I haven’t done a mega post or an honourable mentions in a while so here we go! Here’s a collection of some special French covers sent in by Cedric and Paul. Thanks very much and I hope everyone enjoys them!
Cedric Comments: Here is a wonderfully psychedelic and disturbing cover. This is before Photoshop, in the late 70s/early 80s.
Published 1977
Click for full MORALLY CORRUPTIBLE image
Cedric Comments: Note the strange animal at the front, confused about whether it should be a polar bear, an unicorn or some kind of big eagle. Or maybe a big confused cat, judging by the claws? And of course you can find a lightly clad lady in the back, requested by the marketing department to boost sales.
Published 1982
Cedric Comments: There is something highly disturbing about these little hairy folks.
Published 1990
Paul’s Art Direction: Mutants have eyes. This is an anthology of mutant stories that means lots of eyes in fact so many eyes you could float on them, do it!
Published 1974
Paul’s Art Direction: Make everything droopy!
Published 1972
July 18th, 2011 at 9:34 am
I think the greenish blobs on the cover of Histories De Mutants are supposed to be cells undergoing mitosis/meiosis.
They certainly look a lot like my teaching slides.
July 18th, 2011 at 9:57 am
Does Les hommes de poche mean the pocket men? Have the little guys been borrowed from a fourteen year old girl’s trinket shelf? Collect the set!
July 18th, 2011 at 10:22 am
Try google translate “l’arriere monde”: I think something might be lost in translation, and sorry to be crass, but “the rear world” and that front cover, you have to wonder what those beings are made of…
July 18th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Hyper bien, Cedric et Paul!
July 18th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Re Les hommes de poche: Did one of those tamarins fall asleep on the guy’s upper lip?
July 18th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
The cover for “Anticipation” is by Bob Fowke from the book “Alien Landscapes” 1979 edited by Robert Holdstock and Malcolm Edwards. Artists give their interpretations of SF landscapes. Trantor, Pern, Arrakis etc. . This cover is from “Hothouse” by Brian Aldiss.
July 18th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Hmm. The jeury’s still out on the second cover, there.
July 18th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Les hommes de poche. That’s a strange translation of H Beam Piper’s most famous title. To be frank, ‘my little pocket man’ is how I refer familiarly to my own wedding tackle. And coincidentally, ‘little fuzzy’ is how my wife refers to her …
No, I think I should stop there, actually.
July 18th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
And Et un temps pour mourir of course means And a Time for Mice. Who wouldn’t anticipate that?
July 18th, 2011 at 10:29 pm
Anticipation – purple grump takes a dump while watching a green guy get eaten by a predatory Reese Cup.
Jeury’s unibearagus was so captivatingly bizarre, I doubt I would have noticed the cover had been censored if no one had said anything.
L’arriere Monde – WTF
July 19th, 2011 at 4:15 am
L’Arriere Monde: this must be what a brother in R’lyeh looks like.
July 19th, 2011 at 4:16 am
I meant “brothel”, not “brother”
July 19th, 2011 at 8:37 am
I feel sorry for that women on Jeury’s book. There she is, topless and trying to impress/seduce that guy…. and all he’ll look at is that strange lion polar bear butterfly narwhal creature!
July 19th, 2011 at 9:01 am
“Histoires de Mutants”: eyeballs, cells, or… mutant kiwifruit!
Jeury: I say uni-wolver-owl!
Anticipation: is totally creeping me out. J.O.A.T. totally nails the Reese’s Cup line, but it looks to me like the green baby/alien/creature is being offered up by a green hand, Lady-of-the-Lake style. Which makes the blue dude Tyrannosarthur Rex or something.
July 19th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Top marks for LES HOMMES DE POCHE!
July 20th, 2011 at 10:42 am
I want a complete set of those cute little hommes de poche – much better than daughter’s zhu zhu pet!
July 23rd, 2011 at 5:15 pm
Winged unicorn bear? Yes please!
August 15th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Too many confusing covers….System overload!
August 18th, 2011 at 11:07 am
I agree with Merrilee at #1; they look like muscle cells to me, but with random pupils to make them eyelike.
#9, THX: suspect you were joking, but “mourir” means “to die”, not mice. 😉
That’s a really interesting translation of the title to “Little Fuzzy” too…
August 20th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Well, the sequel’s going to be fun.
“Sapient Pockets” Good luck with illustrating that one.
And I’m not going anywhere near what they might do with “Fuzzy Bones”
June 26th, 2015 at 1:18 am
Cover #1…
– It must have inspired the hit song “I’m Blue”.
Cover #2…
– In a flash of madness, the art department snatched a signpost for the village of Jeury, added “Michel” and printed it on the cover.
Cover #3…
L’HOMME QUI DISCOVERÁ LE Q-TIP PEUPLE
Cover #4…
Happy nightmares, kids!
Cover #5…
“We will… never… resign from… our glorious… FIFA… leadership…!”