ASoUE Netflix Edition covers are beginning to appear.

[Dante]

As you are perhaps aware, on October 24th, new editions of ASoUE Books the First through Fourth will be issued featuring fresh covers to tie in with and promote the ongoing Netflix adaptation of the series. Now, the cover art for those volumes is starting to appear online.

TBB Source.
TRR Source.
TWW Source.
TMM Source.
TBB-TMM Box Set Source.

The Bad Beginning



The Reptile Room



The Wide Window



The Miserable Mill



TBB-TMM Box Set (low quality)



Presumably, we can eventually expect covers along these lines to appear for all thirteen volumes in the series, within a couple of years. Are you happy with these, or is there something you would change? Discuss.

[Skelly Craig]

They're not too bad considering them as a necessary evil of marketing, I guess.

[A comet crashing into Earth]

I do see how Olaf's Marvelous Marriage costume is the closest thing he comes to a disguise in the first two episodes, but being used to Helquist's illustrations treating Olaf himself as the 'disguise' of TBB (as with the little portraits in each book, and the pictures on the sides of The Complete Wreck), I think I'd have preferred an undisguised Olaf for that one. I'm also a little surprised that they chose to make his disguises a part of the format at all, knowing that he'll stop using disguises before the end of season two (though of course that may be different in the show, but I doubt the people behind the tie-in covers are in close communication with the writers). I wonder what they'll do for THH, too.

[gliquey]

The covers are reasonably good, as far as any cover reading "Now a Netflix original series" can be. One minor thing is that I don't like the look of the V.F.D. eye when it's reflected and/or turned upside-down, in the four corners of the border. Another is that the Baudelaires and Olaf are tiny in the TBB cover but in TMM, the three children fill the entire frame, which looks a little bit odd to me.

Aug 4, 2017 17:05:45 GMT -5 A comet crashing into Earth said:

I wonder what they'll do for THH, too.

You probably know this already, but in Helquist's little portrait, there's just a speaker there, which I do think is quite funny. I imagine that Olaf will get a bigger role / a proper disguise in the Netflix adaptation, so it may not be a problem.

[Dante]

Olaf actually does still have "costumes" for several of the remaining books; an eye-patterned suit in late TSS, a diving suit in TGG (Helquist's art for The Gloom Looms gives him a snappy captain's uniform that can't be canon), his Kit Snicket disguise in The End. If the theme is now "Olaf costumes" rather than "Olaf disguises" or "Olaf identities," I agree the costume department might give him ones for the remaining books just because they can. He can dress as a carnival barker in TCC, for instance, and have an actual disguise for Mattathias in THH; I think it's been suggested on this forum that they could alter the intercom system to include an actual screen, or maybe just show him working behind the scenes. Though personally I think the inanimate intercom is funnier - but it would be perhaps strange for the villain to be off-screen all episode in a TV adaptation, whereas it works in the book because we hear his voice often enough, and in text that's as good as.

Quisby, I think you have a good point about the guardians - but at the same time, they were barely ever illustrated in the books, either. I think the covers, like the titles, are placing their heaviest emphasis on the settings, of which the guardians are merely a feature.

[Liam R. Findlay]

I'm very pleased with these covers, as adaption covers are often halfhearted with promotional imagery or a still from the adaption that we've seen before (like with the books released with the movie). But these seem well considered, with relatively unique imagery (this is the first time I've seen Olaf's Netflix house in full).

[coolcat667]

The TWW cover is out now!

[Esmé's meme is meh]

My opinion: if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

But yeah, it could have been way worse.

[Strangely]

Aug 4, 2017 16:51:28 GMT -5 jim said:

I'd really prefer for the covers for TRR and TWW to include Uncle Monty and Aunt Jo. I guess we don't know about TWW yet, but TRR doesn't, anyway.

Well, we haven't yet seen the spines or the back cover, so there's still a chance they might appear. Too, we don't know if there will be pictures inside the books either.

I like what I've seen so far. Hopefully these end up being actual covers and not dust jackets attached to the old version. TBB cover seems like the best one of the bunch to me.

[Dante]

I've added TWW. There does seem to be a trend of the covers depicting exclusively the Baudelaires and some general indication of the setting, but not the guardian, unless that guardian is Count Olaf. It's good that there's structure, as that leaves room to play with that structure as the series goes along. As noted above, then yes, I think there's a chance that the guardians might appear on the back cover, though of course who exactly constitutes the "guardian" becomes an ever more complex question as the series progresses.

[zinthaniel]

I, aside from the Reptile Room, love them. TRR just seems a bit poorly executed, but the rest are very interesting to look at.

[Violent BUN Fortuna]

I rather wish they weren't bringing out tie-in covers just because I never like the lines between the books & the adaptation being blurred like that, but as such covers go I think they're pretty good, though they do look more like posters than book covers, as has been mentioned.

What I do hope, though, is that after the Netflix show is done, they will either go back to the old covers, or release another new set of covers with Helquist's illustrations again but perhaps in a new design, simply because that might be interesting to see.

[zinthaniel]

I love change so these don't bother me, but I highly doubt the original covers are going anywhere. They are still currently being sold, from what I can tell these covers are only for the hard covers.

[Violent BUN Fortuna]

Ohhh I'm so glad! Often movie/tv covers seem (for a short time, at least) to almost entirely replace other covers -- or certainly to be the most widely available. I've always loved the ASOUE covers so I'm glad they'll still be sold.

[Dante]

Movie and TV tie-in editions are effectively aimed at a different audience to the original covers, so it's possible for the two to co-exist. The original Helquist covers certainly aren't going anywhere, not when they're so iconic that they outcompeted their own intended paperback counterparts despite the inclusion of new art still by Helquist.