Saturday, November 26, 2011

But It's Art, Right?


Did the publishers feel a need to mock the writers, or were they just dropping acid?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it's an actual book! Dickson wrote several sci-fi comedies/parodies, and I halfway remember reading one involving intelligent bear-like creatures (on a far-away planet) in interaction with human soldiers, and I guess there may have been a couple of those. Like his more serious books, his comedies were enjoyable. Try looking up Dickson + Hoka on Google, for instance, re his short series co-authored with Poul Anderson.

Sometimes, of course, the cover artists don't take a lot of trouble in their depiction, or even read the book.

MauserMedic said...

Anon-

Yes, I can see the publisher's art department intern on this one: "Bears? With guns? No problem!"

Papa Whiskey said...

My favorite paperback cover art was on a Zane Grey western. It was a painting depicting a gunfighter blazing away with a brace of cap-and-ball Colts, very accurately rendered. But somebody in the art department apparently decided the picture needed a little more oomph, so he added a stream of empty cartridge cases being ejected out of the top of each one, as thought from a semi-auto pistol. Funniest damn thing I ever saw; I wish I'd saved it.