TCATHR Penguin Classics Pre-order

BeelzeBob

BeelzeBob

Acolyte
9780143133148


You can now go on Amazon and pre-order the Penguin Classics edition of The Conspiracy Against The Human Race. It's showing a release date of October 2, 2018. New preface!!

https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Against-Human-Race-Contrivance/dp/0143133144/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1519927776&sr=8-2&keywords=ligotti+conspiracy
 
I'd love to take credit, but some folks had already been talking about it for a couple of days in the 'Literary News' thread. I didn't see that until after I'd made the new post.
 
Hideous fucking cover. I'll stick with my handsome Hippocampus edition, thank you.
 
I'm surprised to have read numerous negative comments aimed towards Chris Mars cover art for the two Ligotti Penguin Classics today, both here and in another thread.

People are entitled to their opinions of course - and I'm certainly not here to tell people that they're wrong just because I happen to disagree with them - but as an admirer of the work of Chris Mars, I feel his art perfectly reflects the nature of certain aspects of Ligotti's writings.
 
I too prefer the more restrained Hippocampus edition cover, but I don't think the Penguin edition is hideous.

Ray Brassier's original preface was admittedly bad, though (he can't write a coherent sentence).
 
Mr. Veech said:
I too prefer the more restrained Hippocampus edition cover, but I don't think the Penguin edition is hideous.

Ray Brassier's original preface was admittedly bad, though (he can't write a coherent sentence).
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. I read Nihil Unbound.

I'm not crazy about the cover, but so long as it gets the book to a bigger audience, I suppose that's all that really matters. And seeing as the book's central message is pretty ugly, unpleasant, and not fun to look at, I suppose it's only apropos that its mirrored by the cover art, ha ha...
 
Not that I dislike the covers for the Penguin editions, per se, but I am curious as to how much say Ligotti has in the art chosen.
 
Nirvana In Karma said:
Hideous fucking cover. I'll stick with my handsome Hippocampus edition, thank you.
Click to expand...

I do love the original cover.

The Penguin edition, though, is newly revised with a preface by Ligotti. And the PB version costs half what the Hippocampus PB costs.

Also, I dig the new Mars cover, though art is subjective.

I'll take both versions.

Note: the Hippocampus book will be out of print soon since the contract is almost up.
 
For what it's worth, Tom also loved the Mars' Songs/Grimscribe cover. I haven't asked him about this one, but I know he likes Mars' style.
 
I might have considered it, but I just got the Hippocampus edition earlier this year. My budget is very limited, so I'll not be getting another one. Anyways, I do prefer the simple black and white cover pesonally, not to say anything against the artist in question. I have the penguin edition of Grimscribe/Songs; it was the first Ligotti collection I purchased.
 
I like the artwork, but I don't think the book cover works. Too cluttered and too much text. A simpler cover with the artwork in a frame and fewer blurbs would have worked better, I think.

However, Ligotti on Penguin is wonderful. And the blurb that he's the writer of Songs... and Grimscribe is nice too - that means it must have sold quite many copies. How many printings has it gone through?
 
BeelzeBob said:
I'd love to take credit, but some folks had already been talking about it for a couple of days in the 'Literary News' thread. I didn't see that until after I'd made the new post.
Click to expand...

It was a good idea to start this as a new thread, BeezleBob. I didn't, because I haven't visited the site as often recently and I suspected it was old news and I just missed it.

I like the art of Chris Mars and thought the Songs and Grimscribe cover was great. This one isn't bad, but I think the cover design may take some getting used to. The first volume must have done well for Penguin to follow-up.
 
Penguin Songs/Grimscribe sold very well, and I think went through at least two printings if not more.
 
Well, I think one reason why the first Penguin cover worked a bit more for me was because it was designed to look a bit more like a typical Penguin book (you know, the art at the top half and a black box of text at the bottom). And this new one seems to be eschewing that format. Frankly, I would have tried to get someone like Dave Felton to do it, but as he's doing the first Vastarien I suppose one shouldn't be too greedy.
 
I don't really care for Mars's art, but even so, a quick Google search turn up a number of his pieces that I think would make far better covers for Ligotti. For instance:

Conspiracy:
images



Grimscribe:
images


And there's more at least as good where they came from.

Oh well, I hope the book does well in any case.
 
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