"This day's experience, set in order, none of it left ragged or lying about, all of it gathered in like treasure and finished with, set aside." –Alice Munro, "What is Remembered"
I purchased the following four paperbacks with cover art by the great Richard Powers late last year from an online seller, and this morning I finally roused myself to scan them for display on RCN:
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To view all of the covers with art by Richard Powers that I’ve scanned and posted thus far in the life of RCN, start here.
I posted cover scans of books one and two of “The Justice Cycle” by Virginia Hamilton as part of RCN’s visual tribute to Leo Dillon when he died back in May 2012. I have since acquired book three, The Gathering, so now, naturally, I’m here to post a scan, or rather, one new scan and two old scans, since I think some of you might appreciate seeing the three covers displayed together in one post. Enjoy!
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To view all of the work by Leo and Diane Dillon that I’ve scanned and posted so far, start here.
Earlier today, publisher Annie Koyama posted to announce that Koyama Press has four new titles set to debut in Spring 2013: Very Casual and Lose #5 by Michael DeForge, Journal by Julie Delporte and Everything Takes Forever by Victor Kerlow. Certainly, every one of those titles is going to be worth a look, at the very least, but I have to say, the book I am most looking forward to, the book I will definitely buy, sight unseen, is the 152-page DeForge collection, Very Casual:
Here’s the publisher’s description:
Culled from mini comics, online comics and anthology contributions, Very Casual collects notable short stories from DeForge’s prolific oeuvre. Included are stories about litter gangs, meat-filled snowmen, righteous cops, beagle/human hybrids, and forest-bound drag queens. Very Casual also collects “Spotting Deer,” which won the Pigskin Peters Award for best non-traditional, non-narrative or avant-garde work at the 2011 Doug Wright Awards
You can read a great many comics stories by DeForge for free online at What Things Do and via DeForge’s Tumblr stream or WordPress blog.
Now get ready to buy the book!
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I don’t often buy Western novels for the cover art. But here are five that I did buy. They’re not masterpieces, by any means. Each one, however, displays some feature or other that, for me, distinguishes it from the usual boring, middle-of-the-road, realist action scenes that publishers apparently think that readers of Western novels prefer to gawk at:
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All of the cover artists in the above group are uncredited, but two of the covers are legibly signed, so I’ve included their names in the file names. Two other covers are also signed, but I can’t make out the signatures, nor can I find any credit information on any other websites.
Enjoy?
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I scanned the following book from my personal collection, as usual, but in the interests of full disclosure, I feel I should warn you that I also did a bit of work on the image with GIMP to remove some unfortunate and obtrusive stains. Here’s hoping that my ham-handed “improvements” don’t spoil your viewing experience…
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Eerie Presents El Cid, with script by Budd Lewis and art by Gonzalo Mayo, is available now from a bookseller near you. The publisher is Dark Horse.
Neither Mark Kilby Stands Alone nor Mark Kilby and the Miami Mob includes a formal credit for the cover artist. The art for Mark Kilby and the Miami Mob, however, is signed “Abbett” — short for Robert K. Abbett — in the shadow cast on the ground by the reclining blonde woman in the straw hat:
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ABOVE: Robert Caine Frazer, Mark Kilby and the Miami Mob (New York: Pocket Books, 1960), with cover art by Robert K. Abbett.
ABOVE: Robert Caine Frazer, Mark Kilby Stands Alone (New York: Pocket Books, 1960).
As usual, both of the above covers were scanned by me from crumbling old paperbacks in my personal collection.
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I did a lot of quick-and-dirty cleanup on the above cover scan with GIMP to make it presentable. My sincerest apologies (and best wishes!) to everyone who actually knows how to use image editing software.
BONUS LINKS:
Ragged Claws Network > Archie’s Christmas Stocking (1957) – Archie Giant Series #4
Ragged Claws Network > Archie’s Christmas Stocking – Archie Giant Series #15
“Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.”
— Washington Irving
Ragged Claws Network 