Book Cover Illustrations

Into every blog about the publishing industry and book cover designing, a little miscellanea must fall — and this is that post.

Kobo continues to try to capture more of the e-reader market. Here’s its latest new ebook reader.

I suspect that in the future, the ebook and printed book will diverge as much as, say, newspapers and magazines have from books. That said this may be one route taken by those publishing print books: The handmade book.

The Internet allows for many new and amazing things. But possibly this is in the “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should” category. But it is an amazing book nonetheless: The Frankenfont Project.

A bit superficial in its coverage, but here’s an interesting overview from Atlantic Magazine of how science fiction book cover pictures / artwork have changed over the years: Space Cartoons to Space Psychedelia: How Sci-Fi Book Covers Evolved

Here’s an interesting interview with the artist who created the retro look (and why) resulting in a 1950s-style “pulp” book cover illustration for Stephen King’s Joyland.

OK… this isn’t really book cover related. But many artists are Irish and some of those do have drinking problems, so I thought I’d sneak this bit of history into this post — with a solute to my ancestors known and unknown: The Irish Ether Drinking Craze.

Finally, as schools around the nation are gearing up for a new school year, I want to note that the best 9 years of my life were in high school.

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Duncan Long is a science fiction and fantasy book cover illustrator who has created covers for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, ILEX, Moonstone Books, Enslow Publishers, and many other presses and indie authors. Visit his illustration portfolio.