While trolling the webs for a good (or really shitty) book cover for this week’s BBCDW I came across The Book Design Review which seems to be an extension of the NY Times Book Review. They stole my idea to review book covers about 4 years before I came up with it and compiled the best designs into an annual list. Check them out here.

While the question of “why?” in regards to the Columbine tragedy may seem like kind of a duh question to you and I, author Dave Cullen and anyone else over 40 during the time of the incident were left scratching their heads to the skull and blaming the playstations and the Marlyn Mansons and trenchcoat mafias and other trivial distractions.

Kelbold and Harris weren’t exacting revenge on a society that scorned them. They were fucking crazy. End of discussion. It would seem in the light of even the most preliminary of evidence that this is a logical conclusion. Not so, says Cullen, who spends 432 pages explaining that the Columbine killers did it because they were (gasp) “psychotic”. No fucking doye, dude. What other breathtaking revelation are you gonna lay on us next? Michael Jackson has had plastic surgery? Bruce Willis’ character at the end of Sixth Sense was actually a ghost?

Anyway. This books seems, at best, a waste of time and money and, at worst, an exploitation. In spite of all that, the cover is still pretty cool.

I’d go so far as to say boarderline groundbreaking. Most big publishing house releases, when they try to go for stark and profound end up fucking it all up by putting a big ugly blurb on there or placing the authors name and credits in a conspicuous place. Not so for this one. Helvetica font floating like a ghost above a photo of the infamous school on an overcast day. A perfect execution of understatement, proving that not much is needed to solemnly remind the average American of the chilling and horrific act that took place that day.

I’m a bit of a late-comer to Chris Onstad’s Achewood-verse. I got turned on about six months ago with The Great Outdoor Fight and have been hooked to the weekly strip ever since. So the announcement of a new Achewood book made my mind boner perk up. (Clarification: few weeks back we decided that boners didn’t have to just be used to describe sexual arousal i.e. “The smell of that bar-b-que sandwich is giving me a stomach boner,” or “That new Macbook is giving me a technology boner”).

In a grand execution of the old adage, “Keep it simple, stupid” Onstad (a graphic designer himself) reveals nothing to the casual passerby and relies only on the devoted fans to get hyped on it. Well done, Chris.

Even though this little gem was a steady competitor for this week’s BBCDW, I decided not to go with something that took me five minutes to mock-up in InDesign.

This collection came out almost a year ago but it’s just popping up on my radar. The cover for the Justin Taylor-edited collection concerning the end of days has a look like it’s survived a 50 year stint in an underground fallout shelter. No surprise why this is viscerally appealing. Writers and lit types love old shit. Preferably mid century old shit. It reminds them of a time when novels and stories held greater sway with the average American psyche. Days before the Facebooks, days before every new product name was preceded by a lower case “i”. Don’t worry writers. Those days will be over soon. In fact, all the days will be over soon. Excellent work on facilitating the end of the world, Justin Taylor.

Actually, this one probably falls under “Almost Good Book Cover Design of the Week.” The cover for Sana Krasikov’s debut of stories falls just short of sublime due to publishing house pressures to put a big ugly blurb from a wildly bestselling author conspicuously on the front. Also, that stock Adobe cursive font used for her name isn’t helping things either.

Regardless, this looks to be a good writer to keep an eye on. Check out one of her stories here. And have you seen a picture of her yet? Yowza! I gotta move to New York.

Steve Harvey can best be described as “whatever” boarding on “unfunny and annoying” and I don’t really know what kind of self-help bullshit he’s peddling with this book, but I chose this cover to bring up the issue of people putting themselves on their own book covers. Generally you’ll find this concept is usually practiced in nonfiction. I’m not sure if a fiction author has ever done it, but I’d love to meet the guy or gal who has the balls or ovaries to do it. I don’t know why but I easily see one of those grocery store/airport authors like Grisham or Stephen King to be the ones to do it.

Anyway, this is a practice mostly held by TV or Movie personalities to help sell books. But there’s a thread of commonality that I’ve noticed in it: Douchebags put themselves on the covers of their own books. Lots of conservative pundits serve as examples:

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This week’s entry is a little bit biased. I’ve known some of the Featherproof guys and gals for a little bit and Mr. Zach Plague had a novel excerpt in issue #3 (which is on sale btw).

Amelia Gray’s first book, AM/PM, is a semi-connected collection of flash pieces, one per page, each of them packing a huge punch in each paragraph. My favorite so far is an entry that tells of a PDF file that is a symbol for love. Keep an eye on this book and this author. Both are poised for blow-up status.

The aforementioned Mr. Plague is responsible for the pen-and-paper cover drawing. Simple, effective, charming, interesting, and accessible. Well done Zach.

Check out Jersey-based renaissance woman Kristen Lepore. I could take or leave the illustrations, but her demo reel is something to be remembered.

Author Zoe Heller comes back with a tragicomic tale of a family in turmoil after the patriarch falls after suffering a stroke. Might be a good story, but more importantly, what’s going on with the cover?

Well, you can’t really go wrong with arranging religious and idealogical imagery in some kind of organized chaos. Well done, nameless HarperCollins graphic designer.

While combing the webs for a good book cover design for this weeks entry of BBCDW, I came to realize something: Most book cover designs fucking suck. Well, fiction at least. There’s more bad out there than good is all I’m saying. So, not really trying to spread any negative vibes around the earth, but it’s just easier to find bad book covers than it is to find good ones. If a real gem comes down the pike, I’ll shine a light on it.

So. Chabon. What the fuck. You used to be able to count on this guy for some cool looking shit. WTF happened? That subtitle font looks like those little plastic refrigerator magnet letters you had as a kid. Only a designer who’s truly given up could not see that. Anyone know the name of that font? Bob? I propose we address the Lords of Typography and have it stricken from the National Font Conservatory.

On an unrelated note, DON’T FORGET.