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5th Ugly Covers Competition

News 64
 

  

cover no. 19

 

cover no. 17

   

cover no. 18

I’m enclosing 19 uglycovers, most of which were submitted by you. Unfortunately I don’t think they come up to the “ugly” standard we’re accustomed to but they will do. Enjoy. As always please select your favourites by number and Tam will do her usual wonderful job of selecting a winner. Thanks Guys.   

cover no. 16

  

cover no. 11

      

cover no. 15

 

cover no. 13

 

cover no. 12

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

cover no. 14

 

cover no. 11

          

cover no. 10
cover no. 5

          

cover no. 2
cover no. 7
cover no. 9

cover no. 8

 

cover no. 6

 

cover no. 4
cover no. 3
cover no. 1cover no. 2cover no. 2

          

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64 comments

  • I’m in full agreement on number 11. Funny, usually when I vote at this site and choose a number I’m getting a hottie. This may cast a pall on future Fridays. Then again, hot men are sure to get me over the trauma.

  • Yeesh! I’m with Tam and Eden – #11 is… beyond any words, but disturbing is close enough. I’ll never be able to look at a string of pearls again without cringing. Thanks for that. I need to go wash my eye balls now!

  • While #11 is weird, disturbing, and in bad taste, it’s not nearly as ugly to me as #17, which screams ‘do not buy this book’! Seductions and devils, no, and in Poser, double triple no. Pity the wolf who got decapitated and his head stuck on a spike in #12.

    #17 is my vote.

  • Yeah, most of these are weird and disturbing, but I hate to think what lurks between the covers of some of these. Ick.

    My vote goes to #17, which is oh so appealing (NOT), #12 is a very, very close second.

  • Hmm. 11 certainly is disturbing, but I think it’s exactly what the artist intended, and therefore not *bad*, just (very much) not to my taste.

    Unlike my choice, #14, which I think is supposed to look like a tender or passionate moment, but instead looks like a man wearing a rubber swimming cap is breaking the neck of a man who has contracted a rare disease that turns his chest hair acidic and makes it eat into his skin. Maybe it’s a mercy killing. At any rate, this one completely tumbled over the edge into the Uncanny Valley for me and should be burnt.

    (#12 runs a VERY close second. I had a lot of trouble telling them apart.)

  • Hi Wave,
    where are Roy&Al?
    Too funny,too gross or too boring?*lol*
    Or do you add them to the next Friday Guys? 😀
    s.

  • I’m going to have to agree that while no. 11 is definitely disturbing, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s ugly since I believe this is what they were trying to achieve. Therefore, I’m going to say no. 17. If I were Gracie, I would definitely not be seduced by this ugly, flying demon.

    • Okay, so yes cover 11 made me sick too, but since words on it made me sick even more than a picture I went to Amazon to check out what the book is about and thank goodness it looks to be sociological/historical book which explores the concept and (from the review and blurb) it does not look like a homophobic book. That made me feel a little bit better, even though cover is still ugly lol 🙂

      But anyway, that makes it possible for me to vote for cover number 17. Oh boy.

      • I can’t quite figure out what appointment Terry in cover #3 is headed off to? 🙂 I wonder what the guy in cover no. 1 is doing because the cover says it’s a water sports handbook for men. LOL

  • At last, the truth about where pearls really come from! All that stuff about oysters is just lies!

    Ahem.

    I think I’ll vote for 17. It’s yucky! The combination of “seducing” and a big ass scary demon is not a fortuitous one. I have a character named Gracie in the draft I just finished. Now I just want to hug her and tell her that I won’t let the demon thing seduce her.

    And what’s with the way that demon’s tail appear to be growing out the middle of its back?

    • JFM
      Gracie might like the devil. The tail – well I can’t figure it out. You guys came up with these covers, I didn’t.

      Tam is the head honcho for this competition and she will have the enviable task of picking a winner after all the votes have been counted.

  • My vote goes to 12. Badly put together and jarring to the eyes. The others, like 16, might be gross, but they at lest provoke the grossness well.

    • Amy
      Don’t you think No. 11 would look delightful on one of your books? DSP has some wonderful artists – I’m sure they could come up with something. LOL

  • Hi wave,

    you’re right, these are mostly not “ugly” but right away heinous. What are people thinking?

    I’ll go for no 9, with No 11 as a close second.

  • I’m going with the group on this one and saying that cover no. 11 is the most dreadful of the selections. I see one or two others above that are pretty bad, but not as bad as number #11. If they consider themselves an artist, why would the people that create these covers let the covers see the light of day? Yowza, I’d be mortified. And the poor authors too, it can’t help their sales. Can it?

  • I cannot figure out what’s going on in number 13. I keep looking at it and it makes less sense the more I stare.

    I can see a chin, a nose and a mouth but everything else on that face is wtf.

  • Wow, there are so many really ugly covers this time! The winner, or loser, should be #11. What were they thinking with that cover???? YUK!!

  • Whoa. You’ve got some messes goin’ on there, Wave.

    I hate to admit it (truly I do), but I can take Poopin’ Pearls better than the bizarre, disjointed mix of elements in #12. What exactly is this cover supposed to be telling us?

    We have a.) a central figure with stringy hair and the physique of a troll, b.) a waxy dude stretched out on the ground, c.) the Grim Reaper,

    d.) my late, smiling dog Buddy (RIP), and e.) two hideous, dissonant fonts in two hideous, dissonant colors.

    So, just based on the awkward, amateurish muddle of glommed-together…stuff, I’m going with #12. (But, yeesh, some of the others are mighty damned ugly, too!)

    • K.Z

      based on the amateurish muddle of glommed-together…stuff, I’m going with #12. (But, yeesh, some of the others are mighty damned ugly, too!)

      We try to please. 😉

  • P.S. Sorry for the broken paragraph. Whenever I try to edit a comment here, the text block keeps jumping around and bouncing back to the first few lines. Can’t seem to get past them without something going kaflooey. What’s up with that?

    • KZ
      Christian is screening other “comment” plug-ins. They all seem to have problems but we hope to have one installed that addresses the problems of the current plug-in.

  • I have a particular dislike of poorly executed CG artwork, so 8, 12, 14 and 17 are all contenders. However, if I had to pick one . . . I think it’s got to be the beheaded werewolf one – not only does the guy have supremely disturbing musculature, but girlishly flowing tresses covering his best feature. What a waste! So, that’s a vote for 12.

    • Josephine
      I have to believe that out there somewhere people actually buy books with these covers or else how would the artists live? The people I am most sorry for are the authors. 🙁

      • Wave,
        I suspect that some of the worst covers are designed in house, by someone whose first job is editing or something else. I just can’t believe a professionally trained artist could be guilty of creating something so ugly, unless it was on purpose.

        And yes, poor writers 🙁

    • You are such a wimp Steph. Some of the covers I discarded were vile. You guys are getting the benefit of my “censorship” expertise.

  • My eyes!
    As a former winner I feel I can say these all beat my er “winning” cover by miles. #11 is creepy but so are #3 and #4…but this was a tough choice. I feel sory of grimy now…

    • You were a winner when the competition was just getting going, now the standards are much higher (or lower).

      BTW someone sent in another of your covers but I didn’t want to upset you so I didn’t include it in the post because it might have won I didn’t want you to be mad, again. 😉

  • ZOMG!! And did I see that you censored some pics?? I don’t think I even want to know what the vetoed covers look like. Congrats to everyone who found those masterpieces 😀 I have to vote for #11 like pretty much everyone else – I think my chin has a bruise from where it hit the desk when I saw this. This cover’s bad taste has to be the biggest shame of the book.

    In the runner-ups, I find #15 creepy because that face reminds me of that other ghost we saw in the movie Ghost – you know, the guy in the subway who helped Patrick Swayze learn how to kick a can for real? #12 is one of the worst CGI works I’ve ever seen – what kind of book is that supposed to be? – #9 and the fiery skeleton is just plain weird, and #7 seriously has me wondering if the guy is going to choke to death on the girl’s breast.

    Thanks as always for the entertainment dearie :).

    • Mary
      Where were you this time? You always provide me with the best covers but I think even you will admit that the selection here is not half bad. LOL

      I think poor Tam is busy washing her eyes out with Javex before she tabulates the votes. 🙂

  • You can all continue to mock and point your fingers at No. 11…but I bet that guy who can shit pearls has his house paid off!!!

    Ha!! Made you stop and reconsider for a second there, didn’t I? ; )

  • Oh my Wave, you really picked some awesomely bad covers this year….good job! I hope you have recovered lol! It was a close vote for me, cause #10 has me incredibly confused and scared however, I can’t quite see properly yet, but I must agree that #11 is….eeeeek! I read all the other comments, and I don’t have a single intelligent thing to add…..though Ethan’s comment still has me laughing AND shuddering, dammit!

    *runs off to search for the eye drops*

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