Re: [DL] PEG Cover Art (Goff)

[rs95065@weir.co.uk]

First of all I should mention, my original post wasn't meant to be a
"I hate Pete Venters' work" rant.  I don't, as I think I stated (or 
if I didn't, shame on me), I like the Agency (in fact I was going to 
hold off buying the Agency until after Hexarcana - but I thought the 
cover was so cool, I just HAD to go out and buy it!) and in no way 
was I saying, never use his work again.

John Goff writes
>However, I do like the Agency. It's a book about Agency characters,
and I wanted to focus on that on the cover. I understand your concern 
about action on the cover, but in this case, the action is implied in 
both the past tense (the door being kicked in) and future (the drawn 
gun, clenched fist, and steely-eyed gaze). At least, IMHO. :-)<

Action implied is as good as action taking place, and if done
correctly can be far better than a straight action picture. It's
a similar idea to the blatant/subtle horror stuff that Martha Frey 
posted, I guess. 

>Plus, bear in mind I'm looking at a year's worth of covers (8, this
year) at once--which gives me a peculiar viewpoint you guys don't 
have. I see 8 covers, 3 of which tend toward static, IMO (The Agency, 
Dead Presidents, and Hexarcana), and 5 which are very thematically
action-oriented (Ghost Busters (sorta), The Collegium, Rain o' Terror,
The Great Weird North, and The Black Circle).<

Yeah, I have little concept of what kind of world game designers live
in (although that could be a good thing :-) )

>Perhaps I made a mistake in cover concept by not staggering the art a
>little more. I do get your point about static covers.<

For me the Agency cover was pretty close to a cover that I could rave
about, even though it was "static" - so static does not necessarily 
equate with bad.  Something in the Hexarcana cover, whether it was 
the static-ness, the use of bright colours or maybe all the 
subtleties of the the work (as listed by Sinister Dexter - I know 
I'll be going back to check these things out) were just to subtle for 
my eye, looked to "normal" and didn't draw my attention to the more 
sinister elements - this may change when I view in detail, I don't 
know -  I hope it does.    

>As I said before, any shortcomings are my responsibility.
>
>John

I wasn't really trying to attribute blame for any shortcomings, I had 
just noticed a change in feel with recent PEG covers (probably from 
the Back:East/North stuff onwards) that seemed to introduce a more
colourful, lighter (possibly happier? mood) element.  The Back:
East/North stuff and Pete Venters has already been mistaken as the
same (and it is similar to my uneducated eye) which is why I was 
lumping this together in comparing it with the older stuff. I was 
simply wondering if the change in cover art styles (or general theme, 
I suppose) was being made consciously by PEG, or if it was simply the 
style of the artists that they had chosen? 

Roy
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