Bad Book Cover Art

**Steph Laberis** · December 7th, 2006, 12:38 AM

Ok kids, here's what not to do when you're painting a book cover!

Click here for the horror!

I swear some of these can't be real... at least, I wish they weren't.

**DavePalumbo** · December 7th, 2006, 02:14 AM

The God Emperor cover has its faults, but I personally wouldn't put it in the "worst book covers" file. Though it does fall short of the amazing art some Dune books have had.

edit: Some of these aren't even that bad. I know I'm partial to the old school look, but I've got bones to pick with several of these. I think this one is pretty damn sweet:

Whatever with the Freudian nonsense, it's a damn sandworm!

**Andy P** · December 7th, 2006, 03:45 AM

Yeah, I wouldn't call all of these terrible.
Though I think we have a winner here,

**Simon.Rain** · December 7th, 2006, 04:40 AM

Some of them are actually really nice because they look old and crappy

But this is in fact a pretty nice list of pretty ugly covers... and that pet cemetary is recent which makes it even worst

but it doesnt beat the books I had to read in my french class. They are french Quebecer novels with really bad paintings that are in no way related with the subject of the book. I sometimes wonder how they got to sell them to publishers in the first place

**Mitchell** · December 7th, 2006, 04:48 AM

the commentary on this one is great haha.
http://punkrockpenguin.net/waste/amu...s/goodold.html

I like the dune covers...

**Arne S.** · December 7th, 2006, 05:49 AM

uhhmmmm... -this is probably the best bookcover i´ve seen:
http://punkrockpenguin.net/waste/amu...atanburger.jpg
hehehe

no, i thought it would be worse. these are just normal bookcovers you find in every bookstore (except the satanburger...)!

**llothcat** · December 7th, 2006, 08:09 AM

I've seen worse.

Seriously.

I had to do the year end inventory in the bargin bin in a local bookstore.

**Bowlin** · December 7th, 2006, 08:33 AM

I mean, c'mon... Michael Whelan, Clyde Caldwell, Rowena... etc. The site is simply someone that apparently doesn't know a lot about book covers and the history of illustrated book covers and simply trying to find books to crack a joke at. If the book cover was so bad, I don't think people would still be buying the original covers for thousands of dollars. "Some" really do suck, but definitely not all.

I think the site was simply trying to aim at some silly humor. This can't be someone that strives for good illustration themselves.

**Staz Johnson** · December 7th, 2006, 08:35 AM

This is seriously embarrasing...I own a good bunch of these books, I collect old paperbacks specifically because I like the cover art.

Man, I have such bad taste. I'm tempted to start a thread of my collection.

**CCThrom** · December 7th, 2006, 08:55 AM

Meh, I was expecting some really bad art... ok some of it is really bad but certainly not all. A lot of these have perfectly good art wrecked by bad cover design, or a terrible overall concept for a book. Frankly, a lot of them seem fine to me... more like an excuse for cutesy comments by whoever put the site together.

Overall I give it a 5.5 - some catchy tunes but I just can't dance to it.

**JAG.** · December 7th, 2006, 09:53 AM

indeed some of these are just silly.. but theres much much worse - JAG

**Irene Gallo** · December 7th, 2006, 10:45 AM

I'm proud to see some Tor covers there! (Although, I was only involved with one of them.)

I have to say, I'd be more impressed with a list that did not include the 80s. The 80s are just too easy - the hair the clothes, the neon...

There was a site a long time ago that took actual covers and changed the titles to comment on the art. _That_ was funny. I'll hope I can find that.

**chaosrocks** · December 7th, 2006, 10:49 AM

Trixie Belden...like Nancy drew..is just classic. and there a lot of Romance covers that are waaaayyyworse. I too collect SF and old Fantasy... it is tempting to post the Good covers.

chaos

**Irene Gallo** · December 7th, 2006, 11:04 AM

Here it is. Check this site out, it's hilarious!...And, once again, Tor is not overlooked. Yes!

http://worldoflongmire.com/features/...vels/index.htm

(BTW, this isn't the Tor book, "Birds Like Crazy People" is. You have to scroll down a bit.)

**Zaknafain** · December 7th, 2006, 11:53 AM

ive seen worse...
but I really like this one:

**Tetsuo** · December 7th, 2006, 11:58 AM

Didn't anyone notice the VERY OVERT sexual themes on all the covers steph posted?

Esp the guy humping the alien...comon people, i expected more from you :o

**Steph Laberis** · December 7th, 2006, 01:41 PM

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Didn't anyone notice the VERY OVERT sexual themes on all the covers steph posted?

Esp the guy humping the alien...comon people, i expected more from you :o

If you haven't figured out yet that my mind is cozily nestled in the gutter, then clearly we don't talk enough.

**armando** · December 7th, 2006, 02:14 PM

I don't see what's so bad with most of these. I haven't looked through them all yet, but the only one's I would call crap so far are Pet Semetary and Seven Deadly Sins.

**nicolas** · December 7th, 2006, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by Staz Johnson

I collect old paperbacks specifically because I like the cover art.

heh, I used to do that with the old Frazettas (the rice bourroughs, etc)...

theyre good reads too, I love the John Carter of mars series.... so outrageously wrong!!

**Noë** · December 7th, 2006, 03:21 PM

Irene! Those are awesome!
I love the "I think I have to let one" and "This book costs more in Canada"

just great.

love
Marleen

**Staz Johnson** · December 7th, 2006, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by nicolas

heh, I used to do that with the old Frazettas (the rice bourroughs, etc)...

theyre good reads too, I love the John Carter of mars series.... so outrageously wrong!!

Don't get me started on the John Carter stuff...I'm an absolute freak for those. Although I did stop reading them after about the first four (chronologically) but I just love them for their imagery, more specifically, what they have inspired some artists to come up with.

I had around 150 different versions of various Burroughs books last time I looked. Christ, I'm sad.

**Craig D** · December 7th, 2006, 04:20 PM

Here's my mini collection of those.
Wish books still cost 50 cents

edit: Did not mean to fit these covers into the bad category though. just the opposite
Books two and three (and 1 I think) were from the 60's and done by Bob Abbett.
Book 4 is from 1979, cover by M Whelan

**DavePalumbo** · December 7th, 2006, 04:33 PM

oh man, the pen and inks in the John Carter books are a-fuckin-mazing, I must say.

Irene, those are great! They're kind of hard to see, but the "from the author of..."s are some of the best parts.

**Staz Johnson** · December 7th, 2006, 06:05 PM

Here's a few from my collection. All these are NEL (New English Library) editions (I figured you guys have all seen the Whelan & Frazetta covers, but you may not have seen these since I don't think they ever got distributed far from these shores), the ones with a dominant main figure all date from the 70's, & the ones with the Four Square logo (my personal favorites)are from the 60's.

**Mike Dutton** · December 7th, 2006, 07:00 PM

That was a half hour of my life very well spent.

Thanks Steph and Irene!

**Steph Laberis** · December 7th, 2006, 07:19 PM

Haha, I love how the content of this thread has done a 180 :]

Great find btw, Irene! The re-titling of those books just made the glistening pectoral muscles even more fun to laugh at

Edit: Here's one more to throw in the mix! Looks innocent enough, until you realize the woman has three arms.

**DavePalumbo** · December 7th, 2006, 07:32 PM

the woman has three arms

whoa, what the crap?

**Craig D** · December 7th, 2006, 11:31 PM

[QUOTE=Steph Laberis]

Edit: Here's one more to throw in the mix! Looks innocent enough, until you realize the woman has three arms.

That is just too classic,
I can just see the artist getting told to change arm position, just adding a new arm and no one notices or else dousn't care

**Arne S.** · December 8th, 2006, 06:57 AM

you can find those things in many pics. look at the hands in this bouguereau-painting:

**Molly** · December 8th, 2006, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Staz Johnson

This is seriously embarrasing...I own a good bunch of these books, I collect old paperbacks specifically because I like the cover art.

Man, I have such bad taste. I'm tempted to start a thread of my collection.

hehe - if you do, call it 'Guilty Pleasures'....

Mx

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