The Japanese Cover of The Android’s Dream

Comments

1. Ron Mitchell says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:36 pm

   It’s hard to imagine how it could match the tone of the book less than it does. That said, it is a really cool picture.
2. John P. Murphy says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:37 pm

   Android’s Sheep Dreams! Love it.
3. JDF says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:38 pm

   It’s missing something…ah! Got it.

   I love seeing your work filtered through the sensibilities of another culture. The anime cover illos you posted a while back are a great example.
4. uldihaa says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:41 pm

   Reminds me of the Blade Runner movie with the dark, rainy/hazy, and cramped streets.
5. muchrejoicing says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm

   Very Ghost in the Shell, or Blade Runner as someone else said. Apropos.
6. james orion says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:47 pm

   that looks pretty awesome though
7. Theophylact says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:50 pm

   And, of course, the source, the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
8. Greg says:
   October 25, 2012 at 12:56 pm

   Woah. That’s an awesome cover.
9. wizardru says:
   October 25, 2012 at 1:08 pm

   It looks an awful lot like the seat of House Harkonnen in the Lynch version of Dune. What was that, Guidi Prime?
10. Maggilla says:
    October 25, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    (Let’s see if I can land this in the right place this time…)

    So very Blade Runner. …And not at all resonant with what I remember of your book. *scratches head*
11. xunilpenguin says:
    October 25, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    Thats the kind of cover that would make me buy a book .. I’d love to see a larger print of it .. it would be Office Decoration worthy.
12. Shrike58 says:
    October 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    Well! The DC-Baltimore Parkway has certainly built up in the future!
13. Leon Rosenshein says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    Oooh, dark, very dark ….
14. Chris Gerrib says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    So, vaguely on-topic, but I wonder why Japanese (in this case) and other Asian countries put English and (in this case) Japanese on book covers?
15. Joshua says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Having lived in Japan for a long time previously, and being married to a Japanese woman I might be able to answer this. In Japan, English is popular among the younger generations, and advertisers often use it in an effort to reach this market. It is common to see it on clothing (often not really saying anything) or on a variety or products. It is really not much different that people here having clothing, tattoos etc. in Chinese or Japanese.
16. Chris Gerrib says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Joshua – thanks!
17. ben says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    gritty…
    Man, you should write that book.
18. Rick says:
    October 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    People in developing nations like to have things with English words on them, too.
    I once had a conversation with a young Nigerian man who was wearing a light blue t-shirt that had the words “Disco Baby” printed in gold glitter. To him, it was very fashionable t-shirt, sort of like American kids wearing “Abercrombie” t-shirts.
19. Joshua says:
    October 25, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    In this case I think the English is useful for ensuring people of who the author is. For example, in Katakana they write John Scalzi as ジョンスコルジー. Which is literally phonetically written as Jyon Sukoruzii. Which is somewhat phonetically similar to his name in English, but Japanese doesn’t have a way to write Scalzi with all of those consonants together. The English in this case helps to to know that it is indeed the John Scalzi I know from Science Fiction writing. Probably more along the lines of what the publisher was looking for in this case. Translation is not always exact!
20. seabadger says:
    October 25, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    That book was such a fun read! Not sure why, but I wound up enjoying it even more than OMW and friends :)
    The book cover is no worse than anything we might see in the states — the artists latch on to some aspect of the title or (with luck) the story, and works with that. The relevance to the story doesn’t seem to be an important criterion :) Here at least it seems like a nod to Bladerunner, as others already pointed out. So at least it’s clear where it came from.
    (hey, they could’ve illustrated the scene from the first page instead… :)
21. Diane says:
    October 25, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    I think if they had read the first paragraph it would look very different. Best opening line ever!
22. lemurly says:
    October 27, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    That is an absolutely stunning, eye-catching cover design. If I saw that book on the shelves at a book store I’d buy it without even reading the back. Lovely.

This is the place where you leave the things you think Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)

Name (required)

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new posts via email.