The Strangulation of Grace Roberts Artist’s Model December 29, 1916
I know I’ve featured some of this author’s covers before, and he’s not doing anything here he didn’t do there, but… jeez louise.
The Strangulation of Grace Roberts Artist’s Model December 29, 1916
I know I’ve featured some of this author’s covers before, and he’s not doing anything here he didn’t do there, but… jeez louise.
If the author can’t even get the title right, what hope is there that the story is readable? It should be “The Strangulation of Grace Roberts, Artist’s Model” or “The Strangulation of Grace Roberts- Artist’s Model”.
As written, the story would be about the model who worked for the artist employed by Grace Roberts.
OR – “The Strangulation of Grace Robert’s Artist’s Model”! 😉
*squints* Uh, Robert: Step away from the computer. Further back. Now – can YOU read what it says? Then no one else can, either. #FAIL
Stangulation cover at 500×750 pix is squished beyond redemption.
Stretched to 1250×750, the left half has a 1950s Lurid Detective Stories vibe. (But the makeup and hair don’t look 1916 though.)
I have complained about squished aspect to no avail. Why? Why? (When cover artists start being found with their heads in shop vises crushed, you will know someone has finally snapped.)
LOL. Who Is Killing The Bad Cover Artists of Europe? (Apologies to Robert Morley.)
Looking at the largest word, maybe the title should be St. Rangled.
I never knew that Philadelphia’s neighborhoods were laid out like an animal print.
StRaNgLed why would the title be ranson note font? Amazon $3.99 for a 22pp with art on Lousy Book Covers? I recently paid $3.99 for a 225pp e-book with nice cover art in unskewed aspect.
The neighborhoods of Philadelphia are more legible than the rest of the cover!
Holy Saint Rangled! This is the most-squished aspect ratio I think I’ve ever seen on LBC. And that’s saying a lot!
Seriously, who said this title was going to be a good idea? It’s far too wordy. The layout makes it worse, because it gets confusing. When I first saw it, I thought “Artist’s Model” was in reference to the front cover, and thought, “Why are they telling the reader where they got their images from?” It wasn’t until I looked at the LBC blog post that I realized “Artist’s MOdel” was part of the title. The date at the bottom is detached from the title, and looks like it’s telling the reader when the book was published.
By the way, I don’t want to get into a game of semantics, but the woman wasn’t killed by strangulation, but by bludgeoning. An excerpt from the free sample:
“Grace had been badly beaten and strangled with one of her silk scarves. Police found it knotted around her throat. The scarf didn’t kill Roberts, however. She was killed by a blow to her skull from an electric flat iron. Her killer had ended her life with the iron following a terrific struggle.”
Now some people might want to say, “But she was strangled, so some strangulation was involved.” Okay, yeah, sure, however when you talk about a murder victim and use the word “strangulation” as your main focus, people assume that the victim was strangled *to death*. Here, she was strangled and then hit over the head – that’s what killed her. The book should technically be called “The Bludgeoning of Grace Roberts Artist’s Model December 29, 1916.”
In other words, not only is the title too wordy, and the layout of the title on the book cover terrible, but the title isn’t even entirely accurate. It just doesn’t work on so many levels.
You are EXACTLY right! Does not bode well for the rest of the 21 pages…
Nathan,
So, uh, who is this author? No name on the cover. Not even a “by”! 🙁
Could be a deliberate omission. I know I wouldn’t want *MY* name on such a piece of dreck.
Oh, wait… Just saw his name, tiny angled type left of her foot. Wow! Kinda like trying to find the bunny on Playboy covers.
FWIW, I’ll take Playboy any day.
So there’s his name in bed next to Grace Roberts.
I’m sure the painting of the blonde has been “borrowed” from somewhere else. I bet Rex Parker, 31st Greatest Crossword Puzzle Solver In The Universe, would know where it originally came from.
Many reputable authors insist on having their names printed on the sheets of their main characters’ beds…
…don’t they?
If the character is hot in a tawdry 1950s way … oh yes, hubba hubba.
(Sometimes I try to make positive suggestions about a cover, but sometimes it is obvious that suggestions would be wasted, and snark is all I can muster.)
I can’t help feeling that the left and right sides of this were two potential covers, and the author used both rather than deciding, thus both got squished to fit.
I would go with these in normal aspect as front and back cover rather than this mess. Neither is great, but either would have been better than this squished mess. Anyone ever seen art made better by squishing horisontal or squashing vertical? Why do they do it?
Maybe he sent both to his publisher and the publisher misunderstood those were two separate cover proposals?
Title: Strangled. Author: Philadelphia. The writing on the left must be the title of the painting and the artist’s signature. And the date the painting was painted.