More musings on cover art

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Alright, time for another comparison. Warning to those with slow connections: lots more pictures coming up!

Today we're going to look at the works of C. L. Moore. This collection by Fantasy Masterworks collects the short stories about Moore's two most famous creations: Jirel of Joiry and Northwest Smith. (Yes, his name is Northwest. Must have had rather eccentric parents.)

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Yeah, that's the Medusa of Greek mythology. Having read the Northwest Smith stories, I can say that this image fits the first story, in which Smith meets an Medusa-like alien (Whose species is in fact implied to have inspired the Medusa of Greek mythology). I haven't yet read the Jirel stories yet, so I don't know if anything of the sort appears in those stories.

Planet Stories has published the tales of these characters in seperate volumes. (So why bother with that edition? Because the FM edition doesn't have all the stories, and the PS edition does.)

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That's Jirel of Joiry in a swimsuit armor. (Thanks for coining that lovely phrase, Thul. Chainmail bikini doesn't quite fit because this armor covers slightly more than a bikini.) In the stories, she supposedly dresses a little more sensibly.

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And that's Northwest Smith, with another cover that references the Medusa story. (That woman behind him - that's her.) To be honest, none of these covers really appeal to me. An ugly severed head or a bland shot of our hero? I'm curious what you guys think.

In closing, two more covers:

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This is the cover that most of all has me simultaneously going "Atrocious!" and "Awesome!" I so want to know what goes on between these covers...

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And this PS cover actually has some class. Exploring an alien world, from the looks of it. Nice.