|
Post by Dante on Jun 30, 2014 10:34:13 GMT -5
Context: Egmont are the publishers of All the Wrong Questions in the United Kingdom. Hardie Grant Egmont are a branch which publishes the series in Australia and New Zealand. The two are closely connected, and their covers for ATWQ have, historically, been either identical ( ?2) or barely different ( ?1). As such, it's important to understand that, while the cover below will likely be roughly what the U.K. release of ?3 will look like, it won't necessarily be exactly the same. It's also worth noting that there's a missing border which suggests that this cover is obviously a work-in-progress, and we saw a couple of work-in-progress ?1 covers out of Egmont, so there's every chance that the cover as it appears here will look quite different when ?3 actually comes out in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. Well, that's the boring disclaimer. Here's the cover for the Hardie Grant Egmont edition of ?3 that I found on a New Zealand online retailer this morning: Shouldn't You Be In School? will be released on September 30th.
|
|
|
Post by Isadora Is a Door on Jun 30, 2014 12:07:36 GMT -5
oh thats nice. compared to the other two i mean
|
|
|
Post by The Duchess on Jun 30, 2014 18:44:05 GMT -5
I think this cover is even better"
|
|
|
Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jun 30, 2014 19:33:42 GMT -5
Interesting that they should change the colouring of the illustrations to include blue, and even moreso than orange. Not sure that I like this even distribution of both colours... looks a little garish in my opinion.
|
|
|
Post by Dante on Jul 1, 2014 1:56:43 GMT -5
My take: I don't like that they've flipped the colours. I think that the illustrations should stay orange, the spine should definitely follow the major colour of the book like it has for the first two books, and then the orange illustrated portraits can stand out against a blue background. Just look at that match there below the title, the flame's blue. This is silly. I get that they want to use brighter colours as backgrounds to bring out the darker colours of the illustrations, but it works just as well if not better in reverse, and they'll have the same problem when ?4 is green as well.
The border is, notably, missing and reduced to a white line, so that tells us that this is a definite work-in-progress. I really hope Hardie Grant or Egmont proper reconsider their decision. They should rejig the Hangfire illustration in the lower-left, too; if they move Hangfire's silhouette farther right so that his head's nearer the back of the frame, there'll be more room for the Beast silhouette. You can tell it's been cut off from a larger illustration, ditto the music box, which you can't for their cover for ?2.
I'll give them credit for one thing, though: They've updated the octopus spine again. Those are different expressions to the ones on the ?2 spine (and different again to the ?1 spine, where they had no expressions). It gives me hope that the ?4 spine will include the Bombinating Beast.
|
|
|
Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jul 1, 2014 16:14:33 GMT -5
That's what I was saying about the colour switch... but I don't see how the octopi are different to ?1 apart from lacking an angry octopus. Although I might be confusing the inner papers of ?1 with the spine of the Egmont edition.
|
|
|
Post by Dante on Jul 2, 2014 1:53:03 GMT -5
That's what I was saying about the colour switch... but I don't see how the octopi are different to ?1 apart from lacking an angry octopus. Although I might be confusing the inner papers of ?1 with the spine of the Egmont edition. ?1's spine had only plain octopi, no expressions (and the arrangement of black-on-white and white-on-black octopi was completely arbitrary). I've just checked ?2, and the octopi on that spine had more expressions than I thought, including ones they have on this ?3 - however, they're also shifted across half a diamond. The black-on-white octopi were the most visible full diamonds on ?2's spine, but here it's the white-on-black. So it's a small change, but it's still a change that's keeping the books different, and shows that Egmont's paying attention. That's why I think the Bombinating Beasts will eventually reach the spine for ?4. It's kind of worrying, though. The spine looks like they thought about it, but every other aspect of the cover lacks polish to me, either in the colour or the alignment of the pictures. I'm aware that I would overlook all this if I was happy about the colour, though, so really there's only one thing I think they actually need to do. Edit: Here's proof positive that this is very much a work-in-progress: I found an even earlier version of the cover on another retailer website! It's really small, but you can still make out several important details: Notably, that none of the fire in the illustrations has been left orange, and that they haven't yet replaced the inkling below the title with the match (oops). The spine cuts off nearer to the left, too.
|
|
|
Post by Dante on Jul 14, 2014 10:27:25 GMT -5
Found a bigger version of that draft cover in the previous post. As far as I can tell, the only differences in the improved version in the first post are the swapping of the inkling for the match, and the colouring of some of the fire in the illustrations. And a more obvious placeholder. I hope the final cover is ocnfirmed soon. ?3 is out earlier than the previous books, but the promotion is relatively late. Admittedly, I think they've promoted too early in previous years, but it makes the waiting a lot harder and less predictable.
|
|
|
Post by Dante on Jul 16, 2014 2:53:47 GMT -5
I'm aware that this is of minimal interest to others, but I'm rather fascinated by the cover design process, and it's relative to that that I finally realised (after seeing this draft on a few more AU/NZ retailer sites) what that text box next to the creature below the title says: "REPLACE WITH WHAT?" It's an internal note questioning what cover element from the American ?3 they should use to replace the fishbowl creature. I find it... curious that the match wasn't immediately the obvious choice.
|
|
|
Post by Tryina Denouement on Jul 16, 2014 7:47:42 GMT -5
Looks interesting! The cover reminds me of my new school colors.
|
|