Discworld Poll 1: Top 10 favourite Josh Kirby covers.
- Thread starter UnseenTerryPratchett
- Start date
Hello there fellow discworld forum members! New here, and also new to the disk itself as of last year! Im trying to find out information on the cover artists, because I've got snuff, Unseen Academicals and Raising Steam with cover artwork by Paul Kidby, but how many other book cover artists have contributed to the artwork, does anyone know? Also which Discworld book did Paul Kidby first do the artwork for? Im just starting to build my collection of Terry's fine books, but need help with this issue because I'd rather own the books with artwork by kidby, if he's done a whack of them. Appretiate any advice from the no-doubt well initiated discworld fans that I sense in abundance here, - methinks Im in safe hands!! 
Welcome to the site!
Pretty much all the Discworld books until Nightwatch were done by Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby took over after that. That's as far as the UK covers are concerned. There are lots of illustrators in various counties doing covers for different language versions. Indeed there's a section here showcasing the French covers.
Pretty much all the Discworld books until Nightwatch were done by Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby took over after that. That's as far as the UK covers are concerned. There are lots of illustrators in various counties doing covers for different language versions. Indeed there's a section here showcasing the French covers.
Hi TonyBlack, and many thanks from a fellow Welshman, Im down south west Near Llanelli! It is the british covers I'll be accumulating yes, So Paul Kidby did all the british covers after nightwatch to the present you say? Thats a great help! And Josh Kirby did all the british cover artwork for nightwatch and everything prior to it? Is that all there is for our British editions? If so I breath a sigh of relief, I thought it would be quite alot more complicated than that! I get confused with the early releases especially, because there seem to be many variations of artwork for some books, even different covers for american releases etc?
Just to clarify - Nightwatch's cover was done by Paul Kidby, Josh Kirby having passed away in the meantime.
Original UK version of Colour of Magic had artwork by Alan Smith . Hard to come by these days though -
Fairly comprehensive list of additions and artwork for UK and other editions is saved here -
http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/discworldpages/dwindex.htm
Fairly comprehensive list of additions and artwork for UK and other editions is saved here -
http://www.colinsmythe.co.uk/discworldpages/dwindex.htm
Most of the early US releases had the Josh Kirby covers, though sometimes with the colors shifted. However, the SF Book Club releases have always had their own cover artists (some very good). There was an oddball paperback release of The Colour of Magic that had a completely different cover, showing the dragon vanishing from under a realistically drawn Rincewind and Twoflower. I think it was Harper that began having separate covers for the US editions; they went through several phases, and even the really wretched ones seemed to sell better in the US than the Kirby covers. Sometimes we get lucky and we get the Paul Kidby cover, as on the Science of Discworld books and the spinoffs. Mostly we get iconic covers with a single symbolic drawing.
Oh great, thank you Pip and Tony for the info! I've just purchased first edition's of witches abroad and Men at arms, I would like to read them in some sort of order, but going postal is next on the "to-read" list, once I've finished raising steam. Taken quite a shine to Mr Lipwig, scallywag that he is! As well as the link to cover work mentioned above, I've also found a very good comprehensive one, here is the link -
http://www.lspace.org/books/covers/index.html
dont know if anyone here is aware of it? When you click on discworld titles, it shows you all the different covers that have been released for that particular novel, - perfect for identifying which ones are 1st edition uk covers etc. Perfect for me anyway! I was worried I wouldnt be able to correcty identify covers before purchasing the book. On e bay for example when you search for a title, the listing often does not have the cover artist mentioned.
http://www.lspace.org/books/covers/index.html
dont know if anyone here is aware of it? When you click on discworld titles, it shows you all the different covers that have been released for that particular novel, - perfect for identifying which ones are 1st edition uk covers etc. Perfect for me anyway! I was worried I wouldnt be able to correcty identify covers before purchasing the book. On e bay for example when you search for a title, the listing often does not have the cover artist mentioned.
Hello,
I'm new here and I want to know more about the covers.
Since you've mentioned this was a fairly comprehensive list, I was hoping that it will have all the information on one place (or at least most of it ), but the link is broken - do you know if there is a backup/mirror site that I can check?
I'm collecting info on the covers and will try to share it in the forum as soon as it makes some sense.. (for me at least).
As far as the actual topic goes - I haven't done a list with my top 10 favourite covers, but since I like Kirby's work, I will try to make one when my covers searches are complete.
I'm new here and I want to know more about the covers.
Since you've mentioned this was a fairly comprehensive list, I was hoping that it will have all the information on one place (or at least most of it
), but the link is broken - do you know if there is a backup/mirror site that I can check?I'm collecting info on the covers and will try to share it in the forum as soon as it makes some sense.. (for me at least).
As far as the actual topic goes - I haven't done a list with my top 10 favourite covers, but since I like Kirby's work, I will try to make one when my covers searches are complete.
Welcome to the site!
Unfortunately, Colin Smythe's site is down at the moment. I understand he is working on getting it going again, but there is a list of the covers on Lspace. LSpace.org/covers.
I hope this helps. If not, ask here for specifics and we'll try to do what we can to answer.
Unfortunately, Colin Smythe's site is down at the moment. I understand he is working on getting it going again, but there is a list of the covers on Lspace. LSpace.org/covers.
I hope this helps. If not, ask here for specifics and we'll try to do what we can to answer.
