Why Are The US Discworld Book Covers Absolute Pants?

[Sjoerd3000]

I found this Lords and Ladies cover on the interweb to me it looks the same as the Dutch one so maybe there are two different UK covers?

This is the other one:

 

[Tonyblack]

No wonder it looked so familiar to me. It's the cover I have on my hardback. Here it is along with a scan of the back as well.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

And the copy of L&L that I have is the smaller of two - I think that is supposed to be Casanunda with Nanny?

 

[Sjoerd3000]

Yeah looks like Casanunda and Nanny

 

[Tonyblack]

Yeah looks like Casanunda and Nanny

Only by a process of elimination. Neither of them look anything like I imagine Nanny and Casanunda.

 

[Sjoerd3000]

Well Casanunda looks a bit like I imagined him to be, but Nanny not at all she looks very wrong to me on that cover

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

No not too Nanny-like. She's not 'cuddly' enough - but she IS wearing red shoes so she can't be Esme

Looking at that in comparison with the Dutch/hardback picture I think he was playing around with angles and perspectives in that as it's behind Nanny and Casa on the hardback and behind the Erlking in the UK paperback view - definitely different palettes though which is why it looked so odd in Sjoerd's first pic of the hardback but then the 2nd one#s colouration is closer to the paperbacks?

Sorry fussy - layout editor talking here

 

[kakaze]

And why should you be angry at the cover artist for drawing four eyes when the character in the book has four eyes? I was more annoyed with Pratchett for getting a little carried away making Twoflower seem strange and exotic.

It was a misunderstanding apparently. Terry meant that Twoflower was wearing glasses - no one in A-M had seen them before so that's how they described Twoflower. Josh took Terry literally and drew him with four actual eyes.

- [p. 16/16] "[...] found himself looking up into a face with four eyes in it."

On the covers of the first two Discworld books, Josh Kirby actually drew Twoflower with four physical eyes. Consensus on alt.fan.pratchett has it that Terry was trying to get across the fact that Twoflower was wearing glasses ('four-eyes' being a common insult thrown at bespectacled folks), but that Josh Kirby simply triggered on the literal text and went off in a direction of his own. Whether this action essentially shows Kirby's interpretative genius (the KirbyFan explanation) or his inability to get the joke / read very carefully (the NonKirbyFan explanation) is a matter still under discussion.

Well, I can certainly relate to Kirby if this is the case. When I read the book, I read it with Twoflower having four eyes. And this joke isn't used anywhere else (I'm sure there's cases of glasses being used elsewhere, aren't there? I'm sure the headmistress in Thief of Time had glasses because I remember that she tied her face to her own chest with them.) except with twoflower. Isn't there another reference to him having 4 eyes in Interesting Times?

 

[Tonyblack]

Yes, people certainly have glasses in later books - and false teeth and iconographs, but they don't seem to have existed in A-M before Twoflower visited there..

 

[Tina a.k.a.SusanSto.Helit]

They did not have "Dine-Chewers" until Twoflowers showed them to Cohen. Ahh well, should have read Tony's post first.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

Well Cohen and his troll teeth din-chewers were right back in Light Fantastic so not that much more 'innovative' than 'speccy 4-eyes' so far as A-M's concerned and right back at the very beginning more or less.

I rather like that Josh K took the literal approach with Twoflower and gave him 4 eyes, even if he did make rather a spectacle of himself... Seriously though I think it's could've been a missed opportunity that Terry didn't go with the weird and how wonderful to have double the visual opportunities!

 

[Sjoerd3000]

I remember that in Interesting Times Cohen calls Twoflower four-eyes.

 

[The rat]

To me the US covers lack imagination and zeal. It seems that they give a VERY brief idea of what the book is about and a brief look at the UK covers and copy them. Sort of like that agme that kids play at camp. Put a uch of items on a tray take the cover off for a count of five and them place it abck and try to remember what was on the tray.

Sort of like Burtha in Small Gods when he was in Vorbis outer chamber.

It looks like the artist boss said, "LOOK NOW!" (Flashes the UK cover proof then hides it behind his/her back) "Okay, copy that as best you can!"

Whittle! Complete whittle!

Is there anyone who can contact the US editor and have the explain to us why she whittle is produced!

 

[Tonyblack]

Is there anyone who can contact the US editor and have the explain to us why she whittle is produced!

There's nothing stopping you as a consumer contacting Harper Collins, Doug. It might be worth a shot.

 

[The rat]

Is there anyone who can contact the US editor and have the explain to us why she whittle is produced!

There's nothing stopping you as a consumer contacting Harper Collins, Doug. It might be worth a shot.

Actually I am waiting for the US Con to voice my opinion in person about this very topic, and also why there are variencies on the voices that Stephen Briggs does between the UK/ US recording.

Such as King of the Golden River in The Truth his voice is deep and 'cockney' in the UK version and in Making Money he is whiney and proper almost. Threw me for a loop. It's always the small things that grab your attention.

 

[GrayGriffin]

Hmm...I get my books from the library, so I just have to go with what I get...however, the ones there seem to have just a plain cover with a single picture on it and don't look like any of the ones in this thread. The exceptions are the Tiffany Aching books and the Maurice story. Also, looking at U.S. v.s U.K. covers for Hat Full of Sky, I wonder which one the library has. It looks a lot like the US version, but the Feegles are less neon blue.

 

[poohbcarrot]

Hi Griff

As you live in Taiwan, you'll probably get the US editions like I get here in Japan.

Why is beer so expensive in Taiwan? (nice food though)

 

[GrayGriffin]

I have no idea about the beer...no one in our family drinks beer. Anyways, I don't really care what the covers looks like, as long as the story is intact. I also have to say that I don't really like the "full illustration" covers because they look too busy.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Is there anyone who can contact the US editor and have the explain to us why she whittle is produced!

There's nothing stopping you as a consumer contacting Harper Collins, Doug. It might be worth a shot.

Actually I am waiting for the US Con to voice my opinion in person about this very topic, and also why there are variencies on the voices that Stephen Briggs does between the UK/ US recording.

Such as King of the Golden River in The Truth his voice is deep and 'cockney' in the UK version and in Making Money he is whiney and proper almost. Threw me for a loop. It's always the small things that grab your attention.

It depends on what edition of the audio book you have the Isis one (unabridged) or the abridged Harper Collins one different readers.