 6 Comments

Art History: The Croglin Vampire

This is one of my all-time favourite fantasy art images:

The Croglin Vampire, copyright © Les Edwards

The title of the picture is 'The Croglin Vampire', the artist is Les Edwards (whose website I've become intimately re-acquainted with over the past few weeks), and I first saw this picture in a copy of White Dwarf magazine, years and years ago, when I was but a scrawny, spotty, wargaming teenage geek.

It was part of a double-page spread of assorted fantasy art, and it stood out from the rest of the artwork on display by a mile. Atmospherically I think it's a rather excellent piece; the vampire positively oozes menace, and the portrayal is a far cry from the traditional starched-collar and evening dress of the classic-but-tired Bela Lugosi look. Incidentally, on Les' website he explains that the image isn't meant as a tribute to Nosferatu, but is based on a 'true story'... chilling.

The first time I met Les in person was at one of the first Fantasycons I attended, I think it was in Birmingham about ten or twelve years ago. I think I recognised him from a panel he'd been on the day before, and determined to say hello, I screwed up my fan-boy courage, and crossed over to the table where he was sitting.

"Um, hi." I said. "I'm a big fan of your work."

"Oh. Thanks." said Les.

Okay... different tack, perhaps?

"I, er, I particularly like The Croglin Vampire. Saw it in White Dwarf years ago..." I stammered.

"Oh. Thanks." said Les.

And that was pretty much that.

Of course, that was just my first stab at conversation, and once I'd started running Les's website (and that of his artistic alter-ego, Edward Miller) I quickly discovered that both Les and his lovely wife Val are both incredibly warm and friendly people. That slightly subdued public exterior hides a sharp and biting wit - as you can probably tell from some of Les's images, particularly his Xmas cards - and sitting next to the two of them at the Fantasycon banquet is definitely to be recommended for entertainment value, if you can somehow wangle an invite to the appropriate PS Publishing table...

Did I mention that Les and Val are rather wonderfully generous as well? When Jo and I announced (prematurely, foolishly) that we'd almost finished the house extension (this was back in January; how we laughed at our naivité when we started in on the decorating in February...) Val and Les told us to pick out a set of art prints to brighten up our bare walls. Of course, one of the ones I insisted on picking was The Croglin Vampire. It's going to hang on the wall on my office / study, and will serve as a constant reminder of the wisdom of occasionally saying 'hello' to strangers at conventions. Even if it does make you sound like a fan-boy...

Anyway, that whole long-winded preamble is my way of announcing that I've finished the re-vamps of both www.lesedwards.com and www.edwardmiller.co.uk. Design-work by Les himself - so naturally it looks fantastic - programming and html by me. Well, except for some of the trickier bits of PHP, which I had to sub-contract to my mate Andy, who's been doing this sort of thing in his sleep for years. Unlike me. I started learning the lingo in November...

The official go-live date is tomorrow, but both sites are actually live now, so you can get yourself a sneaky preview if, like me, you're actually online at 9.30 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

(What? You are? Bugger off an have a beer, you fool!)

December 31, 2006 | Filed Under Art | 2 Comments

More season's greetings…

I also love being on PS Publishing's Xmas card list:

The artwork here is by Tomislav Tikulin, who also painted the striking cover of the recent PS title The Voyage of Night Shining White by Chris Roberson.

December 20, 2006 | Filed Under Art | Leave a Comment