cover art

Dan Parmenter · 16 Jan 2001, 12:40 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: Dan Parmenter <dan at lec.com>
Subject: (urth) cover art
Date: 16 Jan 2001 12:40:19
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0248 at digest.urth.net>
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From: =3D?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=3D20Gevers?=3D <vermoulian at yahoo.com>

> Millennium UK has now released its edition of SWORD
> AND CITADEL, the second half of THE BOOK OF THE NEW
> SUN. The cover is again by Jim Burns, in my opinion
> quite an acceptable treatment. What do others think?
> (It should be up on amazon.co.uk.)

Hurm, I still like the Pennington (original UK) covers best.  But why
is it so hard for artists to draw a fuligin cloak?  You'd think it
would be easy, but these artists always insist on making it look like
it's made of something shiny and reflective.  And they can't seem to
resist putting a shirt on him.  I'm not looking for a Frazetta Conan
here, but the first impression should be of the "classic torturer",
usually depicted topless (see "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins" by
Dr. Seuss for a good example of the type, and come to think of it, an
early example of the "compassionate torturer" (urgh, that sounds a bit
like GWB, sorry)).

I have yet to see any artist really do Wolfe's vision justice.  The US
covers for the Long Sun books are probably the most accurate,
especially since Wolfe claims no knowledge of how big the Whorl is
supposed to actually be, so no one can really complain if the skylands
seem too close or too far.

Lex

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