Books spotted 7/1/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry
Joel Shepherd
BREAKAWAY
Pyr
Cover art by Stephan Martiniere
Love the strong diagonal here. Visually, it’s a tall mass-market paperback (in between the scale of a traditional mmp and a trade paperback) and therefore grabs your attention right away. I hear lots of griping about the price point of tall mmps and I’m not getting into that here, but visually, it’s a striking package. Nice work by Jacqueline Cooke to use the format to the art’s advantage and vice versa.
Mark Chadbourn
AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK THREE
ALWAYS FOREVER
Pyr
Cover art by John Picacio
Yup, that’s my cover art. Guilty as charged. And to the left, is the second book in the series, DARKEST HOUR. It’s a nice sight to see them shelved together right there at the front of the store on the New Fiction shelf. AGE OF MISRULE is amongst the best contemporary epic fantasies I’ve ever read. Here’s a quick q&a with Chadbourn, regarding the series.
A. Lee Martinez
MONSTER
Orbit
Cover design by Will Staehle
This cover really pops, doesn’t it? When Orbit initially launched, they were known for cover designs that eschewed illustration. Their initial dependency on photography seemed a bit apologetic when trying to sell works of genre imagination. Not so much lately, and it’s fun to see them mixing illustration into their rosters (see recent covers by John Jude Palencar and Cliff Nielsen), along with their always-strong typographic sense. This cover is smart and bold, and says “pick me up.” However if this book becomes a runaway bestseller, how many copycat canary yellow covers do you think we’ll see from other houses? 
Brian Cronin
WAS SUPERMAN A SPY?
AND OTHER COMIC BOOK LEGENDS REVEALED!
Plume
Cover illustration & design by Mickey Duzyj
I thought this was Chris Ware’s work when I first saw it out of the corner of my eye. It doesn’t have the intricacy of a Chris Ware piece but it’s certainly got a strong Acme Novelty Library riff running through it. That said, it’s a terrific design solution by Duzyj. One of the oldest (and trickiest) tricks in the business of getting noticed is contrast vs. the competing products. Mission accomplished here.
I loved the covers for Joel Shepard’s series the instant I saw them, which includes Crossover, Breakaway, and Killswitch. So much energy. The covers just scream, “Goooo!”
[...] pal Michael sent me this nice review of the cover of Was Superman a Spy? (which, as always, you can purchase [...]