Timewaster's Guide Archive

42,

It's true that I didn't go into the actual style of the artwork on the covers at all.  The post was getting long enough as it was!  It's interesting to me how the actual art style  on science fiction and fantasy covers has changed over time.  When I started reading these books, the artwork was always very realistic, the paintings rendered with precise brushstrokes and airbrushed backgrounds--think Larry Elmore and Michael Whelan.

The industry has changed for the better, I think--with no disprespect to Elmore or Whelan.  We're seeing more impressionistic covers.  An example of this is the Ender's Game cover and the Old Man's War cover.  These are painted by the same artist, some twenty years apart.  The Ender's Game artwork is very crisp and realistic, while the Old Man's War cover is more  impressionistic.  I see the same thing happening in fantasy--Giancola and Foster are much more loose in their painting styles than Elmore and Whelan ever were.

As for the ethnographic-ness of the covers, I'm not sure what you mean.  Do you mean the ethnicities that are portrayed on the covers?  Could you clarify?  I just chose covers that jump out to me, either good or bad, and of course my tastes will be biased because of experience and preference--but I wouldn't call this a conscious bias.   I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

The Reaper, the Crows, and the Ugly-Vin Face appear in the deleted scenes that have yet to be posted.  I wish Foster had put in Spider-Man.  He's in the deleted scenes too and would add some needed color to this cover.

I like the HB cover better, but I think the PB cover will have a wider appeal.  The HB cover screams scary, while the PB looks more like what Tor has done in the past for their YA books.  This new cover, however, displays Jon Foster's biggest weakness very prominently: his faces.  They don't look like any humans I've seen--and they're all androgenous and ugly.  One of the biggest strengths of the first cover was that Jon put Vin in a pose where he didn't have to paint her face.

Having said all that, I think Foster is a talented painter (besides his faces), and Gallo has admiration and respect for his work.  That EUOL is getting covers by him speaks well of how much Tor values the Mistborn books.

I bet Frodo failed out of Home Ec.  He couldn't pass his food handler's permit test when he couldn't get his head into the hair net.

Besides, Sam was a better cook.  Frodo's way was to have Gollum bring them raw fish.

Well, next time I want to see no pat-pat and more microphone eating.

We all saw Harlan embarrass himself at the Hugos.  He has released an apology, however.  At the same time, many industry professionals have asked that nothing like that ever happen again.  And rightfully so.  F/SF shouldn't tolerate antics such as Harlan's latest.

So, exactly which browser grants people "lives"?  Then maybe I can move out of my brother's basement and get a real job.  Like maybe working in video games.  That would be awesome.

At least your time machine goes into the future.  Last week, as we trekked back from Ihop, I turned to Parker and Ms. Fish and asked what year we were in, 2005 or 2006.