SQUEEE!!! (for real this time)

This is why I need to remember to read MangaBlog more often:

Meg Cabot’s magical Arthurian epic continues…manga style! TOKYOPOP, the leader of the Global Manga Revolution and HarperCollins Publishers, one of the top English-language publishers in the world, are pleased to announce the July 2007 release of Avalon High: Coronation #1: The Merlin Prophecy, the first installment of a three part manga sequel to Avalon High.

I haven't read Avalon High but I've read the first few Princess Diaries books and really liked them. Unlike in the movie, Mia's grandma is just so completely outrageous and stuffy and mean - and yet so obviously cares about her family. And Mia is still so very Mia. And Lilly is so very Lilly. And Michael doesn't mysteriously disappear after the first installment. They're just fantastic.

(and Ha! no wonder why I loved them, take a look at what's at the top of Meg's list of favorite romances.)

I'm not really liking the cover for the upcoming manga though.



Can someone tell me why all these books that, you know, use art to tell stories tend to have vastly lamer covers than the ones that don't? Don't the marketing people ever worry that people might say, I dunno, maybe: "I don't like the art on the cover, why would I pay money for the art inside?"

And can someone please tell me why so many people, when designing covers, think that they need to get all literal and/or try to tell half the story on the cover? Versus, oh, say just trying to catch people's interest and give them a taste of the themes and mood of the book?

There is a reason why the covers below are so very cool, after all, and it's not just because they are pretty.




I know that the cover designers are not the same people as the story artist. But I can't help but question how well the story inside is told when the cover art doesn't really do it's job.

And as I've stated before (I think in the comments on Kalinara's blog) this is especially important when it comes to graphic novels that are intended to expand the graphic novel reading audience.

Most people new to comics don't really understand how separate the inside and outside art are. Many would, in fact, be quite floored to realize how often even the illustrations on the cover are done by someone other than the story artist. Most non-comics reading people's experience with stories told with pictures is limited to children's picture books, and while it's obvious that cover designers are involved, it's also obvious that the story illustrator does the illustrations for the cover as well.

Quite frankly, that way of doing things makes more sense to me anyway. Cover illustrations aren't quite the same as the blurb. It makes sense to have a cover designer as well, but hiring an all new artist to do the cover illustrations strikes me as being more like the marketing people hiring someone to write a fake excerpt to put on the cover.