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Monday, May 9, 2011

Andrew Neiderman: The Paperback Covers

A paperback bestselling author whose novels encompass not just horror fiction but also mainstream suspense thrillers, Andrew Neiderman's work from the 1980s is a cornucopia of garish, tasteless, outrageous paperback cover art. Enjoy! 

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14 comments:

  1. lazlo azavaarMay 9, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    These are just hysterical (or my sense of humor is very odd indeed).

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  2. craigMay 10, 2011 at 4:07 PM

    Sad to say, I own all these(and more). The only one I ever cared for (not listed) is one called TENDER LOVING CARE, just because I had know idea where the madness of the whole thing would end. The BRAINCHILD-wonder-of-a-cover comes from the plot of a girl whose experiments with small animals gets tedious, and she ends up using her stroke-victim father as a sort of test rat in a science experiment (great dark premise, lousy book).

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  3. AnonymousMay 10, 2011 at 4:13 PM

    Ugh!
    We've had this conversation regarding Neiderman's work before Will & my opinion hasn't changed in the least.
    Obviously the man's work was appealing enough to a certain portion of the genre novel buying public to allow him to make a steady living under his own monicker as well as that of VC Andrews. So, good for him.
    But, his appeal is a total mystery to me.
    Thanks for reproing a handful of those old Zebra covers of his. I'd forgotten he was quite so prolific for them.
    Isn't it fascinating how they were able to sell SO many books by SO many different authors by using just a few different combos of the same themes on their covers?
    I convinced that their art department must have made a game of it by writing out words on slips of paper like skull, skeleton, doll, stuffed animal, child, rocking chair, tricycle, tossed them randomly into a hat & made a cover of whatever crazy combo came out of it that day... LOL

    Jim
    ( aka bluerosekiller )

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  4. Will ErricksonMay 10, 2011 at 5:36 PM

    I *hated* covers like this back in the day, and still sorta do; I'm just trying to archive 'em all now! Purely academic.

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  5. rental elfMay 10, 2011 at 5:57 PM

    Nice article ,thanks for the information.

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  6. highwaykneesMay 10, 2011 at 10:09 PM

    Will,
    Have you seen the film version of PIN? It's quite well done-and sad and creepy too.
    But yeah I'm not interested in those covers at all. And never liked most 80's covers. Since they all came from this nadir of imagination template. IMP might be fun to give a look-see? And Sister, Sister maybe-is it me or does it look like a young Jodi Foster was used as the model for that one?

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  7. Will ErricksonMay 10, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    I *did* see PIN, just recently on Netflix Instant, and it was pretty cool. Jodie Foster? she and Brooke Shields adn Linda Blair practically invented young girls in demonic trouble.

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  8. KenPaul66May 11, 2011 at 7:37 AM

    Other than reading Pin when I was a teenager, I haven't read any of his books. I believe I read somewhere that he has a new book coming out soon.

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  9. The Fifth DollangangerMay 11, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    I laughed like a loon when I noticed that the blurb on the top of SISTER, SISTER is from V.C. Andrews. Andrews died in 1986. For pity's sake, if you're going to make up blurbs from your own alter-ego, they oughta be spectacular: "THE GREATEST WORK OF FICTION SINCE SWANN'S WAY!" "THE VOICE OF OUR GENERATION!" "A NEW MASTERPIECE FROM A MODERN LITERARY GENIUS!"

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  10. Vincent StarkMay 11, 2011 at 4:01 PM

    Excellent cover art - man, I miss the old paperback days.

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  11. William MalmborgMay 14, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    I couldn’t resist buying a copy of Child’s Play after seeing this post. Even if I don’t care for the book after reading it I think I will keep it on display next to my Child’s Play DVD just to cause confusion from people who visit my apartment.

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  12. Phantom of PulpMay 16, 2011 at 4:51 PM

    altho the covers suggests it, SISTER SISTER is not an incest-themed book. The sisters are twins. Siamese. Cut ones. Generic premise. PIN is easily the author's best and the film is solid. I love Pin's voice in the film. Great choice. Understated. I enjoyed PLAYMATES quite a bit. Similar plot-wise to Laymon's THE CELLAR. I like trash of this nature if it pushes boundaries. Some of his stuff does.

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  13. Black GhöstJuly 19, 2013 at 6:31 AM

    Dig these 80s covers.

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  14. 3FsMarch 21, 2015 at 3:54 PM

    Mock me if you will, but I actually enjoyed “Brainchild.”

    I thought the premise was imaginative and the pacing satisfactory. Although I had some qualms with parts of the writing (even in third-person, he seemed to switch perspectives clumsily) I also admired other things, like how he just dispensed with the bullshit happy-ending that other writers would’ve tacked on.

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