Covers

We do book cover design

Dororo, Volume 1

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

title: Dororo, Volume 1

author: Osamu Tezuka

publisher: Vertical

available at Amazon.com

Dororo, Volume 1

A “classic thriller manga featuring a youth who has been robbed of 48 body parts by devils.” Very offbeat choice of cover designers, perhaps a sign of maturation/mainstreaming of the genre? Except that there’s nothing at all mainstream about the designs… at any rate, a trilogy of Win for Mr. Mendelsund.

I believe that Peter Mendelsund is the art director of Vertical now (taking over for Chip Kidd) although, I could be wrong.
It is a wonderful juxtaposition of images and simple restrained type.

GK , 2008-07-28 12:22:00 -0400

Freaking great. Been drooling over these ever since I saw one on PM’s website. I love their playfulness, and the repetition/sequencing of imagery.

, 2008-07-28 15:15:00 -0400

kinda cool, kinda ugly. What is it with american designers and keylined circles with letterspaced trade gothic caps (Gall, Kidd etc etc)?

, 2008-07-28 15:38:00 -0400

LOVE this, love “Mr. Mendelsund’s” work.

Auguste , 2008-07-28 17:17:00 -0400

Very nice. And I like the bars under the name giving the volume number.

AJT , 2008-07-28 21:49:00 -0400

amusing. Haven’t read this particular manga, but as a manga cover it works. Like the internal organs.

boblet , 2008-07-29 00:27:00 -0400

These are three hot covers. They’re certainly eye-popping. As a series they work, but the books are quite similar, yes? Aside from the thinning of clutter from volume 1 to 3, and a slight rearrangement of similar shapes, they’re pretty similar.

They remind me of Chuck Palahniuk’s “Rant” cover: http://covers.fwis.com/rant

C-Dog , 2008-07-29 01:27:00 -0400

They are Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of a series, of course they are going to be similar.

GK , 2008-07-29 03:03:00 -0400

ditto on the letterspaced trade gothic caps comment. it’s been the typeface of the gods for a while now. but it has a stoic confidence that contrasts nicely to the absurdity surrounding it.

interesting to overlay 2 completely different illustration styles. they strike a balance between visual integration with contrast or vibration. seems ‘stuck on’ but also working together over the whole of the layout.

, 2008-07-29 03:35:00 -0400

“They are Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of a series, of course they are going to be similar. ”

Similar, yuh. But from across the room even Tezuka might have trouble recalling which volume is which. What we have here, folks, is a higher art version of the encyclopedia syndrome.

C-Dog , 2008-07-29 05:13:00 -0400

i wonder if it is intentional that the overlaying of illustrations becomes less dense as the series progresses? volume 3 has much more of the neutral skin color space. maybe he was running out of clippings?

, 2008-07-29 06:37:00 -0400

These are fantastic and I love the gradual disappearing of the body parts and the addition of the bars. The two different illustration styles make it so interesting I can’t stop looking at them.

The type I really like also but I know what its like to be stuck in a typeface rut. I go through spells myself. I wonder if there was a particular reason behind the typeface choice or not.

Arthur , 2008-07-29 09:15:00 -0400

i’ve always liked these. Vertical has really been a cream-dream client for those 2. They’ve gotten away with some wild stuff for them—good and bad—but all wild.

I love type face ruts.

ian shimkoviak , 2008-07-29 09:27:00 -0400

I’m steeling myself for the onslaught…but here goes. These are kind of a mess visually, and would make interesting wrapping paper but great book cover design – not sure.

Hamish , 2008-07-29 10:39:00 -0400

I am not slaying anybody today.
It makes sense for manga, both in subject and execution. I think maybe I would have changed the cartoon-carachters a tad, but then I haven’t seen the actual covers.
Messy – yes. I think that is the point. Manga tend to be.

boblet , 2008-07-29 11:26:00 -0400

I would love wrapping paper like this…

ian shimkoviak , 2008-07-29 14:45:00 -0400

it would be cool to sell sets of wrapping paper like this, where you wrap it lots of times. the outer layer would be skins and epidermis images, them muscle and bone under that and then internal organs. but what would the gift be? funny gift for a surgeon

, 2008-07-30 02:53:00 -0400

Ditto on the paper. Apparently the underscoring of the author (one, two or three lines) denotes the japanese symbol for one, two or three. So not just decorative!

Della , 2008-07-30 07:25:00 -0400

noteworthy

love the packages for Vertical in general. in an interview I saw from earlier this year, Peter Mendelsund talks a little about working on Dororo and for Vertical:

“What were some of the highlights while working with Vertical and designing the covers for Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo?”

one question for fwis.
where do you get the book covers from?
is it mostly by people’s submissions?
thanks.

, 2008-08-01 01:27:00 -0400

Currently most covers are found & curated by us. This will likely change in the future to invite more guest curators and submissions.

, 2008-08-02 13:48:00 -0400

Re: the thinning of the background images as the series goes on. I think this is meant to reflect the progression of the plot—the youth who was robbed of his 48 body parts gradually recovers more and more of them as the story goes on. At the end of book 3 his quest is still incomplete but the story ends.

, 2008-10-24 16:51:00 -0400

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yapay havuz , 2009-12-03 09:48:08 -0500

Wonderful man, thanks

elektronik sigara , 2010-01-08 13:45:21 -0500

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garlica , 2010-01-20 08:04:29 -0500

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red pepper , 2010-01-28 06:29:40 -0500

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