There are some pretty terrible covers out there for Jones’s books, like my hardback of Conrad’s Fate, which is just dull. Having copies issued by several publishers, of course, means that the cover art is pretty varied.
‘Charmed Life’
This cover of the Puffin edition (1980 reprint) of Charmed Life, is quite different to the others. The illustrator’s name is hidden by an unremoveable sticker, but is probably Graham Humphreys.
I’ve never really thought that Chrestomanci had a moustache, but his outfit is very 1970s!
‘The Game’ (2007 hardback)
Or there’s this rather nice monochrome cover for The Game, which fits in well with its background theme of the night sky’s planets and comets, and the tangled web of family which bind all the characters.
(Harper Collins 2007, illustration by Rob Ryan).
‘Archer’s Goon’ paperback
But I think my favourite might be this one for Archer’s Goon, by illustrator Paul Hess. I love the way the Goon is shown with his enormously long legs, and Howard and Awful looking horrified…
(HarperCollins 2000 paperback)
I definitely agree that this Archer’s Goon cover is the best for that book. Very few of the covers give you a sense of what actually goes on in the story but this one works! Any reader could come and think “there’s a very large, seedy looking man in those people’s kitchen and they aren’t too happy about it”. 🙂
Thanks for joining us for DWJ March!
Sorry it’s not a very good picture – my book photos tend to come out slightly out of focus!
Thanks for hosting DWJ March – I am having a blast re-reading!
I like that Charmed Life one. It’s very different, but rather cool in its own way. I find it very hard to pick a favourite cover as they are all so different and (imo) very few of them are particularly brilliant.
I like the latest HarperCollins ones (at least, the UK versions), but I think that one of the problems is that, having read and re-read so many times, I am never convinced that the illustrators get the characters right. I mean, I know that Cat is blond and blue-eyed, but I never imagine him looking like that in my head!
That copy of ‘Charmed Life’ is a pleasure to me in a nostalgic way, because it’s the same cover of the book I read as a kid which introduced me to DWJ, and so I feel great fondness for it, even though it’s falling to bits and I should replace it with a new copy.
I love my Conrad’s Fate cover! Actually, I’m really mad at myself that I didn’t highlight that one for Best Cover day! It’s got a house and a door and I really really love it.
My ‘Conrad’s Fate’ cover is metallic turquoise with very large red typeface giving the author and title, and then, squashed down at the bottom, is a picture of an unstable-looking castle with some mountains in silhouette. It really is terrible. It’s a good job I was going to read it anyway, because it’s by DWJ, but I can imagine loads of readers being put off (or at least, not picking it up).
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