Death in 4 Colours

I think that might count as postmodern - if anything counts as postmodern any more.

The Moon Pool

"What secret compulsion made this lovely girl the handmaiden to unnatural horrors?"

Amerika

Connecticut, 1948 > hand-drawn dystopia by the somewhat renouned modernist Alvin Lustig. See also, if you can find it, his beatiful cover for the poems of Garcia Lorca.

The Informers

New York, 1994 > a fairly unusual, though not unheard-of phenomenon: where a cover designer 'covers' the work of a previous designer. Is this attempting to draw a parallel between the works? But if so, how many people would have taken the hint?

The Castle of Otranto

London, 1929 > Difficult to see at this resolution, but the border is made up of a chain of skull-and-crossbones. A classic design contribution to the imagery of the 'gothic'.

Free Fall

London, 1959 > a very detailed lithographic print runs right around from front to back - though the detail is sufficiently faded to let the key image and lettering stand out.

A 'naive' style of hand-drawn imagery - usually much simpler than this, was very popular during the 1950s. Hans Tisdall was the most celebrated practitioner of the style.

Great Apes

London, 1997 > Will Self's writing bores me shitless, but this cover is amazing.

Recipe: take two recognisable images (monkey, man-in-suit), and blend them together. The uncanny result will make your cover stand out from the rest.

Hatred of Capitalism

Los Angeles, 2001 > a red rose and a plastic spoon; a fair summary of contemporary political ideologies as a whole.

Ho Paura di Morire

Milan, 1962 > this dark skinned villain is about to cop it on the chin - straight from the long right arm of the law. Pow!

For many decades, the colour yellow (giallo) had an ongoing association with novels that could be expected to be page-turners, if not downright risque. Gollancz used this association to create the cross-over potential of 'respectable' books that were packaed as popular best-sellers (see below).

The Hound of the Baskervilles

London, 1959 > 'Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than the savage face that broke upon us out of the fog.' (from the final scenes - quoted on the back cover)

If only the cover illustrator could have matched the sensational scarification of the back cover text.

The Intelligentsia of Great Britain

London, 1935 > in the 1930s, Victor Gollanz hit upon a publishing masterstroke, giving his list a strong visual identity by covering each book in bright yellow paper. Covers such as this were desiged by the ingenious Stanley Morison.

Comrade Kirsanov is Called Upon to Speak

Soviet Union, 1930 > design this brilliant almost makes life in the Soviet Union seem enviable. After all, you wouldn't be likely to pick up copies anywhere west of Poland.