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Cover Reveal and Interview: Charlie Human's Apocalypse Now Now & Joey Hi-Fi

Baxter Zevcenko is your average 16-year-old-boy. If by average you mean kingpin of a smut-peddling schoolyard syndicate, and a possible serial killer who suffers from weird historical dreams. He’s the first to admit that he’s not a nice guy, but then, in high school, where’s the percentage in being nice?

That is until his girlfriend, Esme, is kidnapped and all the clues point toward strange forces at work. Faced with navigating the increasingly bizarre landscape of Cape Town’s supernatural underworld to get her back, Baxter turns to the only person drunk enough to help: bearded, booze-soaked, supernatural bounty hunter, Jackson “Jackie” Ronin.

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I've been a fan of Charlie Human's bizarro-poignant (new word!) sense of humour since we first laid eyes on his work. His debut novel, Apocalypse Now Now, was picked up by Random House last May and I've been impatiently awaiting this novel for aaaaages. August can't come a day too soon...

As if Charlie's writing weren't already exciting enough, Apocalypse Now Now boasts not one, but two Joey Hi-Fi covers - one for the UK edition, one for South Africa. We caught up with the man himself to ask very serious questions about what goes into two extraordinarily apocodelicious covers... (another new word! I'm on a roll!)

Apocalypse Now Now (UK)

Pornokitsch: So - the contents of Apocalypse Now Now are a (frustratingly) closely guarded secret. As one of the few that have read it - what's the book like?!

Joey Hi-Fi: It's insane. The good insane tough. Although it did make me worry about Charlie Human's mental state. Lauren Beukes did a great shout for the book -“Mad, dark, irreverent and wonderfully twisted in all the right ways". I think that sums it up quite well.

Interview: Joey Hi-Fi and Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls

The South African cover of Lauren Beukes' The Shining Girls!

This edition (click it to embiggen) re-unites Lauren Beukes with award-winning artist, film critic and Twitter guru Joey Hi-Fi. But unlike his stunning illustrated covers for Zoo City and Chuck Wendig's Blackbirds, Mr. Hi-Fi has gone in a different direction with The Shining Girls. Curious about this (and many other matters of the heart), we pushed a few questions at him through the tubes of the Internet.

Pornokitsch: What were your first thoughts after reading The Shining Girls? Did an approach to the cover come immediately to mind?

Joey Hi-Fi: Once my heartbeat returned to normal and colour returned to my cheeks (I was thoroughly harrowed by this book) - a concept for the cover had already taken root. I thought that since events in the book spanned so many different time periods, this should be reflected on the cover. The book also follows the attempts of Kirby in trying to solve a labyrinthine mystery that goes across decades. I thought the cover should also subtly express that idea - someone trying to put together clues in order to solve a mystery. Thus the use of typography and images pulled from the various decades covered in the book.

While reading the book I also saw the covers for the UK and USA editions of The Shining Girls. Both covers feature a woman on the cover (although the woman on the UK one is quite small). So I decided that instead of using photos of the 'shining girls' from the novel, I would prefer to leave their appearance to the reader's imagination and only offer small clues to  their appearance and personality. In this way, it would set the cover apart from its American and British counterparts.

PK: Your illustrated covers are the stuff of legend. What prompted you to take a photography-based approached to this cover?

Friday Five: Truly Tentacular Covers

In a Friday Five first, we're handing this week's list over to the talented Lauren Panepinto, the Creative Director for Orbit Books and Yen Press. Ms. Panepinto is responsible for overseeing and designing the astounding array of great covers that come from these imprints, including last year's Inky Tentacle-nominated Equations of Life. 

After some discussion (hint: never ask the Creative Director of Orbit Books something as vague as "five favorite SF/F covers"), we narrowed it down to the five best tentacle covers in SF/F.

We thought we were squidcore, but Ms. Panepinto takes the cake. [Editor's note: seriously, best Pinterest boards ever]. We know when we're beat, so, without futher ado, our first uncontested Friday Five - Lauren Panepinto and her tentacular cover selections...

Lauren:

When Anne and Jared asked me to do a post on my five favorite SFF book covers, my brain immediately melted - there are just too many great, awful (and great-because-they’re-awful) scifi and fantasy covers, so I suggested we narrow the focus a bit. And we very easily agreed on a very special category, and one near to my heart (and my Pintrest)... tentacles!

So here, for your viewing pleasure, are five of my favorite-ever book covers designed with tentacles:

12 More Great Recent Genre Covers

Once we opened the floodgates, we starting spotting great cover design everywhere. We're keeping to the same dress code as before: no corsets, no hoods, no chainmail bikinis.

These go back a little while (we seem to have a thing for the 90's), but isn't it nice to have genre fiction that you can read on the tube?

17 Great Recent Genre Covers

Not all genre covers must feature ladies in brass corsets or hooded men. 

We've updated our photo album to include seventeen examples of recent genre covers featuring design sensibilities we'd really, really like to encourage.  Unfortunately, there's not a single paranormal romance cover among them.  We'll keep our eyes peeled.

After the jump, our thoughts about each book.

Classic Covers: Happy Birthday, Gollancz!

Fifty years of science fiction, fantasy and horror. (84 years of politics, mystery and literature!)

Like everyone else, our shelves are stacked with recent Gollancz successes - thanks to the likes of Richard Morgan, Joe Abercrombie, Steph Swainston and Scott Lynch. But a quick pass around the living room shows that the kind people at Gollancz have been giving us ground-breaking fantastic fiction for all fifty years.

Lift a pint to Victor this evening.

A dozen hasty snaps of Gollancz titles around the house.

Classic Covers: The Wrath of Kerberos by Jonathan Oliver

Just leaked - the stunning cover design for the next-but-one Twilight of Kerberos volume.

Jonathan Oliver's The Wrath of Kerberos is, according to Abaddon's sinister plan, the "beginning of the end". As much as I've been impressed by the squishy Lovecraftian deities and Dwarven war-machines, my inner fanboy is very, very excited to see dragons on the horizon.

The cover is by the talented Adam Tredowski. First I've seen from him, but color me impressed.

Classic Covers: Drum Beat - Dominique by Stephen Marlowe

Chester Drum, international private eye, is one of my favorites. 

Stephen Marlowe (born Milton S. Lesser) not only plotted a series of lively (if improbable) jet-setting adventures, but also there was an overarching story to the entire series. Drum actually has a beginning and an ending - the character grows, the supporting cast changes and things happen for a purpose. 

Also, the covers are fantastic.

Classic Covers: Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming

There are ten thousand beautiful Bond covers. This one is a 1964 printing of Diamonds are Forever, from Jonathan Cape. 

 

Classic Covers: The Mid-Century Gothic

A few weeks ago I wrote an bit about Gothic novels, wherein I joked that their covers tend to feature imperiled ladies in filmy nightgowns. Today, just for fun, I pulled a few mid-century Gothics off the shelves to illustrate my point.  Imperiled ladies?  Check!  Filmy nightgowns?  Double check!  Crumbling towers?  Check and mate!

Tangentially, I think there's an interesting argument to be made that Ian Fleming's The Spy who Loved Me is a kind of Gothic novel.  But that'll have to wait for another day.

 Please to enjoy the fruits of my labors after the jump.