The new paperbacks

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:42 am

Exactly, Edge! That's a much better cover, simply by virtue of being accurate to the story.

Post by **matrixman** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 2:34 am

Cool cover, Edge!

They should have hired you! You've just made Del Rey look like a bunch of clueless amateurs.

CovenantJr wrote: What the hell is THAT?!

Ugh, those are the most monstrously hideous book covers I've ever seen!
And could they be any less suited to the story they contain? Talk about bland! Hellfire and bloody damnation. And the not-white white gold just adds to the offence. Someone needs a good, sound slap for disgorging such a malformed travesty of a book cover into an unsuspecting world.
I'm beginning to believe they may have been created with the assistance of the Illearth Stone.

You're right, there's definitely a sickly green, diseased hue to them!

I agree, no need at all to apologize for your awesome rant, CovJr. You summed up my own feelings about the covers pretty accurately. I think I was too darn polite to let it all out as you have.

Post by **Iryssa** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 3:02 am

While I agree that the cover doesn't affect the story in itself, I do think the cover of a book has a great deal of power...in my opinion, it doesn't just need to be nice, it should also exude some of the tone of the book...
For example; Edge's cover (great job, man!) exhibits the white gold against the dark background, emphasizing the the mysteriousness of what surrounds it (the darkness). The way the light is reflected off the ring also gives the impression of power (the argent glow when the power is in it in the books), and, with no other subtractive light source in the picture, it looks as though it really is power coming from the ring...Also, the colors he picked for the background are very natural and lush, like the Land and earthpower.

Now, if you look at the other cover, the yellow gold is diminished in power against that (putrid) bright green background, and that shade of green looks more like something the sunbane would produce than something surrounded by earthpower. The bright colors show everything, giving the impression that the story is simpler than it is, not even hinting at mysteriousness.

(dang art history class...look what it's done to me!)

Post by **Variol Farseer** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:45 am

CovenantJr wrote:Ugh, those are the most monstrously hideous book covers I've ever seen! And could they be any less suited to the story they contain? Talk about bland! Hellfire and bloody damnation. And the not-white white gold just adds to the offence. Someone needs a good, sound slap for disgorging such a malformed travesty of a book cover into an unsuspecting world. I'm beginning to believe they may have been created with the assistance of the Illearth Stone.
[/rant]

Actually, they're just very bad. The most monstrously hideous book cover ever made was for the first Ballantine paperback edition of The Fellowship of the Ring:

This is actually the modified version, in which the lion (! ! !) was airbrushed out. The original was even more hideous. Note particularly the two emus at bottom left, and the anteater with the Mohawk at right, which I think is supposed to represent the dragon, Smaug. No explanation of what Smaug is doing in Hobbiton, or why he is on the cover of a book set 78 years after he was killed.

But I think it says something about Del Rey that I had to go to such extremes to find a worse cover . . . and that the one I found was also by Ballantine Books, the parent company of Del Rey. Disgusting, isn't it?

Post by **danlo** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:51 am

Oh it's great! Come on VS...That cover's a trusted and loved old friend--as an old foggy these were the 1st LOTRs covers I ever saw-done by the same whacked artist that did The Worm Oroborous and the Zimiamvia trilogy by E. R. Eddison. And you do know these covers inspired the immortal Havard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings cover? Right??

Post by **Variol Farseer** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:56 am

danlo wrote:Oh it's great! Come on VS...as an old foggy these were the 1st LOTRs covers I ever saw-done by the same whacked artist that did The Worm Oroborous and the Zamenthia (sp) trilogy by E. R. Eddison. And you do know these covers inspired the immortal Havard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings cover?

Yes, that's the one good thing about them. But the Bored of the Rings cover worked MUCH better, because it featured the Nine Nozdrul riding on pigs, and Stomper dressed as the Lone Ranger! That whacked, the Ballantine artist only wished she was!

Post by **danlo** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:57 am

I know! OOOOOOOOO Baby!

Post by **Cate** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 1:32 am

Edge, I love your book cover. It is awesome and makes its point.

Post by **CovenantJr** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:39 am

Variol Farseer wrote:

................

.....................

Post by **Imaginarian** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 4:05 am

I don't know what "mainstream fiction" is or even "the mainstream". Is it diet books, Bill Clinton's My Life, Oprah's Choice? Are the paperbacks with the giant rings on them the repackaged editions SRD talked about in the news section? There used to be trade paperback editions as well with just the title and authors name in an old English kind of typography. The first editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy I ever encountered (as a wee tot) were the Ballantine paperbacks with the artwork by Tolkien on the cover in the 1970's. I still own them. They must be later editions then the scan you have there.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 11:27 am

Are the paperbacks with the giant rings on them the repackaged editions SRD talked about in the news section?

Yes.

Post by **fightingmyinstincts** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:14 am

......---ick!---.......to both covers.
I do like Edge's cover though...and I do some graphic design w/illustrator and photoshop....ya, Del Rey could have gotten just about any high school level Computer Graphic Design student to do better than that horrid thing with the yellow gold and the putrid background...I would have gotten a bad grade on that, had it been mine...

Post by **Rocksister** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 6:39 pm

I'm just now finding this topic after four years. I went to Barnes and Noble last weekend perchance to replace my TC books that have been in pieces for years, and saw the yellow gold ring covers. Blasphemy!! They have not even READ the TC books!!! The entire series is based on WHITE GOLD!!!!! I honestly was so disgusted that I didn't buy the books. That is as appropriate as a cookbook having a picture of a boat on the front of it. So this was Del Rey that did this? I believe I read in the GI that SRD claimed they had not treated him very well, so he went to another place for the Last Chrons. Good for him. Del Rey apparently doesn't take his work seriously.

Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:12 pm

Myste wrote:I just bumped a thread we had on the re-releases. I wrote to Del Rey, and got a response. The fact that I got a response was pleasantly surprising. The response itself left something to be desired.

Dear Ms. [Myste]:
Thank you for writing in. We certainly know that Thomas Covenant's ring is made of white gold. Sorry you think our covers show it as too yellowish.
Mr. Donaldson was delighted with them!
Sincerely,
Betsy Mitchell
VP/Editor-in-Chief, Del Rey

Oh, and welcome to the Watch!

Liars....i dont think SRD would be happy with something that showed the all important white gold ring as Yellow.... what a joke...... nice they responded to you and it was probably the person responsible for saying..."hey..how about we put a big gold ring on the cover and see if that bumps sales?!?!?

and they said..sure..why muck up a cover with all that art no one cares about. but then again SRD could like keeping it simple with no concept art whatsoever, however considering he has very few rights to his own works as far as the first and second chrons go i would be surprised if he even knew about the new covers.

but yes....I would like to give them a Nom sized kick in the Ba**s for that one.

Post by **dlbpharmd** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 10:33 pm

IMHO, the only artist who has ever come close to capturing the essence of the Covenant story is Darrell K. Sweet, and even he dropped the ball with TOT and WGW.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

The new paperbacks

re