The front cover of this book was punchy enough to get me to pick it up, but the back cover was slam-bang crazy enough to get me to buy it. Those large letters TBE, the strange geometric ribbon at the bottom, the publisher’s logo top right… it’s barely holding itself together.
I don’t think this cover has enough visual metaphors for its subject matter. Oh no, wait, it does.
This 1979 Penguin is m-e-s-s-e-d u-p. The green background to the Penguin logo on the front, with CRIME in all caps just below it, and the blue Pelican spine. Little wonder then the man in the rather disturbing cover photo is having some almighty kind of brainwrong.
This Pelican (A227, first published 1950, this reprint 1961) is semi-weird. But the back is stranger (in a very quiet sort of way):
What’s with the big ‘Published by Penguin Books’ thing? Crazy year, 1961.
My Albums-As-Books prints are getting a good deal of attention in the webisphere at the moment. Here’s a selection of links to the articles:
