Here is my nomination. It makes the Night Shade covers look like da Vinci, by comparison!

Not trying to be contrary, but I've always loved that cover! I think it suits the material well too.

This however, is much less to my liking, and thusly will be my vote for the funniest CAS cover yet.

Of course I'd rather implicate the wonderful cover art that CAS has over the years. Bok, Coye, Utpatel, and more. Some of my absolute favorite artists!

I always thought this was fantastic. Who is the artist?

mikehunchback Wrote:
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> This however, is much less to my liking, and
> thusly will be my vote for the funniest CAS cover
> yet.

Yeah, I think that one has to win the worst CAS cover award

There are some interesting alternatives suggested here. Nevertheless, I stand by my original choice for the funniest CAS cover ever, but quick research on this very forum demonstrates just how much awful artwork has dis-graced poor CAS's writings over the years (This is another topic altogether, but don't get me started on the Lovecraft covers in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. Those are actually so hilarious they are almost infarction-inducing).

Anyway, although I am cheating slightly, because these aren't book covers, here are my nominations for runners-up in the "funniest CAS cover" contest:

Second prize

Third prize



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 18 Jul 10 | 02:16PM by Absquatch.

Absquatch Wrote:
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> Third prize

I think that cover is quite deliscious. (The illustration in the book is even better than the actual monster.) Funny? Yeah maybe. In an enjoyable way. It's imaginative. You gotta love his mouth. And depending on what implications one adds to it from ones own references, it could be creepy, scary. I don't see why anyone shouldn't love it (other than that today's standards of audience demand have been raised to hyper-realism.) It is amateurish in some ways; like the man's back that covers up too much of the picture with dead space. A good thing is that it's simplified enough not to interfere too much with the reader's own imagination.

If I am not mistaken, this scene in "The Hunters From Beyond" is a direct development of CAS's own documented encounter with a demon (The Demonian Face).

Don't get me wrong: Just because the covers are funny, in a ludicrous sort of way, doesn't mean I don't like them. Quite the contrary!

One day, though, I would like to see CAS book covers whose artwork matches the quality and dignity of the author. Penguin or Joshi, whichever it was, made a wise decision to use classic artwork for the covers of the Penguin Lovecraft collections.

CAS, in my opinion, is one of those writers who really don't need illustrations, even his own. Lovecraft is another. Their descriptions (at their best) allow readers to paint their own pictures which dwarf almost anything a professional artist can depict.

Most artists over-detail Lovecraft's creatures (again, in my opinion). I would prefer hints and half-glimpsed forms lurking in the gloom to the clarity of Bob Eggleton's "Aurora model-box" Cthulhu. (Sorry, Bob!)

While I'm venting, let me just say that I never thought Virgil Finley's much-praised illustration of HPL's The Shunned House does the job. Not only does it wrongly depict the monster (thus robbing the story of its "unnatural" aura) it also blows the surprise climax at the end.

When a scene is described as being outside of all human experience (which happens in many of CAS's stories) there is virtually no way an artist can put this down on canvas effectively.

The City of the Singing Flame, the Alendar's subterranean (subvenerean?) grotto, the Pit of the Shoggoths--I couldn't draw you a picture of these places (and if I could, it wouldn't be your version of them). Yet in my imagination they exist: wonderful, terrible and indefinite, the time-lost realms of dream.

I like the way books were made in the old days, as a beautiful object in itself, with marbled boards and such. They gave free reign to the reader's imagination.

An artist's interpretation is a world onto itself, and perhaps stands best as such,——on its own.

Aside from distracting cover art, is anyone besides me annoyed by page numbering?

I keep counting the pages, and continually keep track of where I am. Like when at page 34, I think "Only six more pages to page 40." Or when at page 90, "Only ten more pages to go to page 100! 91,..93,..95,..98, 99, 100. YAY!" "Let's see, this book has 282 pages, I am soon halfway through... Closing in on page 200 now. Good work." Easily distracting, and breaks the spell of the story.

I would prefer literature books to be without page numbers, and only use a bookmark instead.

In science and fact books I don't mind page numbering, because it's simply practical.

Absquatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are some interesting alternatives suggested
> here. Nevertheless, I stand by my original choice
> for the funniest CAS cover ever, but quick
> research on this very forum demonstrates just how
> much awful artwork has dis-graced poor CAS's
> writings over the years (This is another topic
> altogether, but don't get me started on the
> Lovecraft covers in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy
> series. Those are actually so hilarious they are
> almost infarction-inducing).
>
> Anyway, although I am cheating slightly, because
> these aren't book covers, here are my nominations
> for runners-up in the "funniest CAS cover"
> contest:
>
> Second prize
>
> Third prize


Both of those I really like too! Very fine pulp art in my opinion.

Absquatch Wrote:
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> One day, though, I would like to see CAS book
> covers whose artwork matches the quality and
> dignity of the author.

Here are three (all Arkham House) that in my opinion, are perfect:

OTHER DIMENSIONS
Art by Lee Brown Coye

LOST WORLDS
Smith's own sculptures, in the dark.

OUT OF SPACE AND TIME
Art by Hannes Bok

Thanks, Mike. I agree with you about the covers for Other Dimensions and Lost Worlds (although the latter link seems not to work). On the other hand, I am not so sure about the Out of Space and Time cover. The 1930's 'do of the woman depicted seems to locate the book firmly within a very particular space and time.

Anyway, I didn't mean to imply that there has never been a CAS book cover that's worthy of the author, merely that they are in the minority. In the meantime, we can at least have an unintended laugh at the majority.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 19 Jul 10 | 01:37PM by Absquatch.

I should like to see an edition of the poetry as a beautifully bound book (Ebony and Crystal, and Sandalwood were originally) with just his signature on the cover in Gold.

Quote:

I should like to see an edition of the poetry as a beautifully bound book (Ebony and Crystal, and Sandalwood were originally) with just his signature on the cover in Gold.

That reminds me: Did Odes and Sonnets have a nice cover, or a dust jacket? I don't see it scanned at this site, although I might have missed it. Inside, it was certainly the prettiest CAS publication that I have ever seen (via Google Books, since I cannot sell my kidneys in order to afford a copy of my own!).

Yes and there was a dust jacket, but I don't remember it - I liked the dust jacket on Spells and Philtres -
the dust Jacket on Sandlewood is my favorite original - quiet, parchment like, elegant - Startreader also had a nice jacket,- I never saw one on Ebony and Crystal -

calonlan Wrote:
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> I never saw
> one on Ebony and Crystal -

[www.eldritchdark.com]
Check in the upper left corner.

Absquatch Wrote:
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> One day, though, I would like to see CAS book
> covers whose artwork matches the quality and
> dignity of the author.


In that regard, I've always liked the covers Bruce Pennington did for the Panther editions. See here:

[www.postmodern.com]

Mentioning Arkham house - Spells and Philtres, and The Dark Chateau both had interesting covers -
and my god what they bring on the market today!!!

I have heard that Odes and Sonnets was originally issued with a thin, tissue-paper dust wrapper, similar to the one found on Donald Wandrei's Ecstasy, but I have never seen one.

You are correct abouts Odes and Sonnets, but, of course, those covers did not last - only hope for seeing one is finding one of those odd balls who buys books to decorate shelves, but never reads them.
I have met a couple - the guy also had a huge collection of Opera LP's which had never been played, but were on display for the purpose of deceiving guests into imagining they were in the presence of a genuinely cultivated individual - at a party in Waco, Tx,(where I was learning to be a Navigator for the USAF) - I found him our (his house), and after far too much imbibing, became angry at his absurd phoney act, and lifted him above my head (I could do that in those days) and tossed him fully clad into his pool - and stormed out (was kindly driven back to the base and BOQ by a fellow officer) - never got in trouble for it - he was prabably too embarrassed to report it - or too smashed to remember who did it.
Ah, the good old days,-- when we were neither "good", nor "old" - apologies for the trip down memory lane this Q invoked.

Thanks, Scott, for the additional information about the Odes and Sonnets cover. I was curious. The Harvard copy of the book that's scanned at Google Books, of course, does not have such a cover, but a library would remove that before cataloging and labeling the book for shelving, anyway.

At any rate, from what I've seen of the remainder of the scan, it's a lovely little volume, in its own right. It's nice at least to be able to download it in PDF.