Here’s the cover art for the Pyr edition of The Burning Man, Book 2 of Kingdom of the Serpent, out shortly. Art by John Picacio.
It’s got a Hieronymous Bosch feel, I think.
Author, screenwriter, journalist
Here’s the cover art for the Pyr edition of The Burning Man, Book 2 of Kingdom of the Serpent, out shortly. Art by John Picacio.
It’s got a Hieronymous Bosch feel, I think.
Based on admittedly limited experience, the non-UK covers seem to have retained their fantastical feel more than UK fantasy as a whole – not just your books Mark. I understand the reasonings behind moving away from the stereotypical dragon/hero-with-a-sword type covers, and now that I’m used to the slightly more abstract styles such as on the Kingdom of the Serpent series I do really like them…
But had World’s End not had a huge dragon/Fabulous Beast devouring Edinburgh Castle on the front cover I may well not have picked it up in the first place and then I seriously don’t know where I’d be! Sometimes I think it’s a bit sad that fantasy genre novels have to hide their “fantasy” status to appeal to a wider crowd – in UK at least, which was my original point I think!
Rant over – and as they say, you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover anyway…
Mel, I’m a huge fan of the original UK World’s End cover by Jon Sullivan. It really captured the feel that I was trying to get in the book, and you’re right, that image alone launched me in the UK. Like you, I do miss those kinds of covers, which is why I like John Picacio’s work so much. (As an aside, I tried to get Jon Sullivan’s work on The Dark Age books instead of the terrible ones I ended up with, but he’d taken a break from cover work at the time).
It always amazes me how little say authors have in the cover art for their books – I wonder if it’s the same for musicians and their album covers, although I suspect not!
The publishers usually let authors have their say on cover drafts – with the proviso that every comment will be ignored if it doesn’t tally with what the publisher wants!