Something I noticed a long time ago and failed to document

[womzilla]

This doesn't seem to be widely known; perhaps it is and no one besides me cares.

The cover of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (Tor Books, 1985) is recycled from a 1983 issue of White Dwarf.

Ender's Game:


White Dwarf #41, May, 1983:



The only reason I care is that I've always thought the art was a pretty poor fit to the contents of the novel, but it doesn't seem to have hurt the book none. Given how poor a fit the art for Speaker for the Dead is to the contents of that book, I've always assumed it was also reused art. (It's in the same style as the earlier cover, but is not also a White Dwarf cover.)

Comments

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Just today I noticed the new cover of Ender's Game. It is NOT an improvement.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Are you talking about ? If so, that's a Young Adult repackage, and it's probably decent for that market.

[washa-way.livejournal.com]

Dear god, my EYES...!

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

It's really not. The YA covers I've seen lately have been quite nice. That's just terrifying.

Worst cover though, covered the worst book I saw in the bookstore yesterday -- A Desert Called Peace.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Dang, you're right. It looks like a case of self-plagiarism, anyway: John Harris is given credit for the White Dwarf cover (just checked inside!) as well as the novel's.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Oh, I never meant to imply plagiarism--they're clearly the same painting.

No, for plagiarism you want to look at, say, the covers to Brother Assassin (http://img11.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/a/0/0/0/f/a000f90177cdeadea46b623123ea273d.jpg) and Trumps of Doom (http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0877957185.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg). The cover for Trumps doesn't even make sense.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

It may very well be nothing to do with the artist. I've had a book cover in the States that was just a blown-up detail from another book; John Howe knew nothing about it. And was, um, not particularly impressed?

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

This entire post was inspired by papersky's disappointment upon learning that the perfectly apt cover for her Boskone book Lifeload was a detail from a previously existing cover. So I told her it could be much worse--at least her recycled cover was perfectly apt.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah right, I remember. Indeed, I may have made the same comment there... *is a man of few comments*

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'd have guessed Chris Foss.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

May I link to this?

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Of course.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You know, I sold that issue of WD in my store and I sold copies of that edition EG when it was available through the local magazine distributor but I never noticed the covers were the same.

[wdstarr.livejournal.com]

It sure looks a lot better in the White Dwarf version (in my opinion).