May 7, 2008
Episode 6: Cover Art Critique
(Mini) episode 6 for the week of May 4th, in which we criticize/compliment A Song of Ice and Fire cover art for the foreign language editions of the books, discover that Japanese publishers really don’t like Tyrion, and Croatians love camel toe.
Follow along the discussion by viewing all the foreign language edition art at George R.R. Martin’s cover art gallery. Or just listen to us giggle nonsensically for an hour and a half.
30 Comments, Comment or Ping
Wormlips
The sword for Clash of Kings China edition is definitely modeled off bronze age daggers. They eventually became longer and with the advent of iron smelting we got what looks to be the iconic sword. Not sure what a bronze age dagger/sword has to do with a clash of kings.
May 7th, 2008
Mo
Mimi,
You are offically my hero and for your hilarious comments on cameltoe I shall make you a salt wife. Aaron can come to cause he noticed it all.
May 7th, 2008
Anjou
once again great job. While the lack of testosterone worried my masculinity at first, I grew to love it as time went on.
May 7th, 2008
mimi
wormlips – thanks for dropping the knowledge, that definitely makes more sense now. i wish they would have swapped it out for the game of thrones cover, as that would have correlated better.
mo – hooray!
anjou – just you wait til girls night out. i swear we’ll do a way better episode than the guys.
May 7th, 2008
Wormlips
These podcasts have a great thing going for them. You guys (and gals) are so lighthearted about the series that it actually makes it easier to stay attentive. If no corny humor was injected and everyone entered into serious debates…zzzz it would be like listening to a bunch of self proclaimed lord of the rings scholars. I guess this way it reaches a greater audience. Great job! Keep it up.
May 7th, 2008
Anonymous
The books in German have different names because they are split up. A Game of Thrones is indeed the first two covers you can see because due to German grammar they become extremely long. It’s like adding 50% extra pages to a book if you translate it from English into German, and in AGoT that would’ve meant publishing a book heavy enough to get killed with.
May 7th, 2008
Anonymous
I really should have been wearing my glasses. Some of my comments are pretty retarded.
May 7th, 2008
Aaron
Woops. Forgot to add my name.
Uh.
Iron Man is awesome.
May 7th, 2008
Chris
Indeed.
Iron Man is quite awesome.
May 7th, 2008
Amin
Cool episode. Makes me wish I was there, hah. I guess I was though in a way (the cover reference =D)
May 7th, 2008
wormlips
All my books are harper-collins but I don’t think that the US bantam covers are all that bad. Oh wait the ones that have out of context cover art can rightly be said to SUCK! I agree that they are a turn off to the average reader. I remember when I picked up the harper-collins a game of thrones and thought this would be another generic fantasy novel. I mean lets face it, all fantasy novels are praised. Damn the world of marketing. All the Conan/Frodo/Al’Thor wannabe art that is being replicated has made me disinterested in anything remotely akin to fantasy. Go with the old school plain covers!
May 8th, 2008
Slurpee_E
Funny episode. I think the gate with the two horses is Vaes Dothrak.
I can totally see the glowing Mr. Burns as an other too.
Also, Iron Man rules.
May 8th, 2008
Anjou
The Spanish CoK cover art with Dany both aroused and terrified me. She gets no love, no respect I tell ya!
May 8th, 2008
Anonymous
the Spanish cover art is by far my favorite. The Dany one is amazing and the Kingsmoot one rules
May 8th, 2008
lina
Hey, you guys left Davos out of the poll! ;_;
May 9th, 2008
Aaron
SHGDISDHGSHGDKHUDHSDHKSDHKSDKS
Yeah they talked about it in tonight’s recording. Thanks to both of you for the spoiler 🙁
I seriously don’t want to know anything about the next book.
LA LA LA LA LA NOT LISTENING
May 9th, 2008
Anjou
Me neither. Go away for foul fiend. Ever since I found Westeros.org and this broadcast my entire fantasy world has come crumbling down. UGH
May 9th, 2008
wormlips
he he! Relax I have yet to read AFFC so you’re not the only one’s being slapped with info.
May 9th, 2008
a podcast of ice and fire
sorry wormlips, i was asked to delete your comment because our podcast will remain as spoiler-free as possible for adwd.
May 9th, 2008
wormlips
nah thats cool! I apologize and in future I’ll try to keep my worms in check…k cheesy, I know, but I’m bored stupid.
May 9th, 2008
Jovi
You know what movie I really, really enjoy? “Broken Arrow”. I love it because the mentor in the story ends up becoming the antagonist. How often does that happpen? I just watched it and had to comment. 🙂
May 9th, 2008
Mo
The best one hast to be eaither demon baby Tyrion or the Chinese Game o’ Thrones with the Barbarian, Dragon, and Hunky Man amidst the floating green chasms. WTF CHINA? Or whoever made that one.
May 9th, 2008
Anjou
Jovi: I can cite at least three instances when the mentor becomes the antagonist.
Batman Begins
Star Wars Episode 3
Scarface
They might be a stretch, but that’s how I saw them.
May 9th, 2008
wormlips
Jovi I’m looking at imdb and broken arrow got a fairly dodgey rating.
May 9th, 2008
Jovi
Anjou,
Ha, you’re right! I have seen all those and never really saw them that way. Good observation.
Wormlips,
I know it has a crappy rating. But I still like it. 🙂
Hm, I seem to always speak off-topic. I guess I should quit doin that. 😛
May 9th, 2008
KyleM
That was a great episode. Interactive podcasts. Not a bad idea. I had a great time listening to your discusion while I looked the the corresponding covers.
You guys were on the french covers of Clash of Kings and I skipped ahead a cover or two and saw the second Melissandra one and I though hmm looks like shes opening up her top and flashing someone and then when you guys got there the first thing mimi says is “looks like shes flashing someone”. Haha I started cracking up.
Great job.
Peace
May 10th, 2008
Carly
So hey.
Just wanted you to know.
I’m dissatisfied with the work you did on the, uh, korean cover of a game of thrones.
🙂
May 13th, 2008
SoS_AP_5
errr, someone at one point said “Czechoslovakian cover”.
Come on, people, what year are we living in? 😀
May 15th, 2008
Aaron
It might have been me. To be fair, the website says ‘czech’, and I have removed relatives that came from the former Czechoslovakia and still refer to it that way.
May 21st, 2008
SoS_AP_5
It was one of the girls. 😀
May 23rd, 2008
Reply to “Episode 6: Cover Art Critique”