Fantasy Covers and You (and Me)

Ah, the cover of a book. Unfortunately, it's usually your first impression of any book you pick up. Sometimes I feel as though the number one reason I feel just a little ashamed of reading fantasy and scifi books in public is the terrible image it literally presents to onlookers.

The majority of fantasy covers are awful. You can't even say that the majority awfulness affects all literature; not on this scale, not to this horrible extent. No, most book covers overall are boring. Fantasy and scifi covers often cover the other end of the spectrum, and not in a good way.

After years of reading fantasy books and working in a comic shop, I've come to the epiphany that fantasy covers have a lot in common with comic covers in terms of problems and apparent philosophy. Both are intended to catch the buyer's eye and (usually) depict a scene that does occur (or could occur, in the case of many old horror comic covers) in the book.

The problems with the execution of this philosophy are many, the most obvious of which being that, in order to hook the greatest number of buyers, certain unscrupulous and tactless measures are often employed. This means lots of chainmail bikinis and hot space pirate chicks who, upon close inspection, have no space undies. It's important to point out here that I am not opposed to making your cover eye-catching and appealing to more people in the attempt to make money. I love money.

Another problem shared between fantasy/scifi and comic covers is the occasional disconnect between the writers and the cover artists. Now, I know this is often inescapable due to time constraints and whatnot, but it leads to a lot of confusion and disappointment among the people buying the books. This is especially true in the case of books for which the writers/story artists had no say in the cover production process, with the cover artists being given vague instructions like "A man in power armor being menaced by an alien." Whether or not power armor or menacing aliens ever appear in the book is sometimes of no consequence.

The third major issue on my mind has less to do with the process of making covers and selling books as it does with a very simple principle of comic books and speculative fiction. The logic of these books, comics and fantasy alike, exists within a vacuum. Said vacuum is contained between the front and back covers of the book, in the narrative itself. Sometimes it seems like people forget that any representation of the events contained within looks somewhat... schizophrenic, without prior explanation. This is less of a problem with comics since most people buying them already understand the in-universe logic that's led up to the events depicted. Of course, the dearth in new comic book readers is another rant altogether.

Fantasy and scifi covers, by and large, just have too much crap going on on them. Look at the Modesitt cover I posted way up at the top for a good example of Excessive Crapitis. The Wheel of Time series is also full of such examples, but I chose that one because it left me wondering just what the Hell could possibly be happening.

The resentment of excessive presence of characters and action on covers is one reason I honest to God like the Twilight covers. They're not good books, they're creepy and not in the way you usually imagine books about vampires to be, but the artsy fartsy covers work. They're simple, they fit the target audience quite nicely, and they're iconic. A black cover with that dumb curly lettering, and some artsy symbolic image that's primarily red and white, and it's obviously a Twilight cover. The Kushiel's Legacy books have a similar iconic quality, but the covers follow the formula of having a sexy lady with a d-bag tribal tattoo stand off to the side and look brooding. Usually with a lot of pattern-fill looking stuff. Still recognizable, still iconic, no doubt still in touch with the sort of people the book is sold for. However, it still carries the weighty shame of reading the book in public. If the Twilight books had been good or at least not creepy, being seen with one wouldn't draw snickers.

Tonight: Bad, disturbing, or just plain weird Dragon magazine covers from the 70's and 80's. Stay tuned.