"cover illustrators like James Avati made it standard practice to read the book first and then sketch cover design ideas" I find it weird that it was ever done any other way. But I guess that most hardbacks had pretty plain covers, so the idea of a cover illustration was in itself fairly new.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of Golden Age SF illustrators hadn't read the books either. That's why we have so many generic spaceships, square-jawed heroes with ray guns, or semi-clad space princesses, even if they have nothing to do with the book.
You are so right, Matt. Cover design (with a few exceptions) really didn't get started until after WWII. Paper jackets weren't popular until then either. In the early part of the century publishers would print a design right on the cloth of the boards of a book.
"cover illustrators like James Avati made it standard practice to read the book first and then sketch cover design ideas" I find it weird that it was ever done any other way. But I guess that most hardbacks had pretty plain covers, so the idea of a cover illustration was in itself fairly new.
I'm pretty sure that a lot of Golden Age SF illustrators hadn't read the books either. That's why we have so many generic spaceships, square-jawed heroes with ray guns, or semi-clad space princesses, even if they have nothing to do with the book.
You are so right, Matt. Cover design (with a few exceptions) really didn't get started until after WWII. Paper jackets weren't popular until then either. In the early part of the century publishers would print a design right on the cloth of the boards of a book.