Let's continue, shall we, with more terrific (and terrible) cover art for various vintage paperback editions of H.P. Lovecraft. It's addictive - I can't get enough! And I'm certain you guys can't either. And if there are any Lovecraft novices out there, these covers give you only the slightest glimpse of the dread and nameless horrors that await all humanity should we venture too far from our placid islands of ignorance. So gaze upon them affrightedly, and despair...
Some of these are just goofy. One wonders what the artists were thinking.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, those Omnibus editions are something else. I have the one from your last post with the head-eating troll. (Un?)intentionally funny stuff there.
ReplyDeleteI love the first cover you have here for The Tomb collection and the one for The Survivor is neat.
And that Cthulhu pic? B. A.
Yep. I can only assume that paperback publishers just had stock illustrations for fantasy/horror and stuck whatever they wanted on covers. Although the original Arkham House hardcovers, ostensibly the premier HPL publisher, had some awkward art on their dust jackets as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat Covers! I have the first book, but I've never seen the others.
ReplyDeleteI love the illustration for The Tomb (both versions). The Survivor and The Colour Out of Space are pretty cool too! I definitely need to read more Lovecraft.
ReplyDeleteI've always been curious about Lovecraft but had no idea where to start as far as his books go. Do you have any recommendations on where to start?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I came across your blog through Retrospace and spent all day yesterday looking through your past entries. The covers are really awesome and I like how your reviews are very in-depth and unbiased.
Wow, Amanda, thanks. Glad you enjoyed it--although I don't think I've ever been referred to as "unbiased" before! ;-)
ReplyDeleteBest place to start with HPL are with his major stories, all but one or two found in:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-H-P-Lovecraft-Bloodcurdling/dp/0345350804/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282777648&sr=1-1
Ha - I like how the Amazon "about the author" page for H.P. Lovecraft features a photo of the '60s psychedelic rock band of the same name; that must be confusing the hell out of people on a daily basis...
ReplyDeleteYes! God, Amazon can be so effed sometimes, what with reviews for the audiobook of one title ending up on its movie adaptation page, and whatnot...
ReplyDeleteAnother great post Will - many thanks for sharing these brilliant cover designs.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome and thanks for the recommendation! I'll be sure to check it out.
ReplyDeleteA lot of these pieces of art -- and much more -- have recently been collected in the Lovecraft Retrospective, which, although somewhat expensive, is one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2008/06/28/the-monstrous-tome/
I highly recommend picking up a copy; it's probably the single best book I own.
The artwork for the Omnibus volume (with the crawling demon-type thing) was also used for a spanish language edition of Clive Barker's Books of Blood which I have.
ReplyDeleteAwesome Lovecraft stuff. Just finished reading some of his shorts and I feel like I need to pick up his full works now. :-) Genius and totally inpiring. If you want to read anything new possibly, I've got some originals over on my blog too. http://christoms.blog.com. Hope you get a chance to check it out! :-)
ReplyDeleteI cherished these editions mainly because of the cover art (as well as HPL's fiction). The Tomb and Other Tales is my favorite graphic.
ReplyDelete