The Cover of the Subterranean Press Edition of “Unlocked,” by Molly Crabapple
Posted on June 2, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Subterranean Press is doing the special signed, limited hardcover edition of my novella Unlocked, and here is the cover, by artist Molly Crabapple.
I am deeply thrilled about it for a number of reasons. One, I’m a big fan of Molly’s work (I’ve commissioned art from her before), and was hoping one day I might find a way to get her work on one of my books; Subterranean made that happen. Two, I knew that Molly would come to the book with an eye and perspective that no one else would have, and she did — focusing both on the agent of the disease and the woman from whom the disease is named. Three, Molly’s visual style for this cover is both striking and wholly distinct from the one artist Richie Pope gave the Tor eBook version of Unlocked. So now I can say the novella has two amazing covers.
The shorter version of all of the above: Molly Crabapple is awesome, and she nailed it. The Subterranean Press version of Unlocked was going to be special in any event (it’s the only print version of the novella that’s going to exist in English), and this cover just makes it better. If you want it, I would suggest preordering, because there are only 1,500 copies of this, and they will go fast.
That’s one purty cover, John. Yeah, Molly has clear skills.
gorgeous.
That doesn’t really look like an SF cover. Its more popular fiction.
I would hang that in my house.
I like it. The part of me that got a degree in microbiology was fascinated by the viruses that look like they have golf tees sticking out of them (which is a reasonably appropriate image, actually), but the whole thing grabs you.
What about the art featuring the anthropomorphic padlock? Was that just for the appearance on the Tor site?
This cover is beautiful, by the way. I’ve already preordered from Sub Press.
Mark Terry:
Molly consulted with virologists for that viral structure, from what I understand, which is another reason to entirely love her.
JDF:
That artwork, by Richie Pope, is on the Tor.com site and is also on the eBook version.
It’s very cool.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/oct/21/google-healthcare
Actually, I like the other cover better. But I also like real physical books better than e-books. So, Subterranean has my pre-order.
I read the e-book and I actually quite like its cover. Now I can’t wait for Lock In – I can see the e-book pre order, but no audio book?
That is really nice – her own artistic style is evident, but she also makes it right fir your book.
Love that cover.