Comments on: Cover cliches

By: Gewinne

Gewinne — Sun, 16 May 2010 13:07:56 +0000

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By: Mickey Factz

Mickey Factz — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:54:25 +0000

I apprecite your thoughts!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:35:01 +0000

LOL @ Scott. I was thinking the same thing, from the covers I’ve seen over many years. It seems like it’s only been recently that some covers actually move away from that and try to reflect more acurrately the tone or story of the book. When I first saw a much smaller pic of this graph on another page and couldn’t read the words, I just assumed that the tallest bar would be the stat representing T&A.

Actually, though the information is not given, I wonder of all the categories listed, how many of them are actually of provocative or scantily clad women, combined with those things. Stilettos and Damsel are a given, but how many are ‘woman and sword’, ‘woman and glowy magic’, ”woman and horse, etc…

And in response to Hillsy’s comment. A lot of subgenre’s fall under “Fantasy”, like ‘Urban’ or Modern Fantasy, and seeing as how it’s often action and or mystery related, many protagonists and other characters are armed against one another with modern things. Like firearms.

By: The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: November 12, 2009

The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: November 12, 2009 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:12:14 +0000

[...] SciFi Blog charts out the Cover Cliches of speculative fiction, ranging from unicorns to the ever ubiquitous [...]

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:19:07 +0000

I think people could still use those things on their covers, but they need to think of more original ways to use them. Obviously, something like another book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini will have to use the same type of dragon image though. In that case, I say stick with consistency. Overall, just make sure your book actually includes what you picture on the cover. Don’t have a photo of a sword of unicorn if the book doesn’t have either. lol.

By: David Ellis

David Ellis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:10:32 +0000

Personally I’m more interested in cover art that’s good than cover art that tries to avoid elements that are popular.

God help us if fantasy illustrators start avoiding dragons because its a “cliche”.

If Donato had though that way we wouldn’t have this magnificent cover painting:

http://www.donatoart.com/ftsy/drshadow.html

By: Scott Jensen

Scott Jensen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:27:24 +0000

Where’s the stat on scantily clad women with big tits?

By: Hillsy

Hillsy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:12:16 +0000

Guns? On more Fantasy covers than staffs?

While I’m not disposed to the idea of having guns in fantasy, surely the trope leans more towards a society predating firearms?

Or while they were surveying did they accidentally take a detour through ‘war’ and ‘gangsta rapper biography’?

By: Annalee Newitz

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:36:46 +0000

I think what this means is that Jeff needs to include some kind of genetically-engineered unicorn in his next novel so we can see what Coulthart does with it.

By: davidadurham

davidadurham — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:29:47 +0000

I bet twenty years ago more of them would’ve had unicorns.