Everybody that can feel the raging, seething, oozing hate and rage of the illustrator, escaping across those footlights at the bottom of the front-cover edge, trying to get away from those utterly wrong, misplaced, mis-sized, mis-everything fonts and layout, raise your hands.
There was a late 1960s game of tricking someone into looking at the trickster’s nethers (fully clothed) and if successful shout “bag”. Whoever did the type layout bagged us.
Serious question: fonts? Obviously, the “Wanted Poster” font used for the title is face-palmingly bad, but I would have said that the subtitle/author font was at least okay. Would you, as someone who knows far more about this than I do, say otherwise?
As for the layout, at least they didn’t put the type over any demon’s face, which around here, puts them in solid B-territory.
Hi, Zsus: (I’ve been ill so…apologize for the delay. Not ignoring you. Nearly back on my feet!)
It’s the stencil effect, more than anything else. Stencil-effect is heavily and largely used to convey, in shorthand, “Military.” We see it all the time–all of us–on crates, trucks, and materiels owned/used by the services, and we don’t give it another moment’s thought.
For that matter, it’s also widely used governmentally–like “Mind the Gap,” in the UK. Here in the States, Home Depot, which is a major DIY store, uses stenciling. (As does, of course, the US Army!).
Let’s see, Dockers…Harley…there is a good-sized list.
I think my observation is more about the fact that the stenciling doesn’t…it doesn’t supoort anything. It doesn’t say “fantasy,” or “dark fantasy” or “sci-fi” or anything in particular. It’s just as though someone generally liked stencilled fonts and thought “hey, here we go, now I have a cover that can use it!” This cover would have been way cooler and more importantly, far more effective with some thought about “what do I want the title font to SAY or convey,” and OMG, some bloody color theory would have been lovely, too.
That red and black on…I’m not sure what to call that, and I’m not picking on the author when I can’t name that color…that…well, hell, just BROWN…it’s not working for me.
Even blergh yellow lettering for the byline, etc. would have been an improvement. I’m not one of the gang here that can take a submitted cover and “fix” it but if Shel or one of the others comes by, some fantasy-horror/dark-fantasy font and a bit of tonal adjustment and this could actually be pretty nice. It’s a shame.
Did that bat pull a knife on the other bat?
Everybody that can feel the raging, seething, oozing hate and rage of the illustrator, escaping across those footlights at the bottom of the front-cover edge, trying to get away from those utterly wrong, misplaced, mis-sized, mis-everything fonts and layout, raise your hands.
There was a late 1960s game of tricking someone into looking at the trickster’s nethers (fully clothed) and if successful shout “bag”. Whoever did the type layout bagged us.
Serious question: fonts? Obviously, the “Wanted Poster” font used for the title is face-palmingly bad, but I would have said that the subtitle/author font was at least okay. Would you, as someone who knows far more about this than I do, say otherwise?
As for the layout, at least they didn’t put the type over any demon’s face, which around here, puts them in solid B-territory.
Hi, Zsus: (I’ve been ill so…apologize for the delay. Not ignoring you. Nearly back on my feet!)
It’s the stencil effect, more than anything else. Stencil-effect is heavily and largely used to convey, in shorthand, “Military.” We see it all the time–all of us–on crates, trucks, and materiels owned/used by the services, and we don’t give it another moment’s thought.
For that matter, it’s also widely used governmentally–like “Mind the Gap,” in the UK. Here in the States, Home Depot, which is a major DIY store, uses stenciling. (As does, of course, the US Army!).
Let’s see, Dockers…Harley…there is a good-sized list.
I think my observation is more about the fact that the stenciling doesn’t…it doesn’t supoort anything. It doesn’t say “fantasy,” or “dark fantasy” or “sci-fi” or anything in particular. It’s just as though someone generally liked stencilled fonts and thought “hey, here we go, now I have a cover that can use it!” This cover would have been way cooler and more importantly, far more effective with some thought about “what do I want the title font to SAY or convey,” and OMG, some bloody color theory would have been lovely, too.
That red and black on…I’m not sure what to call that, and I’m not picking on the author when I can’t name that color…that…well, hell, just BROWN…it’s not working for me.
Even blergh yellow lettering for the byline, etc. would have been an improvement. I’m not one of the gang here that can take a submitted cover and “fix” it but if Shel or one of the others comes by, some fantasy-horror/dark-fantasy font and a bit of tonal adjustment and this could actually be pretty nice. It’s a shame.
Hitch,
Thanks. That gives me a lot to chew on!
You betcha! This medical-leave stuff has me chafing at the bit, so any excuse to yammer is a good one, LOL…