Blood Noir

[firefox1490.livejournal.com]

So, I'm sitting on my computer looking for the cover art for the Anita Blake books and I happen to find all the covers lined up nice and neat. I know I cant be the only person thinking this but WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE COVER OF BLOOD NOIR?!?!?! Cause I cant be the only person who sees that it doesnt fit the pattern of Anita Blake book covers.

Comments

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if they're trying to hook in a new audience? The naked covers probably turn away a percentage of possible readers, where the somewhat "horror" aspect of Blood Noir could get them to read.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_shadowstalker_/]

Won't they be surprised once they begin to read?

[firefox1490.livejournal.com]

As a person who picked up the Anita Blake books cause I thought the covers were cool I think this idea sucks. *le sigh* But whatever. What a shock will "horror" fans be in when they actually open the book. But wait! Maybe just maybe LKH is trying to get away from writing porn scripts and back to the old cooler "I have a point" Anita Blake books. *le sigh* Why do I dream so fruitlessly.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

I do wish they had started out more like the new Blood Noir cover because I got some much crap for reading the books with the porn covers. I wasn't allowed to have them at school, and my parents were constantly giving me crap. Although now I think they are far more fitting to the direction the series is going.

[librarista.livejournal.com]

I put the books face down and when I read them, it's in a contorted position to hide the covers. It makes me feel like I'm in high school again and reading Poppy Z Brite and I hate it. But nothing I read in high school had covers like LKH and no one would know what was going on in the book unless they read over my shoulder. It's really uncomfortable to try to hide a book's cover and keep anyone to read over your shoulder.

So far I doubt that the cover is indicative of any major change in the series but at least I can pretend I'm reading some bloody horror slasher novel and not bad porn.

[telaryn.livejournal.com]

*psst* Could I ask you to credit the artist on your icon in your keywords? His name is Ray VanTilburg (he's a friend of mine). The artwork is from one of his t-shirts "Insane Hunger for Books".

Thanks. :)

!

[librarista.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I couldn't remember where I'd gotten the image and now the only one I have is this cropped one so I didn't have much to go by when looking for it. I've added the credit, and I just bought the shirt, too. Then I quickly left the site so your friend wouldn't get all my money today.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

I never understood that about the publishing industry's decisions to make those covers. Like I have never met a romance reader who isn't mortified at people seeing the cover of a harlequin. "Hey! I know what we'll do to attract readers. We'll use the most porntastic covers ever; the horror crowd will love that!"

[librarista.livejournal.com]

Harlequins at least have a couple on the cover. So many paranormal romances have a scantly clad woman. Or half a man's face. I really don't get how paranormal romance as a genre is so afraid of portraying two women liking each other--let alone maybe thinking another woman is sexy or desirable--but they're marketed to women with covers of almost naked women. Books with a man's naked, gleaming, buff chest are embarrassing but I'd think that's nicer to look at for most of the audience than a poor representation of the heroine in red leather and spike-heeled boots. You'd think the covers would be drawing in men. But they're not (that I know of). I don't get it.

[hookncrook.livejournal.com]

The Romance industry changed years ago to the flowers and ribbons and such and had a huge sales jump--I can't figure out why they still do those questionable that make it so shameful to read in public.

[chaosakita.livejournal.com]

Actually, I bought one of the Merry Gentry books to school once, and NO ONE noticed, even when I was laughing about the bad porn through my study hall.

[lovedstrangely.livejournal.com]

she's starting her new Saw inspired phase of covers.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

They changed Mary Janice Davidson's new cover for her next "Undead" book. I'm not sure what is inspiring all this change. Maybe they are aiming for a new audience?

So far I think both new covers suck.

[ayako.livejournal.com]

Really? I've been looking everywhere. Where did you see it? I want to update my community.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

You can find it at her blog here http://www.maryjanicedavidson.blogspot.com/

(http://imageshack.us)

[ayako.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* Her blog should have been the first place I check.

Wow, that's um ugly lol

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

Yeah..and it looks nothing like Betsy would. That makes it worse.

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is a painfully bad five-minute Photoshop job.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

I thought that it looked cheap, too!

[librarista.livejournal.com]

Wow. That looks like a cheesy young adult novel. But it'd make me want to read the book and I really don't like that series.

The original line art is similar to what a lot of chick lit books have and while it was cute before (and I thought it fit the series), it seems overdone. The books needed new covers, but that is just bad. Unless Undead and Unworthy is about Betsy meeting Sonya Blue and getting "How To Be The Ultimate 90s Vampire Kick Ass Queen Bitch" lessons from her. Which I would totally buy. And then not read because Sonya Blue has not aged well. Anyway.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

Uhm..yeah..*hides her own bat pendant* Wow...yeah...totally tasteless... *kicks her bat purse under the desk*

Though, you gotta admit that a vampire would probably NOT wear anything that would scream "VAMPIRE" to the world.

Now goths on the other hand...

[moonbeamdancer.livejournal.com]

Gah, that is ugly...

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Feh, I remember way back when the AB:VH covers had the pulp horror fiction cheesy artwork. I looked long and hard to get those covers, and I know about Bloody Bones there was another change of artist of similar style, but now it was more landscapes with vague horror references to fit in with the SF books. Annnd then along came the "erotic bodypart" series -- which I have hated since the beginning, and lament the loss of the original UK covers that I dubbed the Anita Action Pose Gallery (as those have changed in favour of a GIANT HALF FACE GLARING AT YOU OMG! with vague story references in the background. Really, really vague references) because they were cool. And then along came the guy that did the horrible art from NiC onward. So I applaud the new cover, even if I do have a pair of scissors just like that and so help any dark fey that want to mess with me. I can decapitate someone with a pair of those things.

If you want real WTFery, you should see the animated banner that Darla made for BN. XP

[firefox1490.livejournal.com]

By the time I started reading AB the covers where like that of my GP icon.

What banner?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

That banner. sharkbytes and I found it on the MeatSpace, but Darla posted it in her huge CP bulletin last week, with html of fail. Likewise, pith posted about the Valentine's postcard way before Jon got to it.

The fans seem to know more about what's going on in the author's camp than Team LKH. ~_o

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Goddamn what is it about LKH's minions? Everything they make looks so bad and amateurish. :p Not just the cheesy animation, but the crappy font. At least the spelling and punctuation is relatively intact.

[rfienneslover.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is pretty horrible. I bet that took about ten seconds to make with all the work that was put into it. *LOL* I hope they weren't trying to make it look as if the scissors were cutting.

[zombiexbunny.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[fadeinthewash.livejournal.com]

Wow. They either need to be introduced to Photoshop, or have their Photoshop (and any other photo-editing program they have) taken away. Or even just hire a high school student for $20 to make something twice as attractive in five minutes.

...It's still better than the group picture with them all holding guns and Darla missing her legs.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

well, its not unusual that that series changes cover art. But this new art reminds me of the awful art that was used for that book she did that was based off of the D&D prison realm, which is really weird...