In fairness, not the worst Nagilum we’ve seen. The overuse of the trope is really the only crime on this cover, it is otherwise OK, not great, but passable.
I think The Great Gatsby 1925 was a best seller in spite of having one of the first (if not the first) Nagilum covers (long before the partial face character appeared on Star Trek).
Since The Great Gatesby, the disembodied eyes have appeared simply too often on book covers.
Gary
6 years ago
I can kinda see where this might’ve worked. Not quite, but I can’t see exactly what’s wrong. Maybe if I could look at it with floating, disembodied eyes…
It’s like the contestants on PR that just can’t self-edit. They’re decent craftsman, but they eventually get aufed for the never-quite-that-specific crime of “taste levels.” They take a decent design, sew it up, and then…just add more geegaws until it’s a #fail, instead of a #win.
Ditto this cover. If s/he’d left the title font alone, instead of 3D’ing it; used a much, much better pair of eyes–not so cartoony–and been not-so-over-the-top with the fleurons (the decorative elements) above/below the series title, it could have been somewhat viable.
Well, I guess that means, I’d like the whole thing changed.
Naaman Brown
6 years ago
“Good concept draft, can’t wait to see the polished final product.”
[Pause]
“What? You already hit ‘upload and publish’?”
In fairness, not the worst Nagilum we’ve seen. The overuse of the trope is really the only crime on this cover, it is otherwise OK, not great, but passable.
Had to google “nagilum.” Makes sense now.
I think The Great Gatsby 1925 was a best seller in spite of having one of the first (if not the first) Nagilum covers (long before the partial face character appeared on Star Trek).
Since The Great Gatesby, the disembodied eyes have appeared simply too often on book covers.
I can kinda see where this might’ve worked. Not quite, but I can’t see exactly what’s wrong. Maybe if I could look at it with floating, disembodied eyes…
It’s like the contestants on PR that just can’t self-edit. They’re decent craftsman, but they eventually get aufed for the never-quite-that-specific crime of “taste levels.” They take a decent design, sew it up, and then…just add more geegaws until it’s a #fail, instead of a #win.
Ditto this cover. If s/he’d left the title font alone, instead of 3D’ing it; used a much, much better pair of eyes–not so cartoony–and been not-so-over-the-top with the fleurons (the decorative elements) above/below the series title, it could have been somewhat viable.
Well, I guess that means, I’d like the whole thing changed.
“Good concept draft, can’t wait to see the polished final product.”
[Pause]
“What? You already hit ‘upload and publish’?”