Came across the Good Show Sir website via a Westeros thread on the worst SFF book covers out there. This website is amazing!
Their mission:
There are many pieces of cover art that are beautiful to behold. Yet, there are others which exhibit a rarer, odd form of beauty. We think that such conflicts of focal points, lettering choices, false perspectives, anatomical befuddlement, ridiculous transport vehicles, oversized and frankly unusable monster-hunting weaponry, clothing choices that would get you killed walking down the street let alone hiking a through a frozen wasteland, clichéd cat-people, and downright bad art deserve their own special form of tribute.
Some of the things to look for in a cover, at least according to the folks at Good Show Sir:
1. So much going on it burns your eyes. We want covers with elves, dragons, space ships and large busty women, all on the same glorious cover!
2. Terrible art. Awful… just awful. Crazed monsters that are congenital disorders with no skeletal support, brush strokes that display a hilariously misinformed understanding of anatomical proportions, unreadable and/or multiple horrible fonts, magical light orbs that lack even the most basic digital imaging techniques. That sort of thing.
3. Epic things happening. Look for people doing crazy things, such as holding a staff to a dragons eye, firing a laser pistol with one hand whilst doing stunts on a a hover bike with the other, or summoning interdimensional beasts whilst surrounded by improbably-clad warrior priestesses who are fighting off invisible fairies on top of a mountain made of crystal and sand.
So what are you waiting for!?! Head on out to Good Show Sir and have fun! You know you want to!
The caption underneath the cover art I posted above read: Baen Books – Putting all other cover choices to shame since 1983.
It doesn't speak well of me, I know, but I almost pissed myself when I saw that! :P
Their mission:
There are many pieces of cover art that are beautiful to behold. Yet, there are others which exhibit a rarer, odd form of beauty. We think that such conflicts of focal points, lettering choices, false perspectives, anatomical befuddlement, ridiculous transport vehicles, oversized and frankly unusable monster-hunting weaponry, clothing choices that would get you killed walking down the street let alone hiking a through a frozen wasteland, clichéd cat-people, and downright bad art deserve their own special form of tribute.
Some of the things to look for in a cover, at least according to the folks at Good Show Sir:
1. So much going on it burns your eyes. We want covers with elves, dragons, space ships and large busty women, all on the same glorious cover!
2. Terrible art. Awful… just awful. Crazed monsters that are congenital disorders with no skeletal support, brush strokes that display a hilariously misinformed understanding of anatomical proportions, unreadable and/or multiple horrible fonts, magical light orbs that lack even the most basic digital imaging techniques. That sort of thing.
3. Epic things happening. Look for people doing crazy things, such as holding a staff to a dragons eye, firing a laser pistol with one hand whilst doing stunts on a a hover bike with the other, or summoning interdimensional beasts whilst surrounded by improbably-clad warrior priestesses who are fighting off invisible fairies on top of a mountain made of crystal and sand.
So what are you waiting for!?! Head on out to Good Show Sir and have fun! You know you want to!
The caption underneath the cover art I posted above read: Baen Books – Putting all other cover choices to shame since 1983.
It doesn't speak well of me, I know, but I almost pissed myself when I saw that! :P
4 commentaires:
What an amazing website! Love it!
amature website.
you should see the covers that go with books in israel.
it's like a collage of images and colors that make no sense.
there is a publishing house that printed lots of sci-fi books in the 70's and 80's.
if you had seen the covers you would think .... well, i don't know what you would think, but you would have no idea what the book is about.
The Charles Stross Saturn's Children cover posted a few posts back shocked me with is absolute hideousness. By far the ugliest cover I've ever seen.
So start your own machinery, if you think it is amateur.
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