Comments on: Cover Matters: On Clichéd Covers in Fantasy

By: An Aside | Cover Art Cliches for 2009 | A Dribble of Ink

An Aside | Cover Art Cliches for 2009 | A Dribble of Ink — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:44:42 +0000

[...] an interesting, humourous look at the trends in the industry. It certainly shows that cliches are alive and well in the hearts of readers and the minds of graphic designers and marketers everywhere. Also of note [...]

By: Random Scoop: Raging Against the Tattooed Cover Machine | Lurv a la Mode

Random Scoop: Raging Against the Tattooed Cover Machine | Lurv a la Mode — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:02:08 +0000

[...] by the way, I was intensely reminded of a post by The Book Smugglers when I was writing this rant, whereby they observed and commented on some cover cliches in more [...]

By: Moorehawke covers | Art Journal

Moorehawke covers | Art Journal — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:16:27 +0000

[...] then there’s this one which is a great article about fantasy cover art – the good the bad and the ugly! I love the [...]

By: illukar

illukar — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:00:49 +0000

Great article and I agree that there’s a certain sameness in fantasy covers (and has been for a long time).

However, most of the covers you point out as original appear to be sub-genres (eg. urban fantasy, steampunk) which have their own set of cliches. Boneshaker, for instance – goggles and dirigibles are iconic to the steampunk genre. Beautifully executed though.

By: Jim Stewart

Jim Stewart — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 07:10:39 +0000

When I’m looking through a huge collection of unfamiliar fantasy/scifi novels, often the first thing thatdraws my attention is a cover that doesn’t contain cliches. I’m sure I’ve missed out on some good fantasy authors because the cover has a hooded hero with a lightning-sparking sword fighting a dragon over a chainmail-bikini clad elf girl under storm-tossed skies. And a fresh cover sure doesn’t guarantee good writing. But I’ve found at least a correlation. So count me as a data point against Newton’s case (though I love MCN’s work).

By: ThisViewOfMine

ThisViewOfMine — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:35:34 +0000

I love the US hardback cover of ‘Best Served Cold’(and of course the book is great too). Srsly, the cover plus the title is what got my attention.

Im hurt that you say it ‘fails’ as art. Art is truely in the eye of the beholder and to say ‘any art’ fails seems wrong to me.

What may looked slapped together to you might not be to someone else.

By: kay

kay — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:38:01 +0000

I consider myself a casual fantasy reader : it’s one of my favorite genres, but after reading (too) much of high fantasy in my teen years, I don’t read as much of it now. So when I pass in front of the “fantasy” table at my favorite bookstore, a lot of my attention will be taken by the covers. Of course, eye-catching cover doesn’t equal great writing and story ; but eye-catching cover does a lot to decide whether I’ll pick a book or not to read the summary, and if I do, than there’s a higher chance I’ll buy it than the book I left on the table. Clearly I’m not the only one here!

So I guess my point is : “boring” covers doesn’t mean they’re not beautiful. “The name of the Wind” and “The drowning city” are beautiful in my eye. But if all the hooded-figures books were put side by side on a table, these two are probably the ones I would look at first – and if I thought they were interesting, I’d buy them without looking at the other covers. My mind is guilty of two bad associations : great cover = great story, and similar covers = similar stories. Which of course I know isn’t true, but that’s still the impression it leaves on me! I’m working on changing that, but I can’t always help it!

Also, there is another association that can be made between similar covers, especially for a reader who doesn’t specialize his/her reading in fantasy, and it’s to think that two similar covers, seen in two different places, are from a same author. Looking at this post I just realized that Brent Weeks and Peter V. Brett are two different authors. Oops. I couldn’t have done that between “Boneshaker” and “The hundred thousand kingdoms” though!

Sorry I was long

By: samosa

samosa — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:13:16 +0000

@Maili

I see ^^

By: David Ellis

David Ellis — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 22:22:38 +0000

I agree the cover art departments are leaning more towards cliches but haven’t they always sorta done that? How many Frazetta paintings made it onto Heroic fantasy covers in the 70s and 80s….

Not enough of them. The man created some of the most amazing fantasy illustrations ever to grace a book cover.

By: Maili

Maili — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:55:54 +0000

@samosa
Nah, I just have an interest in cover design.