For one of my what were YA thinkin? posts, I mentioned that frightening covers scare the ever-loving crap out of me. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean I avoid eerie things altogether. I can still appreciate a beautiful cover and be slightly creeped out at the same time.
Take, for example, Brian Keaney’s The Hollow People:
I have a soft spot for a beautifully illustrated covers, and The Hollow People certainly falls into this category. Its lack of color, the swirling mist, and bright moon against the dark tower create a gnawing feeling of dread, a chilling sense of uneasiness. Its title, almost scrawled like a signature, sits in the black void of the design not to overpower the rest of the handcrafted illustration, but to dot it like an i.
Following suit in The Hollow People’s bewitching cover come its successors in The Promises of Dr. Sigmundus series: The Cracked Mirror and The Resurrection Fields.
All three cover designs were crafted by the awesome illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli, who designed both the US and UK covers (US covers are featured in this post). Her work is absolutely gorgeous, haunting and enchanting.
those are beautiful. i do absolutely love nicoletta’s work.
~L
What I think is really great about them is the consistency in layout and general type placement. As someone who loves reading AND collecting, this would be a great set to have on my bookshelf (yes i know that the front covers wouldn’t necessarily be showing). While the color scheme and front cover scenes differ based the specific plot of each book, I love the continuity of the vignette and the sense of ‘horizon’ in each, even though the first book doesn’t technically have one, the slight break from the tops of the buildings to the sky hints at it.
After seeing these beautiful covers I had to have a look at the UK covers of these books to see the difference. How disappointing! Both the hardback and paperback covers are bright and busy and nowhere near as attractive as these. We quite often seem to be short-changed with cover artwork here.