_Peace_ cover art

Dan Rabin · 03 Mar 1999, 22:15 · from urth-v0024.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com>
Subject: (urth) _Peace_ cover art
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 22:15:16
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William Ansley asks,

>Who drew the cover art?
>
>The back of the Orb edition says: Cover art by Gahan Wilson
>But the copyright page says: Cover art by Tony Roberts

I don't know for sure, but when I first saw the cover, I said, "Aha, Gahan
Wilson!" and was surprised not to see it credited to him--his style is so
distinctive.

I speculate that there may have been some contractual reason why Gahan
Wilson's art could not appear under his own name at the time the artwork
was originally used, probably on the Berkley paperback edition dated 1982
(which edition bears no cover artwork credit that I can find).

The 1975 hardcover first US edition does not have the Wilsonic artwork.
The Orb edition seems to have been otherwise either photographically
reproduced from the first edition or else printed from the same plates, as
the typography and pagination are identical.

The Berkley edition contains an additional scrap of artwork on the spine, a
skeleton that is sitting on the "P" of "PEACE" with its back leaning
against the right edge of the spine.  This skeleton is reused on the title
page with its back leaning against the "G" of "Gene" (oooh, secret hidden
meanings!).  The occurrence on the title page has an additional component
that looks like a mandible placed below the pelvis of the skeleton.

The Berkley cover also has one bone and five other little marks outside the
hatched area that is reproduced on the Orb cover.  These marks are directly
beneath the "P" of "PEACE".  The paperback also gives the letters of the
title raised outlines.

It is possible that the Wilsonic artwork was introduced for some edition
between 1975 and 1982, but the book doesn't seem to have been that popular.

Or maybe the discrepancy is a subtle clue that Tom Doherty Associates is an
unreliable narrator, and that "Gene Wolfe" is almost certainly a persona
forged to avoid paying royalties to a real author (note that "Peace by Gene
Wolfe" is an anagram of "Enfeeble copy wage").

  -- Dan Rabin

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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