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Alibi
Baby - This cover has a real jazzy,
James-Bond-esuqe sorta feel, and it's quickly become
one of my favorites. The colors, the smirk on the
woman, and the font all scream fun to me.
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Black
Opium - I like this one because it
uses the title in a more free, loose way than I normally
do, and I think it fits well with the image and the
story's subject matter. It annoys me that it and Shot
in the Dark (see below) use almost exactly the same
color scheme, but what are you gonna do? That thought
only occurred to me when I put them next to each other
on this page.
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Confessions
of a Park Avenue Playgirl - Probably
my favorite design, this has a real happy, sexy feel.
This is the kind of book that wouldn't shy away from
it's sexual content, but winks at you the whole time,
taking none of it too seriously.
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Dead
Man's Eyes - There's a new line of
paperback mystery/crime novels called Hard
Case Crime, which uses a mixture of old and
new material by old and new writers. Part of the motif
of these books are their covers--classic, old-timey
looking paintings--to go with the hard-bitten contents.
While it's odd to buy a book just for its cover, I've
found I really enjoy these books and already read about
nine or ten of them.
Anyway,
some of the people they use are the best in the business,
people like illustration legend Robert McGinnis. Obviously,
I would love to do work for HCC, but I knew my style
wouldn't really match what they've traditionally been
using. But I knew I wanted to try anyway. I was mulling
it over for a few days, until late one Sunday night
when, for whatever reason, I couldn't fall asleep (this
was pre-dog; now I grab every second of sleep available
to me). While I lay there, I got an image in my head
of what my sample book cover would be. It just popped
in there, like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
So
I sat down and tried to pull this thing together while
it was still fresh in my head. Instead of using pre-fab
titles and taglines from old paperback books, I wrote
it all myself to match the image I had created. I messed
around with the colors, as I usually do, so after a
couple of hours I had this pretty much finished. Trying
to get it look more old-timey, I did "hand draw"
the city outline, to give it that loose, jazzy feel--a
kind of Naked City sort of thing.
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The
Girl From Midnight - Chronologically,
this was my first of the smutty paperback book covers,
where I took an established title, author, and tagline,
but composed my own illustration and design to match.
It
got started when my friend Sean
Tiffany told me that the most popular pieces
on his ispot page were of sexy girls. I wanted to test
this on my own ispot
page, so I decided to purposely illustrate a very alluring
woman, but incorporate some sort of design. I don't
remember how I got the idea to do a paperback cover,
other than I've always been a fan of them, and have
lots of books on paperback art, so the whole thing was
in my blood, I guess.
I
worked on it late at night and really enjoyed the process--one
I had the illustration part down, messing around the
with design was pure bliss. While
all the subsequent paperback designs I've done I think
are better and more complex, this does have a basic
cleanness that I still think holds up.
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A
Hell of a Woman - This is so different
than the way I would normally think to design a cover
that I'm a little amazed I didn't rework it to death.
The title felt to me like it was about a very confident,
assured woman--a hell of a woman.
So
I liked putting the title on big, bigger than I normally
would think to, and in a strong, assured font. The woman
in question is staring right at you, in a very relaxed,
confident position. Using the hell-ish colors was a
no-brainer, and once I had those in place I got the
idea to wipe away some of the lettering as if the heat
was burning its way through the title.
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Hot
Rod - I
hadn't done a paperback book cover in a while, so when
I had a hole in my schedule I worked this up, and I
think its one of my best designs. It's a little busier
and kitchy-ier than I normally do, but I dig it and
it was a real joy to work on.
And
no, I have no idea what those numbers mean; I just thought
they looked cool and fit the whole hot rod/dragstrip
feel of the cover.
Vroom!
Vroom!
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Island
Girl - As
much as I like the main portrait I came up with for
this, it was the color scheme of blue and green that
I really liked. Once I dropped that green in,
I really didn't bother experimenting further.
Like
I've done with the other covers, I go and search for
an existing genuine period paperback title and tagline.
Once I saw a book called Island Girl I knew I
had the right title for my image. The font I thought
fit perfectly, as well--a retro and relaxed kind of
look, with the semi-threatening image and tagline (The
spell of the tropics was in her look...and love was
her favorite game!) working against that, which
I thought made for some nice tension. One of my most
simple paperback covers, but I think one of most effective.
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Kiss
Tomorrow Goodbye -I
hadn't done any new paperback book covers in a while,
so I slotted this in between some other work.
I
wanted more of a mystery thriller cover instead of the
lurid nudie look, so no sex here at all--you've got
a tough-looking dame holding a gat, looking over her
shoulder, either ready to kill or be killed.
I
think my favorite part is the blood spatter on the "goodbye."
I thought the cover needed one extra little something,
and then I remembered I had this graphic in my files
from when I used it on a poster. I dropped it in, and
it was exactly what I wanted. I never throw anything
away.
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My
Little Chickadee - Sometimes as soon
as I finish an image intended for one of the paperback
covers, I immediately know what color scheme to use, and
what kind of title I'm looking for.
The
title I saw in my head going with this image doesn't
belong to any actual sleazy paperback that I'm aware
of, so I broke my normal guideline for doing these and
just appropriated an author and tagline from a vintage
book. I thought the title--while definitely sleazy--had
just enough lightness and humor to it that it wouldn't
make the cover look too extreme.
Same
with the image--it's clearly meant to tittilate, but
I thought with the coloring and the little sunbursts
that the whole thing gives off the vibe of trashy fun,
the kind of book you buy at a newsstand while waiting
for a bus, and you keep face down on your lap so no
one else can see what you're reading...
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Negative
of a Nude - Negative of a Nude
uses a neat color scheme, and I like the checkerboard
pattern a lot (it looks very period to me), but now
that I look at it again, I think maybe the subject is
too dark and grim looking. I do like the sketchy lines,
though.
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No
Time For Sleep - Probably my all-time
favorite paperback cover, I think this is the perfect
synthesis of illustration and design, if I do say so
myself. You can pretty much figure out what "no
time for sleep" means, and if you don't, the scantily-clad
woman looking right at you oughta close the deal.
The
all-hearts background works to me as both a sort of
realistic wallpaper look (like something you might see
in an old-time bordello), or just a pure design element.
The title combined with the tagline looks like a smiling
face to me, which is a nice bonus. I also like the semi-bifarcated
look, with all the color at the top and just black at
the bottom.
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Pure
Sweet Hell - I wanted to do a little
more of a realistic scene for this one, so even though
the subject is looking into the camera, you do get some
sense of a scene here. Maybe the woman is looking into
a mirror at the guy behind her...hey, that works!
I
do like the bright yellows contrasting against all the
dark of the room, too. You know that this story is about
her.
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There
Are No Tropes in San Tropez - My
pal Dan
Souder has many talents, from musician to writer
to all-around bon vivant. He wrote this novella
about two years back, and I absolutely loved it. You know
how sometimes, when a friend of yours does something,
you tend to judge it--consciously or not--on the Friend
Scale, where you like it more simply because you know
the person who did it and it seems so impressive? I was
able to shake that off this time, since I knew that even
if this book had been written by someone else, I would've
enjoyed it just the same.
I
told him the book had the feel to me of an old paperback-y
type story, and I wanted to come up with that kind of
cover for it. Dan, too shy to say "I didn't ask"
agreed to let me try and come up with something. Unfortunately,
for whatever reason, this proved to be probably the
single-hardest piece I ever worked on. I came up with
half a dozen different ideas, none of which pleased
me. I would get so frustrated I would move onto other
work and hope lightining would strike at some point.
Part
of my problem was, since I knew this was for a friend,
I was second-guessing myself too much, and after a talk
with Dan on the phone (he lives in Hawaii, the S.O.B.)
I decided to just work on it as if it was one of my
paperback exercises and put the "end client"
out of my mind.
Once
I did that, the piece came together remarkably quickly.
I didn't worry too much about it matching the book's
contents too closely, since those old-timey paperbacks
never did, either. I messed around with some colors,
Dan made some suggestions (which I had planned to ignore,
but, as Paul Simon said "got to keep the customer
satisfied") and pretty soon I had something we
both liked. Finally.
(Btw,
the book can be puchased here!)
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Shot
in the Dark - Shot in the Dark
has quickly become one of my favorites--I like the multi-tiered
images, and it has a playfulness that I think is sometimes
missing in my work. I dunno, I'd buy a book with
this cover.
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