Book Covers

Man'o'man, what a jacket.

Apparently the story is pretty gory and murderous, (being reasonably familiar with Palahniuk's stuff, I can only imagine.) So I would assume that explains the arteries and veins and such. To be honest, if it's possibly to critique a treatment like this, I'd say that this doesn't look violent to me. It looks like an elegant study of organs in zero-gravity. (Just sayin.)

That said, the illustrator/artist's other work is staggering: jacobmagraw.com/. Chris, the other 1/3rd of this blog, tells me that his work is tiny. Apparently most of the pieces are postcard sized.

The cover gate folds open to a the book's title, "Rant" embedded into the hard casing. I also love the type on the inner-left fold.

— Ben Pieratt, 2007-06-03 23:42:00

I saw this artist when he showed in Portland, OR. The paintings are highly detailed and some are no larger than a postcard. As far as I can tell, he HAS to paint with brushes no more than a few bristles in diameter. Amazing care and detail, they’re very precious. Please click through to see the weird sticker offer RandomHouse is giving you. I bought the book and will report back, but it looks like it’ll be a great read.

And Palahniuk is one of my favorite authors. His covers have been consistently some of the best ever. He has immaculate taste…

Magraw’s work was also used on the cover (and a few pages inside) of McSweeney’s 20, which was also a mouthwatering piece of design.

I agree that it seems almost a little too elegant for the subject matter, but I think it does a great job of being both elegant and icky at the same time. A big part of the novel has to do with car crashes, so I can’t shake the feeling that this is a mangled piece of human flesh hanging in the air between two colliding cars, like a freeze frame from Deathproof (the Tarantino half of Grindhouse).

This cover stands out above the rest and grabs you from the shelf. I knew it was a novel, but the initial reaction is to think of it as an anotomy book or account. What the hell is this? I just went to that Human Body exhibit at South St. Sea Port, so this resonates on a few levels right now…

Very elegant with the whole die cut for the title. Like a reference marking on a anotomical diagram (fig.). Very sexy.

The only thing I like about this is that there’s no type on the cover save for the ‘R’. But I don’t know anything about Mssr. Palahniuk or the book, but I wouldn’t be attracted to this cover in the store. Nothing special resonates with me; Ian is that really a die cut? I don’t think so?

Palahniuk is writer of Fight Club and other novels that follow a similar vein of storytelling mixed with urban legends, crazy factual evidence, past experience, and hilariously shocking characters.

This reminds me of the european cover for ‘Choke’ – I believe that’s just a full body drawn out in a similar fashion.

This is great! I love that it’s die-cut, thanks for clearing that up. Engaging illustration.

I just picked up my copy of this. There are gold dots around the cover that tie in to the gold letter on the inside cover. Its a beautiful tie in and elevates the premium feel of the jacket. The colors on the amazon image are significantly brighter than the ones on the printing itself (thank you RGB gamut) and are therefore too loud.

I totally just bought this book for its cover – I was in the airport with way too many carry-ons but I just had to have this book because the cover is so amazing!
It is die cut and the title exists only on the cloth book cover, not the jacket front (the “R” of “Rant” shows thru the circle). All the book info is inside – you have to undress the book to find out the actual title which seems like how the story is going in a weird way.

i’m actually about half-way through this labarynthine novel and the cover grows truer to the words the more you read. very appropriate and artfully visualized.

Same as pattilouhoo! In the airport and I only picked up this book because of it’s cover. And then was happy to find out its by my favorite author. Without sounding massively geeky the cover is pretty smooth stock and it feels nice to hold in your hands!
It really stands out in the store.

I read this book over the summer and I’m very familiar with all of Palahniuk’s work (pretty sure Survivor is my fave)

All of his covers have top-notch design and this one is no exception. He picked a good designer in Rodrigo Corral (see the covers for Choke, Survivor, Lullaby, etc.)

He did a fantastic job in representing the pure chaos of Rant. To sum it up in one sentence – it’s one mans journey from small town nobody to big time anti-hero, who just so happens to have rabies. I picked up Rant because it was the next Palahniuk book on the list, and the design just proves how calculated he is with all aspects of his books. Read it and loved it.