This month’s Book Cover Spotlight falls on a book by an author who was, at the time I first saw it, unknown to me. The painting on the cover, however, immediately caught my attention.
The Condemned by David Jack Bell has never fallen off my radar since. The cover art, which I think is also titled “The Comdemned” was painted by Dave Kendall.
David’s website is RustyBaby.com: Dave Kendall Illustration. He has a gallery with book cover art, role-playing game illustrations, card game images and comic book pages — some of which is for sale.
For a long time I couldn’t put my finger on what it was about the painting which drew me. Part of it was the color scheme — I’m always fascinated by horror art which doesn’t use black as a major color. The yellows and oranges create a striking overcast day.
The elements of this painting that keep drawing my eye:
- The creature on the car with arms just a little too long to be human is the first thing that caught my eye.
- Junked cars, rusted, damaged from collision and time, are not only important to the story itself but convey a sense of a long abandoned city better than any other image I’ve ever seen.
- The crumbling buildings and dust spewing through the streets in the background lock down that sense of desertion.
The art did what all great cover art should do — it attracted my attention and stuck in my mind long after I’d seen the book online.
  |
The CondemnedAuthor: Bell, David Jack |
||||
|
The world is at war . . . the city is dying . . . and those left for dead within its walls have awakened . . . A terrorist attack on the water supply has left the city quarantined by the army and inhabited by the City People, the mindless living dead who rule the urban night. Jett Dormer works for the government. During the day he and his partner Vince drive a wrecker, collecting abandoned cars from the city’s dying core, scrap metal to feed the nation’s raging war machine. They finish their work before nightfall and return to home base outside the city and then to their wives and families. Until the day Jett and Vince are overrun by a horde of City People, and only Jett makes it out. Plagued by nightmares and wracked with guilt for having left his best friend behind, Jett returns to work, hoping to provide for his family. But his new partner, a wounded veteran known only as the Kid, won’t let Jett forget what happened to Vince. And he won’t let Jett forget that Vince might not be entirely dead. You’re never going to feel right, or be right, as long as he’s out there . . . Soon Jett and the Kid are on a mission to find Vince and bring whatever’s left of him home. But as their city raids grow bloodier, Jett finds himself increasingly under the mysterious influence of his new partner. And just as his murderous rage for the City People grows nearly out of control, he realizes things may not be exactly as they appear. The night, and those who control it — the City People — hold many secrets. Secrets that might just set Jett free . . . or destroy him and everything he holds dear. |
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
January 2008 (Trade Paperback — Delirium Books)
January 2008 (Trade Paperback — Delirium Books)
January 2008 (Trade Paperback — Delirium Books)- January’s Book Cover Spotlight: Siren
- September’s Book Cover Spotlight: Pork Pie Hat
- February’s Book Cover Spotlight: A Choir of Ill Children
- March’s Book Cover Spotlight: Seldom Seen in August
- April’s Book Cover Spotlight: In the Midnight Museum
- May’s Book Cover Spotlight: Butterfly
- June’s Book Cover Spotlight: The Red Church
- July’s Book Cover Spotlight: Johnny Halloween
- August’s Book Cover Spotlight: The Condemned
- December’s Book Cover Spotlight: Spore
Comments on this entry are closed.