You guys know I rarely feature the latest mass market paperback editions of older horror fiction classics; let's face it, the cover "art" generally sucks. Mostly it seems like Photoshop or clip art hodge-podge of cliches, so terribly bland and boring we fans can only respond with indifference, i.e., not buying the book. Last week on the racks at my local supermarket I noticed an edition of
Night Shift (1978) I'd never seen before, and it turns out it's
Anchor Books 2011 reprints of several seminal
Stephen King works.
After looking around online I found the newest covers for
Carrie (1974),
'Salem's Lot (1975), and
The Stand (1978). On one hand I hope it gets folks who may only know King as the author of epic
The Dark Tower fantasy series to check out some of his horror stuff; but really, on the other hand, these covers are only merely okay (at least they're not terrible like
this pop-art design from the early '00s). The hand poking out from under the sheet on
Night Shift is cool, but it has nothing to do with the stories.
Carrie's skull-corsage is rather appropriate. The cover for
'Salem's Lot shows the Marsten House... on fire. Is it a firemen drama, à la
Backdraft or "Rescue Me"? Sure it is!
But you gotta love the (unintentional? Most likely) irony of a book called
The Stand which features on its cover a bunch of people
lying down (I know, I know - they're dead. But still). All of course with King's name so bold and silvery you're practically blinded by it. And they're all going for about $8 each! It's a long way from when the publisher didn't even bother to put King's name on the cover, and the paperback of
Carrie would set you back a cool buck-seventy-five. See more of this edition
here.
Signet/NAL first paperback edition, 1975
You guys know I rarely feature the latest mass market paperback editions of older horror fiction classics; let's face it, the cover "art" generally sucks. Mostly it seems like Photoshop or clip art hodge-podge of cliches, so terribly bland and boring we fans can only respond with indifference, i.e., not buying the book. Last week on the racks at my local supermarket I noticed an edition of Night Shift (1978) I'd never seen before, and it turns out it's Anchor Books 2011 reprints of several seminal Stephen King works.
After looking around online I found the newest covers for Carrie (1974), 'Salem's Lot (1975), and The Stand (1978). On one hand I hope it gets folks who may only know King as the author of epic The Dark Tower fantasy series to check out some of his horror stuff; but really, on the other hand, these covers are only merely okay (at least they're not terrible like this pop-art design from the early '00s). The hand poking out from under the sheet on Night Shift is cool, but it has nothing to do with the stories. Carrie's skull-corsage is rather appropriate. The cover for 'Salem's Lot shows the Marsten House... on fire. Is it a firemen drama, à la Backdraft or "Rescue Me"? Sure it is!
But you gotta love the (unintentional? Most likely) irony of a book called The Stand which features on its cover a bunch of people lying down (I know, I know - they're dead. But still). All of course with King's name so bold and silvery you're practically blinded by it. And they're all going for about $8 each! It's a long way from when the publisher didn't even bother to put King's name on the cover, and the paperback of Carrie would set you back a cool buck-seventy-five. See more of this edition here.
Signet/NAL first paperback edition, 1975
