Book Covers Anonymous

de Vicq, ?, Keenan, Casalino, ?

2011-01-20T23:35:00.000-05:00

Anna Sui is published by Chronicle books - uncoated black jacket with indigo foil and emboss. Incendiary earns de Vicq a series look - this is a re-issue of a previous novel by the author of the successful Little Bee. Hell's Horizon is a sequel to Procession of the Dead.

David High: Lucifer at the Starlight

2011-01-13T15:05:00.005-05:00

This proves my "great title = great design" theory.

Keith Hayes, Jason Heuer, Gabriele Wilson, Peter Mendelsund

2010-12-31T02:54:00.000-05:00

Saw these in the store this week and loved'em. There's a new series of paperback re-issues of John Fowles novels. The collage for French Lieutenant's Woman is by Eduardo Recife. Ann Beattie is printed on soft touch with deep deboss on the type and ornaments and a super awesome red spot color. Happy Nude Year, everybody!

Houdini, Maf the Dog, Cynic's Guide, and Geometry of Pasta

2010-12-22T16:17:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidayz Everybawdy! Boy, BCovAnon has been a lazy ho these past two weeks, drinkin booze and eatin brisket. Thanks for putting put up with us. These gorgeous covers are from a recent trip to my favorite bookstore, 192 Books in Chelsea. Houdini is from Yale Univ Press. Kimberly Glyder designed and illustrated the Marilyn Monroe cover. A Cynic's Guide is designed by the author, Mario DiGiorgio, and Geometry of Pasta is from Quirk. Here are some heartwarming holiday thoughts from A Cynic's Guide:

Under The Dome UK Paperbacks

2010-12-10T10:55:00.003-05:00

Saw these in London Heathrow over the summer. I think it's really interesting that the UK publisher took this route to sell the book - basically, creating four covers that look like TV mini-series posters. The US paperback cover took a very different direction:

Zach Dodson: The Universe in Miniature in Miniature

2010-12-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

Wowee wowee wow! Not only is this a "genre-busting novel-in-stories that leaps between small-town suburbs and the outer reaches of outer-space", but the cover actually turns into a miniature mobile of the universe to mirror the title story. Zach's work can be found here. Just published by Featherproof Books.

Ben Gibson, Phaidon, John Gall, Pentagram

2010-11-22T11:19:00.000-05:00

I just gotsta unload these beauties - they've been on my mind for a while. The Eagles, (Sterling) is a gorgeous oversized hardcover, with an added bonus - a distressed silver foil all over the type and illustration. And check out the $1 sticker on the Yard Sale Book - printed right on the case.

Charles Brock: Blackout and All Clear

2010-11-10T21:28:00.002-05:00

A series of sci-fi time-travelling novels. In Blackout, three travellers from the year 2060 become unexpectedly trapped in 1940. They struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler’s bombers attempt to pummel London into submission. In All Clear the story continues. I love the mathematical pattern coupled with the photos - the pattern is spot gloss.

Ben Wiseman: Running the Books

2010-11-03T10:18:00.000-04:00

New from Knopf Doubleday. A Harvard grad considers becoming a rabbi, but opts for a prison librarian job instead, teaching inmates creative writing on the side. Incredible date stamp illustration!

New Penguin Designers: Alex Merto, Eric White, Jim Tierney, Dan Donohue

2010-10-28T15:26:00.000-04:00

In honor of tonight's AIGA Penguin75 talk, I'd like to post some covers by the newest designers working in the Penguin Art Deparment, in order of appearance. Alex Merto (The Old Romantic) works under Helen Yentus at Riverhead. Eric White (Fadeaway Girl) and Jim Tierny (Guided Tour) work under Paul Buckley for Viking/Penguin. Dan Donohue (Super Mario) is working under Joe Perez for Portfolio. Super talented and super fun bunch 'o dudez.

John Fontana: Half Empty

2010-10-19T01:06:00.000-04:00

New from Doubleday (illustrator name to come). "In this sardonic collection of essays, Rakoff (Don't Get Too Comfortable) plays the role of a naysayer who tries to convince the reader, with humorous asides and sarcastic one-liners, that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket and the nerds and geeks will someday be the globe's financial and political tyrants." (PW)

Kelly Blair: Aurorarama and The Castle in Transylvania

2010-10-11T19:47:00.004-04:00

Kelly Blair is rocking the Mellville House with these two gorgeous new books. Aurorarama is a literary sci-fi novel that takes place in 1908. New Venice-"the pearl of the Arctic"-a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen (a government organization) are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.

Before Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jules Verne, master of science fiction, wrote this eerie tale of the supernatural set in a forgotten valley in the mountains of Transylvania.
In a tiny village, cut off from the outside world, unnatural events are menacing the populace. Apparitions of vampires and zombies terrorize the townsfolk, and they come to believe that the Devil occupies the abandoned castle looming over their town. A visitor to the region, a young count, vows to liberate the town from this thrall-pitting his reason against the forces of evil and superstition. Yet he too must confront the limits of reason when he views, in the depths of the castle, his long-dead love...
This gripping story-a genre-making first-has long been unavailable. Melville House is proud to present it here in a brilliant new translation by award-winning translator Charlotte Mandell.

All descriptions taken from the Melville House website. Thank you, Bunny, for the headz up.

Gregg Kulick: Journal of a UFO Investigator

2010-09-21T10:43:00.003-04:00

Viking, 2011. Printed on uncoated paper with deboss on all the rough pen marks - it feels sculpt debossed. "Against the backdrop of the troubled 1960s, this coming-of-age novel weaves together a compelling psychological drama and vivid outer-space fantasy. Danny Shapiro is an isolated teenager, living with a dying mother and a hostile father and without friends. To cope with these circumstances, Danny forges a reality of his own, which includes the sinister "Three Men in Black", mysterious lake creatures with insectlike carapaces, a beautiful young seductress and thief with whom Danny falls in love, and an alien/human love child who-if only Danny can keep her alive-will redeem the planet."

Robin Bilardello and Milan Bozic: Everything Is Going To Be Great

2010-09-20T18:24:00.000-04:00

"When she lands a coveted nonpaying, nonspeaking role in a play going on a European tour, Rachel Shukert—with a brand-new degree in acting from NYU and no money—finally scores her big break. And, after a fluke at customs in Vienna, she gets her golden ticket: an unstamped passport, giving her free rein to “find herself” on a grand tour of Europe." - Harper Perennial, 7/10

Ploy Siripant/Joel Holland: The Unnamed

2010-09-14T00:56:00.000-04:00

Arresting new paperback, with handwriting by Joel Holland. Gloss with spot matte on the type. The story of a wealthy happily married man with a strange disease that makes him get up at any hour of the day and set out walking as far as he possibly can go before collapsing.

Gray318: Great House

2010-09-09T15:37:00.001-04:00

WW Norton, October 2010. Whoa! I can't wait to see this in the stores...will it be uncoated? I first thought this represented a toppling layer cake, then a house, but now that I've read the plot summary it might be more about this:
"...Connecting these stories is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or have given it away. As the narrators of Great House make their confessions, the desk takes on more and more meaning, and comes finally to stand for all that has been taken from them, and all that binds them to what has disappeared."

Ben Wiseman: The Hilliker Curse

2010-09-02T16:26:00.001-04:00

Terrific new cover from Monsieur Wiseman, which I imagine is inspired by film noir titles.

"The year was 1958. Jean Hilliker had divorced her fast-buck hustler husband and resurrected her maiden name. Her son, James, was ten years old. He hated and lusted after his mother and “summoned her dead.” She was murdered three months later.

The Hilliker Curse is a predator’s confession, a treatise on guilt and on the power of malediction, and above all, a cri de cœur. James Ellroy unsparingly describes his shattered childhood, his delinquent teens, his writing life, his love affairs and marriages, his nervous breakdown, and the beginning of a relationship with an extraordinary woman who may just be the long-sought Her."

John Fontana: The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise

2010-08-27T00:19:00.001-04:00

Noticed the US cover yesterday - a very different look from the current offering at Borders. Illustrator name to follow. The UK cover is below...different title, but I think it's the same book. This is supposed to be a very fun almost child-like novel about a Beefeater in the Tower of London who becomes zoomaster to the Queen's menagerie when they become housed on the Tower grounds. I just visited The Tower, and this is fascinating. There are 36 Beefeaters living there- they are retired members of the military who keep the tower safe and lead the tours, telling you all about Anne Bolyn's head being chopped off at the Tower, people being tortured there, and showing you the awesome Queen's Jewels. Anyway, love these covers.

Lucy Knisley: French Milk

2010-08-23T11:11:00.001-04:00

Just finished reading this terrific graphic journal, which I read based solely on the cover. Lucy and her mother spend six weeks in a funky Paris apartment for Lucy's 22nd birthday, where Lucy goes through a post-art-school crisis, and recovers with a good helping of her mother's love and vast quantities of French milk. Like the cover, the book combines photographs and comics, sometimes on facing pages, so we're seeing "reality" and its cartoon version right next to it.

Victor Reinganum: Muriel Spark Novels

2010-08-17T23:53:00.001-04:00

Recently fell in love with the new Prime of Miss Jean Brodie cover, designed by Robin Bilardello for Harper Perennial using the illustration from the book's first edition. Reinganum illustrated both Spark covers in the early 60s. I might love Brodie because my friend in high school played the lead in a theater camp production when were 14:
"The story of an eccentric Edinburgh teacher who inspires cultlike reverence in her young students, the novel was Spark's best-known work. The novel explores themes of innocence, betrayal, and cold rationality opposed to unchecked emotionalism. The story of Miss Brodie's ultimate downfall is told from the unsympathetic perspective of one of her students.

Ben Pierrat: The Fourth Realm Trilogy

2010-08-10T10:24:00.002-04:00

Cool paperback series design at top...I also love the hardcover of the latest book, The Golden City, on the bottom. Not sure who the hardcover deigner is yet. This is a sci-fi/fantasy series where a Big Brother-like corporation watches every person and controls everything without anyone's knowledge. Two brothers, who can both travel around different levels of consciousness, figure out what's going on but become enemies when one of them decides to join the evil company in his quest for power.

Peter Brown: The Curious Garden

2010-08-02T20:24:00.000-04:00

Finally got my hands on a copy of this beautiful book, which always stopped me in my tracks when I saw it in a shop window. "One day, a curious boy named Liam is out exploring his drab, gray city when he comes across a struggling garden. He decides to help the plants grow, never imagining what he is starting...""

Gray318: Scarlett Thomas Novels

2010-07-27T23:50:00.001-04:00

I saw these magnificent paperbacks in London. They sound like academic fantasy-adventure novels. In Mr Y, the heroine reads a cursed book and can then enter people's consciousnesses undetected. In Tragic Universe, which comes to the US in September, the heroine is asked to review a book that promises eternal life. And in Popco, the earliest to be published, the heroine, a brilliant puzzle-solving toy inventor, attempts to create a new toy craze for teenage girls while trying to solve a centuries-old puzzle left in a locket by her grandfather.

Will Staehle: The Disappearing Spoon

2010-07-21T11:12:00.001-04:00

Holy Mother of God! Printed on uncoated paper. The book's core is the periodic table and the history of its elements and the scientists who discovered them. The title refers to gallium (Ga, 31), which melts at 84°F, prompting a practical joke among "chemical cognoscenti": shape gallium into spoons, "serve them with tea, and watch as your guests recoil when their Earl Grey ‘eats’ their utensils." We also learn that "Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues' wives when she'd invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments." And that "Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground." (from the product description and PW)

Nathan Burton: English Journeys

2010-07-13T12:10:00.002-04:00

OMG! Utterly beautiful small paperbacks printed on uncoated paper. I ran into A Shropshire Lad while I was hanging out in my friend's Lewisham bathroom. It was arranged in a neat pile along with his boyfriend's comic books and Popular Science magazines. It was the most beautiful book I saw on my trip. When I asked Vestal about the author, A.E. Houseman, he said he came from rural Worcestershire, a place of gardens, streams and woods. He attended Oxford, where he met his one and only love, a straight, beefy rowing jock named Moses Jackson. Houseman became a famous poet and Latinist. In 1896, he published A Shropshire Lad, a book of sixty three poems speaking of loss and loneliness, Redcoats, hangings and ale. Nathan Burton has designed at least twenty books in the English Journeys series.

London Calling: The Wild Things

2010-07-10T11:32:00.006-04:00

Ahhhh, just returned from a WONDERFUL trip to London. Whilst walking down a street in Holland Park, the posh neighborhood where Absolutely Fabulous is set, I chanced upon this glorious UK edition of this book! Isn't it rad? Here are the US covers to the hardcover and paperback, both outrageously awesome in their own right. The hardcover is by Dave Eggers, paperback on the bottom is John Gall. Not sure who the UK designer is...but wanna find out!

Gregg Kulick: Queer

2010-06-30T17:02:00.001-04:00

The narrative recounts the hallucinatory life of William Lee, an American in Mexico City in the 1940s and his journey to Ecuador with his reluctant lover, Eugene Allerton, in search of the drug Yage. Great illustration by the illustrious Kulick. To be released in September.

Life During Wartime

2010-06-25T10:55:00.000-04:00

Lovez it. Have a great weekend everybody!

Evan Gaffney: The Same River Twice

2010-06-22T11:29:00.000-04:00

New from Knopf, printed on gritty matte, with a great bright PMS orangey-pink on the smaller type. I love the big book feel of this, and the positioning of the author name is supah doopah funky fresh.

Alison Forner: One More Theory About Happiness

2010-06-17T09:59:00.000-04:00

New from Ecco. It's cool how Alison is developing the author's look, which she established with his last book. "Paul Guest was twelve years old, racing down a hill on a too big, ancient bicycle, when he discovered he had no brakes. Steering into anything that would slow down the bike, he hit a ditch, was thrown over the handlebars, and broke his neck."

Catherine Casalino: Procession of the Dead

2010-06-11T13:03:00.002-04:00

New from Grand Central. From the credits, it seems Catherine built a model and photographed it to create this fascinating cover. This is the first in a post-apocalyptic thriller trilogy. A man appears in a city without remembering anything that came before that and meets The Cardinal, the city's monstrous absolute ruler.

Albert Tang: Theodore Roosevelt's History of the United States

2010-06-07T16:19:00.001-04:00

New from Smithsonian. I think this might be uncoated. Really beautiful mix of typefaces, stars and a great image. "Theodore Roosevelt's ideas about the nation's early days and his own times can be found sprinkled throughout his volu-minous writings, but these "pearls of thought" (as one of his book reviewers described them in 1888) have never before been pulled together into one volume. Now, through the skillful editing of Daniel Ruddy, Theodore Roosevelt's History of the United States provides readers with Roosevelt's unique view of American history from the Revolution to the beginning of the twentieth century."

Yentus & Booher: Little Fingers

2010-06-03T11:18:00.000-04:00

Made from real cut paper! "In a little town in Romania, a mass grave is discovered near the excavations of a Roman fort. Are the dead the victims of a medieval plague or, perhaps, of a Communist firing squad? And why are finger bones disappearing from the pit each night? Petrus, a young archaeologist, decides to do some investigating of his own." Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009.

Matt Dorfman: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

2010-06-01T23:20:00.001-04:00

Evil Genius Matt Dorfman strikes again with this front-page graphic in Sunday's New York Times Book Review. Check out his other versions here: http://metalmother.com/motherboard/index.php/2010/06/ A terrific new spin on Peter Mendelsund's fantastic cover, which is all silver foil!

Ben Wiseman: Elliot Alagash

2010-05-27T22:51:00.001-04:00

New from Random House. Elliot Allagash is an evil teeange billionaire who befriends Seymour, a chubby outsider at a Manhattan prep school. In exchange for doing whatever Elliot tells him, Seymore becomes a Harvard-bound, straight-A class president. The author, Simon Rich, is a 25-year old writer for SNL.

Elsa Chiao: A Thread of Sky

2010-05-25T21:11:00.004-04:00

New from Penguin Press, printed on gritty matte. The story follows six Chinese-American women, three sisters, their mother, her sister and their grandmother, who tour China and in the process come to terms with their personal problems and a dark family secret.

Rodrigo Corral Design: No Longer Human and She Devil in the Mirror

2010-05-19T00:13:00.000-04:00

Beautiful paperbacks for New Directions. The handwriting on She-Devil is by Jennifer van Dalsen. Both are uncoated. In She-Devil, an unreliable narrator delivers a feverish monologue about the murder of her best friend, both upper-class women from El Salvador. In No Longer Human, a Japanese man is incapable of feeling a part of or operating in a human society. This was originally published in 1973.

Roy Kuhlman: Nadja

2010-05-14T00:10:00.002-04:00

Roy Kuhlman designed over 700 at Grove Press starting in 1951. This is a re-issue of an original design, currently in stores. Here's an interesting paragraph from an AIGA biography:
While Kuhlman generally did not read the books, he did attempt to convey the message of the title. That approach coupled with his abstract style seems to make the covers appear to be arbitrarily executed. But, in fact, his work is the result of exacting visual decisions. He worked in a pure, visual language, moving elements around on a page until they “felt right.” This created a loose connection between the literature and the covers but it was subliminal—the covers did not literally express the content but announced that both were “avant-garde.”

Gray318 and Keenan: The Lonely Polygamist and Die Radleys

2010-05-07T11:38:00.001-04:00

Two wonderful covers shown on Wednesday's AIGA Small Talks starring Jonathan Gray and Jamie Keenan. The Lonely Polygamist is about a polygamist Mormon with four wives and 28 children who becomes increasingly isolated from his massive family. Die Radleys is the German edition of a novel about a family of vampires, published in the UK as The Radleys, and coming to the US in December.

Patrick Barry: Strip

2010-05-04T00:20:00.001-04:00

Very fun cover that looks great in the store - printed on what appears to be metallic paper, since the wave pattern is all foil and remains foil from front to back. I like how the waves make the man look like he's flying around in mid air hanging on to dear life. The story takes place in LA, where a young couple robs a badass mobster strip-club owner, who exacts his revenge on the wrong man, leading the couple to try to rob him again, all while a bigamous police lieutenant takes charge of the increasingly violent case. New from Houghton Mifflin.

Will Staehle: Divine Misfortune

2010-04-27T23:14:00.002-04:00

Ever have one of those days? I think this is matte with metallic ink...another fantastic illustration and design by the super amazing Will Staehle. This novel is about a couple who hires a minor deity, who happens to be a racoon, to help their lives run better. Incidentally, the author's previous novel, Monster, also looked great - could it have been Mr. Staehle's work?

Christopher Brand: The Thieves of Manhattan

2010-04-23T01:33:00.000-04:00

Art direction by Greg Mollica - Random House 7/10. The synopsis sounds hilarious - four writers and a publisher are pitted against each other with competing memoirs, some of which are may be fake, and some of which may be intentionally fake in order to take down the possible fakes. I love the Saul Bass feel of this cover - the type dances and the eyes are hilaire.

Rodrigo Corral: Super Sad True Love Story

2010-04-19T00:45:00.000-04:00

New from Random House, July 2010. This is a comic love story that takes place in the near future. The hero, Lenny works at a company called "Post-Human Services, which attempts to provide immortality for its super-rich clientele". His love interest is "Eunice Park, an impossibly cute and impossibly cruel twenty-four-year-old Korean American woman who just graduated from Elderbird College with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness." Soon, "...the country is crushed by a credit crisis, riots break out in New York’s Central Park, the city’s streets are lined with National Guard tanks on every corner, the dollar is so over, and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess."

Klaus Haapaniemi/Big Active: Perfume and The Pigeon

2010-04-15T01:01:00.000-04:00

I was having a ball on the Big Active website when these came up. Seems like they've just been released in the UK. Klaus is a Finnish-born, London-based illustrator. I wish I could find larger jpegs, but these will have to do for now.

Gabriele Wilson: The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson

2010-04-09T00:24:00.000-04:00

Startingly spare, beautifully executed. I chuckled when I saw it in the bookstore. Looking at the silhouette of the inner Emily Dickinson, I wonder...are we seeing what women wore under their dresses in the 1800s? It looks really modern, but at the same time, those boots look both rocker-chic and Masterpiece-Theater-y. Here's the description: "What if the old maid of Amherst wasn’t an old maid at all? Her older brother, Austin, spoke of Emily as his “wild sister.” Jerome Charyn, continuing his exploration of American history through fiction, has written a startling novel about Emily Dickinson in her own voice, with all its characteristic modulations that he learned from her letters and poems." Out in February from WW Norton.

Jaya Miceli: All Other Nights

2010-04-02T00:00:00.003-04:00

A beautiful cover from Jaya, just in time for Passover! I didn't realize, but I think the title actually refers to the Passover song that asks the Four Questions. This is a Civil War spy thriller/romance. Jacob, a Jewish man, enlists in the Union army and becomes a spy. Turns out the Jews are united in faith, but divided in loyalties to the Union and Confederacy. His first mission: assasinate his Confederate uncle during Passover! Jacob later must marry a Confederate spy as part of another mission...and love begins to bloom. Jaya's done an amazing job combining minimal symbols to create an atmospheric, historic, and original design. The stars (of David) are gold foil. New in paperback from Norton (this is slightly cropped in the thumbnail. Please click to reveal the full glory). And I just remembered! Jaya did another awesome cover for the Jews: People of the Book! Big up, girl. You do my peeps proud.

Keenan: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

2010-03-29T23:06:00.004-04:00

Philip Pullman, famously atheist author of the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass books) has a new novel out in May from Canongate - a retelling of Jesus's life. This seems to be a pick-up from the UK edition, which comes in a white background as well...unless that's the back cover. The plot begins with a "...naive young Mary giving birth to twins after a visit by a mysterious stranger claiming to be an angel. The babies grow up into the physically robust, straight-talking, straightforward Jesus and the bookish, calculating, often morally tortured Christ." It's already out in the UK and is positioned at #9 on the UK Amazon sales ranking. Matte with embossed gold foil type.

Dan Funderburgh/Gray318: Legend of a Suicide

2010-03-26T11:50:00.000-04:00

Printed on gritty matte. The type is by Gray318, and the illustration is by Dan Funderburgh. Check out the tiny guns inside the fish! The book includes five stories and a novella, all revolving around a boy's perspective of his father - who shoots himself on the deck of his fishing boat in Alaska.

Ben Wiseman/Rodrigo Corral/Steven Attardo: Tell-All

2010-03-23T11:20:00.001-04:00

Coming out May 4 from Doubleday. Ben Wiseman designed the cover and lettering under Rodrigo's art direction. Steven Attardo then created the collage which was turned into a varnish that will be printed on top of the jacket. The book, "...written in a style meant to evoke the boldface breathlessness of celebrity scandal sheets" tells the story of an aging Golden-Age Hollywood star, her affair with an younger man, and her maid's "increasingly desperate attempts to manage her mistress’ life." The type comically evokes the lettering on old movie marquees, and the cover makes a great follow-up to Palahniuk's last novel, Pygmy, also designed/art directed by Ben and Rodrigo.

Sabine Dowek/Rodrigo Corral Design: Latina Cover

2010-03-18T22:25:00.002-04:00

Gorgeous cover for the November 2009 issue of Latina. Sabine illustrated and designed the cover, art directed by Rodrigo. Not only am I getting a whole new love for the Sign Painter font, not only is the illustration astounding, but check out those tiny icons! You can see more of her work at http://www.sabinedowek.com

Michael Windsor: Once A Spy & A Week In December

2010-03-18T00:34:00.000-04:00

Two new hardcovers from Doubleday. Once A Spy is a satirical thriller in which a young man realizes that his 67-year-old father, a laundry machine salesman, is actually a spy wanted by the CIA, setting off a cross-country chase. Matte with spot gloss, possibly holographic bubbles. A Week In December, by the same novelist of our last posting, Devil May Care, is set in London, where seven unrelated characters careen into each other's lives. One of them is a Tube driver, perhaps explaining the map. Printed on matte, the dots are spot gloss. I love the 3-D effect on the cityscape.

Devil May Care: Hardcover, Trade, Mass Market

2010-03-17T00:30:00.010-04:00

Hardcover by Rodrigo Corral for Doubleday. Trade paperback for Vintage (designer?) Mass Market also for Vintage. This is almost like watching a short movie. There is a little cropping going on so you may have to click on the image to see it whole. Just testing some new Blogger features.

Ervin Serrano: The Dream of Perpetual Motion

2010-03-15T11:24:00.004-04:00

Printed on metallic paper. A steampunk novel loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, set in an alternate-reality 20th-Century. It appears that the type alludes to the mechanical men who people the book.

High Design: Union Atlantic

2010-03-09T01:41:00.004-05:00

I've been fascinated by this cover for a while. Finally saw it in the store yesterday - printed on uncoated stock with foil and emboss on the type. The novel pits a successful Boston banker against a retired history teacher who resists his building a mansion on property her grandfather donated to the town, while a high school senior with a crush on the banker has the power to upset their war game. The birds seem an interesting choice here.

Darren Haggar: The Room and the Chair

2010-03-03T21:12:00.003-05:00

Cool new cover from Knopf that reminds me of a Saul Bass thriller with a contemporary touch. And there's pretty amazing detail in the cuts. The novel tells of "a fighter pilot downed over the Potomac as part of a covert program and a nuclear spy trying to get out of Iran, while star journalists and rookie reporters try to connect the dots." Printed matte with spot gloss and emboss on the shapes.

Michaela Sullivan: A Dead Hand

2010-03-01T14:19:00.005-05:00

Printed entirely on metallic paper. I find it interesting that "A Crime In Calcutta" appears before "A Novel" - don't usually see that in fiction. The story follows a writer living in Calcutta who becomes involved with a cult of Kali worshipers who are up to no good.

Font-tastic! Jessica Hische

2010-02-25T12:11:00.004-05:00

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, feast your eyes on this excellent flow chart from Jessica Hische. Girl's not afraid to admit she used Curlz!

Matt Dorfman: Blessed Unrest

2010-02-18T15:11:00.003-05:00

Recently saw Matt Dorfman's amazing book Work/Play which led me to his amazing website: http://metalmother.com/ This cover was rejected, but whenever I see it I want to rip it off. Art directed by Roseanne Serra.

Chin Yee Lai: The Lost Books of the Odyssey

2010-02-15T22:09:00.003-05:00

Printed on uncoated stock with a pearlescent coating on the "o"s (which I've attempted to reproduce rather roughly). From FSG. "The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer’s classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer’s original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations."

Rex Bonomelli: Happy

2010-02-10T11:14:00.003-05:00

The black portion of the cover is actually the jacket - a bellyband. The yellow portion is printed directly on the case. This is a memoir by a star college baseball player nicknamed Happy who suddenly gets a stroke and two subsequent brain bleeds. As he endures depression, self-destructive behavior, and the wreckage of his own body, he is nursed back to health by his free-spirited artist mother. I don't know anything else about the book, but I love the pink brain bleed/painterly quality of the bellyband art.

Gray318: Ghosts and Lightening

2010-02-07T22:24:00.003-05:00

"On the death of his mother, 26-year-old Denny Cullen comes home to a small, “disgraceful fuckin kip” in Dublin's sprawl, where dwells his quite alive and quite drunk lesbian sister, Paula. She claims there's a gender-bending ghost hiding under the bed, so their friend and methadone-addicted spiritual adviser, Pajo, conducts a kitchen-table séance that prompts Denny to find meaning and purpose in his own life." (PW) Printed on gritty matte, from Knopf Doubleday.

Unknown Designer: Metropole

2010-02-03T01:05:00.003-05:00

This one really snuck in on me during an Amazon search. Originally published in Hungary in the 1970s, it seems to be little known in the US. In addition to the cover being fantastic, the plot does too, especially after watching last night's Lost:

From an Amazon review: "Metropole depicts a waking nightmare. A Hungarian linguist named Budai boards a plane to travel to a linguistics conference in Helskinki. He falls asleep in flight and wakes up when the passengers are deplaned in a strange city. Not Helsinki. The passengers are taken to a hotel where the protagonist, depite knowing ten languages, cannot make any sense of the spoken or written language. Nor can he find anyone who speaks any of the languages he does. They don't use Roman letters but luckily they use Arabic numerals. At the registration desk they take his passport, and they can't understand a word he says when he asks for it back. Budai is given a room and some local currency in exchange for what cash he has and the story begins."

Helen Yentus: The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep And Never Had To

2010-01-27T22:58:00.006-05:00

This just came out yesterday from Vintage! Truly a phenomenal sight to behold. The spine and back ad appear to be set in Miller, but Yentus has doodled around the title and various words in the blurbs to great comic effect. The drawings on the cover are by the author, DC Pierson, and it looks like Yentus has figured out a cool way to show them using a paper sculpture. The book tells the story of a high school geek whose life becomes a sci-fi adventure after he reveals a secret about one of his friends - that he cannot sleep and never had to. Kirkus says: “Funny as hell. . . . The ribald humor of a Judd Apatow movie married to a science-fiction-fantasy spectacle.”

Gray318: Free Agent Paperback

2010-01-22T16:42:00.005-05:00

Like, OMG! Drop date June 2010. Here's the plot summary from the creator of Rambo, David Morrell:
"Because the fine points of the "spy game" took place during the Cold War, Duns’s cleverly sets Free Agent in that period, specifically 1969, when British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, visited Nigeria during its harrowing civil war. East and West governments vied for control of the region. Espionage schemes were rampant. The main thrust of Duns' novel is an assassination plot against the prime minister, so if you're an action fan, you'll find plenty to your liking, but for my money, it's the true espionage details that kept me turning the pages of this remarkable novel."

Gregg Kulick: The Breaking of Eggs

2010-01-14T17:51:00.003-05:00

Abba-solutely stunning, Penguin paperback, Summer 2010. A communist curmudgeon who writes travel guides to countries behind the iron curtain is forced to travel to the US in 1991, and awaken from a self-imposed exile into a changed world.

New Stuff

2010-01-11T19:37:00.009-05:00

Yo, some new books that will be coming out between now and May. The Unnamed is the new novel by the author of Then We Came to the End - supposedly quite different from that office tragicomedy, about a successful lawyer with a bad obsessive compulsive problem. Then we have the new Stieg Larsen, and I must say, this might be my favorite of the series so far. I have a feeling Firefly Brothers will have cool effects - the story follows a pair of depression-era bank robbers. And the Point Omega photo reminds me of the colors on the new Stephen King - the novel involves looking through binoculars at the desert...plus some other factors which I'm sure informed the infinity symbol.

Krazy Science!!!!

2010-01-08T12:23:00.003-05:00

There's some great stuff going on here - I love the way the title looks in script and the shattered glass works well with it. The author, whose previous book was about the Iraq War, discovers "worldwide criminal operations" in butterfly poaching and smuggling (in which driving species to near extinction is a standard practice for pushing up specimen prices). There is also amazing information about metamorphosis: what goes on in the chrysalis, in which every cell of the caterpillar's body liquefies before reconstituting into a butterfly, might as well be magic.

And let's not forget about Wicked Plants! This cover was highly acclaimed last year, so you may have seen it before:

It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. (text adapted from product descriptions)

Stock Photo(s) of the Day

2010-01-05T12:44:00.004-05:00

Comes with or without explosion. Thanks, GalleryStock!
PS I wonder if this is a preview for Season 6 of Lost...

Happy Nude Year: Phaidon

2009-12-31T15:45:00.008-05:00

Some great new books from Phaidon. The top three are large hardcovers, the last three are small paperbacks, uncoated covers with French flaps. Futuretainment's arrow is die-cut. Painting today is printed directly on the case. Have a great 2010, kiddies. It's the year we make contact!

Jennifer Carrow: The Sky Below

2009-12-27T21:53:00.002-05:00

This is quite stunning - the photo, and I suppose the model of the box, was taken by Jennifer Carrow as well.

Catherine Casalino: The Groucho Letters

2009-12-18T00:48:00.007-05:00

Chappy Chanukah! We made it through yet another miraculous eight days. This awesome paperback was published by Simon and Schuster in Aug 2007. I asked Catherine how she found the illustration and this was her response:

"I drew the illustration myself— it's based on a famous photo of Groucho. I had looked at a lot of past Groucho books and they either used caricatures or black & white photos/stills from his movies. He's such an icon, that I thought creating a graphic portrait of him was appropriate— and I swapped out his cigar for a pencil. The word Groucho is his actual signature. I found it by chance! It was stamped on the case of the earlier edition from the 1960s."

Keenan: Love in Infant Monkeys

2009-12-13T20:42:00.001-05:00

The title of this book is printed on a small sticker affixed to the banana. It's a real sticker you can peel off. Amazing! Here's the description:

"Lions, rabbits, monkeys, pheasants—all have shared the spotlight and tabloid headlines with famous men and women. Sharon Stone’s husband’s run-in with a Komodo dragon, Thomas Edison’s filming of an elephant’s electrocution and David Hasselhoff’s dogwalker all find a home in Love in Infant Monkeys. At the rare intersections of wilderness and celebrity, Lydia Millet hilariously tweaks these unholy communions to run a stake through the heart of our fascination with pop icons and the culture of human self-worship." (soft skull press)

Isaac Tobin: Everything Matters!

2009-12-07T21:26:00.004-05:00

"In infancy, Junior Thibodeaux is encoded with a prophecy: a comet will obliterate life on Earth in thirty-six years. Alone in this knowledge, he comes of age in rural Maine grappling with the question: Does anything I do matter?" I love all the comets hurtling towards the title, and check out the quotes in each comet! Pretty rad.

Oliver Munday: The Last Skin

2009-12-01T22:09:00.011-05:00

Three beautiful covers for a poetry book, with the final cover at the bottom. Here is a bit of back story from Oliver:

"I worked with Maggie Payette (Penguin's poetry series AD) on this cover. She told me upfront that the author had a piece of art that she wanted to use on the cover, but that I could try some ideas based on my interpretation of the poetry anyway. The poetry dealt with the ideas of death, beauty, fragility, time and loss. I chose to try and cover all of these themes and visually summarize them by using the idea of a flower shedding its petals, or skin as I interpreted it.

The next cover idea came directly from a poem. There was an image of a jar from the poet's past in one of the works, which really stuck out to me. I thought it was an interesting metaphor for dealing with memories/keeping them safe and also their fragility.

The cover chosen was the one with the piece of art that the author chose. But, I was happy to have the comps in the old 'folio.

Both covers were shot by Ramell Ross: ramellross.com

And Check out more of Oliver's amazing work at: olivermunday.com

Megan Wilson/Carol Carson: The Letters of Noel Coward

2009-11-27T11:49:00.003-05:00

The new paperback, designed by Megan Wilson, and the original hardcover, designed by Carol Carson. Have a smokin' holiday everyone!

Paul Buckley/Ken Garduno: Light Boxes

2009-11-23T12:16:00.003-05:00

"The inhabitants of a closely-knit town are experiencing perpetual February after a vengeful god-like spirit punishes them for flying. The sun becomes a distant memory, the ground is blanketed in snow, children go missing, and more and more adults become catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back..." A Penguin original coming in June. Spike Jonz has optioned the film rights, and 24-year old music video director Ray Tintori is rumored to direct. He's the director of the MGMT video "Time to Pretend."

Correx: here is the illustrator's website. Thanks, Paul!

Jaya Miceli: Short Girls

2009-11-17T15:22:00.005-05:00

The story of two Vietnamese-American sisters visiting their father, an "...enthusiastic inventor of devices to improve the lives of short people." Jaya says: "...they were having trouble with the repackage.....went many rounds in many directions. Deadline was upon me and I found this image that simply reiterated the meaning in the title." I find this image to be hilarious and perfect. (Penguin, Summer 2010)

Rob Grom: John Dies @ the End

2009-11-08T20:41:00.007-05:00

A wonderful treat came upon me at the bookstore last week, when I saw this book brazenly staring at me from across the room. WTF, I asked myself. Then I picked it up and turned it over. SCORE!! Here is designer Rob Grom's description of how it came to be:

"This is one of my personal favorites. This project was given to me as a rush assignment, so I knew very little about the story...it was described to me as an Evil Dead/Matrix/Big Lebowski type story. The cover is just a blatant interpretation of the
title, John Dies at the End, but the real pay off is the back cover...Finally, some real gore for once! Geoff Spear photographed and retouched the image beautifully. I kind of felt a bad for the hand/arm model, but it was well worth it : )"

Chip Kidd/Evan Gaffney: Fangland

2009-11-03T22:58:00.006-05:00

One of our first posts at Anonymous was Evan Gaffney's wonderful hardcover of Fangland (bottom), an updating of the Dracula story about a news reporter investigating a Romanian gangster. I came across the amazing comps from Chip Kidd for a cover and spine (top) at Darren Haggar's revamped website.

Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich: The Kingdom of Ohio

2009-10-29T12:27:00.003-04:00

In the year 1900, a laborer building New York's subway tunnels falls in love with a troubled woman who claims to have traveled seven years into the future from the Lost Kingdom of Ohio. Her mysterious story drags them into the orbits of a crusty J.P Morgan and of dueling inventors Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla (PW). Matte finish, spot gloss type, gold foil ornaments. Riverhead, Dec 31, 2009.

Darren Haggar: Leisure

2009-10-22T13:27:00.005-04:00

It's time to fly the friendly skies.

Barbara de Wilde: The Undertaking (repackage)

2009-10-19T11:13:00.005-04:00

A repackaging of the classic book, a collection of essays about life and death by the sole funeral director in Milford, Michigan. The original cover (bottom) might have been a scan of Barbara de Wilde's hand. Twelve years later, Barbara and photographer John Broomfield reshot the cover to update it. (WW Norton, Summer 2009)

correction (?) An anonymous tipster has informed us that "The hand on the original cover was Archie Ferguson's, and was made on an ordinary office scanner the good old low-budget way...For Norton's repackaging there was actually a production budget, and so the image was made by photographer Stephen Lewis."

Will Staehle: Manhood for Amateurs

2009-10-12T23:30:00.006-04:00

Will Staehle designs this new collection of autobiographical essays in the style of Chabon's previous novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. The jacket comes off to reveal further art printed on the case...however I don't think the spinner actually spins. Fab!

Essays/Wallace Shawn

2009-09-27T22:05:00.008-04:00

A new book of essays by the actor and playwright. The photo, interestingly, seems about 20 years old, from his Princess Bride days, even though the essays are current. I love the simplicity of the design, which appears to be an homage to Paul Rand.

Christopher Sergio: The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

2009-09-23T14:33:00.007-04:00

I love this cover, and Sergio provided me with a great breakdown of what went into creating it:

The "Mystic Arts...." is a noir crime-novel.

The book's protagonist works for a company called "Clean Team", on the
janitorial job from hell. These are the guys who come and clean up the blood
and guts of crime scenes after the CSI techs all head back to their posh
labs. Inevitably, due to his unique skill set, our hero gets drawn into the
drama of a crime/mystery in progress, and the horses are off.

I began my sketching and design process by focusing on the tools of the
trade: Rubber gloves, mops, buckets, sponges, spray bottles, etc. I tried to
find very clean shots of each, usually on stark white backgrounds, with the
intention of laying some handmade type over the whole cover to add in the
messy, crime-scene element. But in the end, this approach didn't seem
noir-ish enough. The imagery was just too bright.

So I went to the noir source, and sought out crime scene photos themselves.
I struck upon the idea of having a crime scene photo with the body
graphically removed, cut out, as if by magic. I also liked that this
solution has a double read: is the body removed, or just hidden from view?

Turning the crime scene photo on it's side like this also helped to create a
sense a tension. The silhouette seems awkward for a standing pose, and you
may not realize what you're looking at on first glance. I liked that the
crime-scenes numbers written on the photograph (lower left hand of the
cover) give you a clue as to the original orientation of the image.

I kept my earlier idea of using messy type (now red), which still seemed
appropriate, and just filled the negative shape of the body. The yellow is a
very bright Pantone, to suggest sanitizing and queasiness at the same time.
It also seemed to add a spirit-like quality, and play up the "mystic" of the
title.

The black and white image is gloss so it feels like an actual photograph.
And the yellow silhouette is matte, to strengthen the visual cut out. (The
red type is spot glossed, so that it sits up on the page.)

Thanks, Chris!

The Angel's Game: Final Cover vs. Advanced Reader's Copy

2009-09-16T23:35:00.003-04:00

Wait for it...

Sarah Waters UK Editions

2009-09-15T01:10:00.004-04:00

Two books by Sarah Waters, both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. As I recall, The Little Stranger was printed directly on the case, which I saw quite a bit of in Waterstone's when I visited London. Both these novels are thrillers that take place in the 1940s. I love the quirky type treatments and pulp fiction look of these covers. They remind me of Hitchcock posters and film titles.

Lilli Carre/Paul Buckley: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2009-09-08T12:05:00.003-04:00

Front cover and full mech of this upcoming title in the Penguin Graphics series. Cover by Lilli Carre. with design by Paul Buckley. You can view the current Penguin Graphics set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbuckleydesign/sets/72157621852113991/

John Gall: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

2009-09-04T00:50:00.003-04:00

Beautiful adaptation of the hardcover running man for the paperback, which manages to keep true to the illustrated look Gall has established. Whereas Gall usually uses vintage advertising art for Murakami's novels, this book, which is a memoir, appears to be using a new style of illustration. I love the juxtaposition of the photographed runner and the fantastical world he's running in, like the dream-like thoughts inside the runner's head. Big ups to Ian for noting this cover.

Steve Snyder: Old Girlfriends

2009-08-30T23:16:00.003-04:00

Photo by Marc Yankus. Designer to come. A new short story collection by one of John Updike's sons. I love the Mad Men feel of this cover, and the way the type shoots up with the buildings.

Chin-Yee Li: The Complete Ripley Novels Boxed Set

2009-08-26T12:24:00.016-04:00

I love this boxed set, which works so well with the Ripley stories. Ripley "... is everything crime fiction fans love in an (anti)hero: a charmingly slick killer who can worm his way out of anything." He is faced with a problem in each novel that must be solved by the end, by any means possible. The chess board at the top of the box is a nice depiction of these games. Also, the icons on each cover represent important pieces of the stories. The oar on Talented Mr. Ripley is his first murder weapon. But my favorite is the high-heeled shoe in The Boy Who Followed Ripley, which works so humorously against the title. In that novel, Ripley comes to the aid of a wealthy teenage expat with a secret, and at one point, they travel to a seedy Berlin transvestite club. It's such a small detail, but it's a joy to see it on the cover for someone who's read the books. And lastly, I love the way Ripley gradually disappears from view across all five covers.

Guggenheim

2009-08-23T18:56:00.010-04:00

Ummm....GORGEOUS!

"Published on the occasion of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's fiftieth anniversary...The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum examines the history, design and construction of Wright's masterwork with preliminary drawings, models and photographs, as well as three major essays that consider the building in three important contexts." — ArtBook.com

Evan Gaffney: My Little Blue Dress

2009-08-18T23:24:00.007-04:00

Adorable cover for a spoofy fake memoir about the life of a 100-year-old woman who goes from England to Paris to 50s America and beyond, replete with historical inaccuracies and typos. Note the reflected Penguin logo! From 2002.

Pete Garceau: The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday

2009-08-13T00:36:00.003-04:00

Hilarious and well done! A Middle East correspondent who not only speaks Arabic but also grew up in the region offers a a broad cultural and personal investigation into the Middle East. Photo supplied by the author - and most likely features him as a boy.

Rodrigo Corral/Ben Wiseman/Mark Stutzman: Fordlandia

2009-08-07T00:50:00.002-04:00

Truly one of my favorite covers right now, and very unique in the bookstore. The spine, which I think is a dark pink, features the the title printed vertically with the car on top of the F. The illustration is, amazingly, an original by Mark Stutzman. Mark also illustrated the art printed on the case of Stephen King's Lisey's Story, the Elvis stamp, and the Annie Get Your Gun Broadway poster:

http://www.liljas-library.com/img/other/lisey_mark.jpg
http://museumofglass.org/blogs/docents/wp-content/uploads/articles_10.jpg
http://www.spotnyc.com/docs/key_annie.php

The book itself sounds fascinating:
In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to export America itself, along with its golf courses, ice-cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model Ts rolling down broad streets. (new from Henry Holt)

Alain de Botton

2009-08-04T00:39:00.006-04:00

Two books of essays published by Vintage. Their simple beauty speaks for itself. I love the way the cloud is framed in Art of Travel, with a man-made cloud-like ornament superimposed on the natural cloud. Designer names to come.

Mark Abrams: Vie Francaise

2009-07-29T23:35:00.004-04:00

I've loved this cover for a long time. The title type looks fantastic against the tile wall. The story, incidentally,involves a middle-aged French house-husband who cheats on his high-powered wife, the CEO of a jacuzzi company.

Helen Yentus: The Implacable Order of Things

2009-07-23T23:57:00.003-04:00

Fascinating cover to a fantastical tale of a poor Portuguese town where the devil walks among the townsfolk and the characters include a pair of twins joined at the pinky. Trying to figure out the meaning of the cover may be difficult without reading the book, but I did come across this passage from Publisher's Weekly that might help: "Peixoto aims to manifest a subtle connection between the townspeople, a kind of superconsciousness". Maybe that explains the string. In any case, this is gorgeous. I wonder who designed it...

Roseanne Serra/Ruben Toledo: Couture Classics

2009-07-20T10:39:00.005-04:00

Roseanne Serra commissioned illustrator Ruben Toledo to create these unexpected fashiony takes on well-known classics. All are Penguin Classic Deluxe editions in paperback with French flaps, and there are nice special effects to enhance the cool illustrations - like a red foil thread that runs through the large A of Scarlet Letter.

Stock Photo of the Day

2009-07-17T12:04:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday, people! (and thank you, Corbis, for making our day)