Vintage Book Covers

[bugfeli]

something i've noticed especially when it comes to browsing for books in person is a very distinct difference in book covers that are old compared to newly published/republished covers. i think its more prominent in horror novels (totally not because it's really the only genre that i read or anything) as they've made a switch from hand-drawn illustrations to this conflicting graphic design style.

anyways thought id make a thread for any vintage/old book covers cuz i think they're really neat. here are some of my personal favorites from the horror genre

     

[Melooon]

Oooo I love old book covers and graphic design! I use them a lot as inspiration!

I don't have most of my cool ones on hand, but these two are on my shelf!


I also reaaaallly love the old Foundation covers; I used to have one printed out on my wall; Id love to collect them but Id have to import from the US and ughh.

[Cobra!]

There’s just something about old artwork like this, not just with books, but I’ve seen it with VHS tapes and to an extent video games, that invokes a sense of wonder and curiosity out of me, like I’m about to go om an adventure or something.

Does that make sense?

[Melooon]

Does that make sense?

It does! Although I always feel a little disappointed because the the actual media rarely lives up to how much the artworks promises

One thing Iv realised is that its actually a pretty small club of artists who did all of that artwork; I honestly don't think the cover art scene of the 80s was much bigger than the web revival scene is now, everyone knew each other and a bunch of the are still working - for example the artist who did those foundation covers still takes commissions: https://www.michaelwhelan.com/gallery/

"I have been interested in the imagery of fantasy since early childhood and all my artwork is, at its most fundamental level, about creating a “sense of wonder”" - from his bio, same words as you!

It really speaks to the power of concept art and imagination; and also to the particular mood of an era that creates a particular kind of art!

[MrsMoe]

I love how much artistry some old book covers have and it's a big reason why I HAAAATE all the minimalist bullshit modern covers have. There's just so much less personality on display and they rarely ever tell you what the book is actually about.

I think In Praise of Shadow's video about this issue (specifically in regards to how it's been affecting horror novels) is really damn good and I highly recommend it.

[starbreaker]

I love how much artistry some old book covers have and it's a big reason why I HAAAATE all the minimalist bullshit modern covers have. There's just so much less personality on display and they rarely ever tell you what the book is actually about.

Unfortunately, if you're a writer doing tradpub you don't get the final say when it comes to cover art. You're lucky if you get a say at all. For example, I got stuck with this cover for my second novel.



I don't know if that cover is the reason my second novel bombed, but I doubt it helped.