title: The Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project

Weird weird weird. I might have been irritated by the face in the pupil of the eye… thats seems like something I’ve seen in too many sci-fi movies – but because it was done so haphazardly and with panache, combined with the weird and hand-made type (this time not a typeface, thank god) this cover is piercing and tactile. Kudos to the publisher for letting the image of the cover grab your attention, instead of a jumble of quotes and by-lines.

— , 2008-11-06 07:39:00 -0500

I like the concept of cityscape as eyelash. As far as what I want to tweeze out, I think this would be beautiful without the face in the pupil. I don’t know anything about the novel but it seems like overkill. (It seems forced?) Also, I don’t see why “a novel” couldn’t be arched and knocked out within the cityscape, same for “Author of …” reverse-arched and set beautifully beneath the author name. As is they bug me set vertically otherwise I think this is OK.

— Auguste , 2008-11-06 09:31:00 -0500

I really love the layout of the cover and I really appreciate the lack of qoutes or blurbs on the cover (I hope it stays like that and publishers don’t force any in later).

But the first thing that I noticed when I saw it that instantly jumped out and ruined it for me is that fact that the eye is a photograph (it is a photo right it’s hard to be sure) and I feel that maybe it could have been approached in the same style as the cityscape and type treatment and they would have sat together better. Or maybe but the eye out with a sharp edge instead of the odd blur around it.

Otherwise apart from the eye I like it.

— , 2008-11-06 10:02:00 -0500

i love this. i wish the edges of the eye were clearly cut, but then maybe it would look like someone peeking through a piece of paper?
i really like the way the author of line and novel line are sitting- they help it structurally without being incorporated into the concept of the title treatment, clearly secondary info. makes for a very strong hierarchy and sets the art in a frame.

— , 2008-11-06 10:47:00 -0500

It’s cool! The design is by Jamie Keenan.

— , 2008-11-06 11:31:00 -0500

very nice…

— ian b. shimkoviak , 2008-11-06 13:49:00 -0500

Concept is fine… but like so many others this is rough draft material.

As Auguste said, the “novel” and “author of” verticals are goofy afterthoughts. The iris and reflect-o-pupil in the middle are a wacky kind of disaster.

How about instead of the horribly Photoshopped eyeball, you put the face of the man in the center—acting as the iris of the eyeball—in the same cutout fashion of the text and cityscape?

— C-Dog , 2008-11-07 13:30:00 -0500

The book is a novel but its centered around an actual event: the shooting of anarchist (?) Lazarus Averbuch in 1908. The photo in the eyeball is from his actual postmortem shot. You can see more here.

— Ben Pieratt , 2008-11-07 15:04:00 -0500

Oh, so now I know why you haven’t been posting covers.

You’ve gone rogue, Ben?

— C-Dog , 2008-11-08 00:18:00 -0500

Covers is undergoing some maintenance – please stand by – your old comments are not gone.

— , 2008-11-14 01:18:00 -0500

I like the concept of cityscape as eyelash.

— argos , 2008-11-15 21:00:00 -0500

Yeah, the blog is going in a new direction wherein I experiment with covers and the audience and try new things, instead of the same stuff all the time. You’ll live.

— , 2008-11-12 05:56:00 -0500

Apparently in a Knopf/Penguin-and-its-plethora-of-subsidiaries direction. Heh…

— C-Dog , 2008-11-12 20:58:00 -0500