Hardback vs Paperback covers
27 June 2023A fan called JOE posted on Facebook recently, saying he'd bought the first six British editions of my Zom-B series in their original covers, as he preferred them to the revised covers, which he thought were "lazier" artistically -- and he felt the same about the Demonata covers. Hmmm... while I certainly respect Joe's opinion to prefer the original British hardback Zom-B and Demonata covers to the revised paperback editions, I definitely don't agree that the paperback covers are "lazier" -- a lot of thought and effort went into the updated covers, and I rate them very highly.
In fact, overall I probably prefer the Zom-B paperback covers to the hardbacks -- I was blown away when the publisher came to me with them, and loved how they put such a different, imaginative spin on things. The original covers were great, and they're certainly a lot punchier than their paperback counterparts, e.g. but I did feel that using a zombie on almost all of them proved a bit limiting in the long run...
With The Demonata, I'd agree with Joe that the hardback covers are superior, but it's a close run thing for me, and in a few instances I actually prefer the paperback version, e.g. with book 1, Lord Loss.
This is the link for all the British Zom-B covers on my site: https://darrenshan.com/covers/country/united-kingdom-zom-b
And this is a link for the British Demonata covers: https://darrenshan.com/covers/country/united-kingdom-the-demonata
Have a look and join in the debate to let me know what YOU think!!
Darren Shan USA
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Zom-B UK Site
Darren Shan Sweden
Comments
The 2nd edition ones are really good, very stylish, but the originals match the books SO well!
The new covers are vibrant and don’t convey the gruesomeness at all. Luckily the youngster has already been indoctrinated I mean introduced to the Saga of Darren Shan so he knew what to expect… as they say don’t judge a book by the cover. Perhaps without a steering influence of a now-adult Shanster the books aren’t as appealing on the shelf, given they look similar to other books. It was the gory details, entrails and all that really stood out.
He is still a bit young for Demonata though I sense not for long so I would love for him to experience the books the way I did with the covers. The books are particularly graphic for the age range so a lot is left to the imagination (I imagine for this reason we may not see Demonata on the big screen, which is a big shame!) however the covers offered a glimpse into your interpretation of the characters and the colour palette for each book worked really well. I still associate Bec with blue, Kernel with green and Grubs with Red. I loved the reveal of Lord Loss in Demon Apocalypse!
Of course it doesn’t change the story but I think the new covers are more childlike rather than making the reader feel mature, cool and somewhat grown up reading something a little scary… I certainly felt that way almost 2 decades ago when I stumbled across your books. Now introducing the next gen is certainly fun but the new covers don’t quite have the same effect as the old gory Zom B for them to try!