Lousy Book Covers That Aren't Lousy To Me

I mostly scroll Lousy Book Covers for the "Butt Lovin' Unicorn" type of content.

Someone out there made this and loves it and, even though I think it's pretty bad, I kind of love it too. Print that cover on a tie-dye tee and I'd wear it. But, I can understand why it ended up on Lousy Book Covers. Other covers, not so much...

Art is subjective.

We all have our own opinions about what is and is not "good'. My favorite art movements are the Dadaist, Constructivist, and Futurist. I'm drawn to art with humor, rawness, chaos, absurdity, and originality. Probably not popular themes in our modern book cover world.

So, as I scroll through Lousy Book Covers, sometimes I feel like certain covers are given a bad rap because they have some of my favorite qualities but others just don't see their beauty. 

Below, in no particular order, is my list of 10 covers that I think are far from lousy.

#1 The OG "Empress Theresa" Cover

Unlike most people, I'm actually a huge fan of Norman Boutin's first cover for his novel "Empress Theresa" (My first blog post was inspired by it). It gives me Soviet film noir poster vibes but brighter. And, I love that he painted all of the elements himself.

I think this guy is bursting with creativity. There's heavy criticism of his book beyond the cover alone. It's a 468-page novel that twists all over the place but, all that tells me is that this dude just needs a good editor.

We had a saying in art school: it's always better to be too much than not enough. 

If you create too much of something, it's easy to edit that down to something curated and purposeful. But, if you can't bring enough to the table, then you have nothing to work with. Most people, in my opinion, are not enough.
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​Norman is capable of doing what many are not and that is being too much. I get serious Henry Darger vibes from this guy and wonder if one day his collection of work will be displayed in museums. Hopefully he has a stack of paintings at home created around this novel. 🤞

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#2 Dan Monty's Tales of Terror

This cover is so bad ass. I dig the old school horror story book cover style. I love all the hand-drawn elements. The crazy rat and that skull are especially rad. Sure, there are some typography and low-res issues but, overall, I think this cover rocks. I made some quick small changes to the type to show what I'm talking about. Even though I'm not stoked with the side copy listing out "Phantom Strangers" etc, I think what I've done is a bit of an improvement. 

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Original cover.

This is the cover with my edits.

#3 The Well of Thirst and Others

Sure, something's a bit off with the typography but I LOVE this blood thirsty vampire character. It's beautifully painted, emotive, and memorable. I made a version of the cover with some adjustments to the typography. I'm on this kick where I like to make book titles in these wild scripts that can be kind of hard to read. The rawness feels appropriate with the imagery and since these books are digital, you can easily read the name of it on the website. So why not be a bit more loose with the title typography? 

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Original cover.

My version of the Cover.

#4 Sinister X

I don't even really know what this octopus-woman thing is but I love it. The use of color is gorgeous and the imagery is interesting. It's giving off a dark sexual vibe that seems fitting with the title of the book. I created a version where I emphasized the color palette and adjusted the type to be more impactful. 

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Original cover.

My version of the cover.

#5 Sani

I really don't get what's lousy about this cover. The hand drawn scene is well-executed, that hand drawn type is killer. The only change I would maybe make is the type setting of the author's name. Like, what not move it up to the top of the cover? And, what a bummer, it looks like the author has already uploaded a new cover for this book. 

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Original cover.

The cover with my small type adjustment.

#6 Xander Chase and the Unicorn Code

Just another case of not the best typography paired with really bad-ass artwork. I get it, choosing the right typeface can be such an uphill battle and take a LONG time. So, I'm not surprised when I see cover that needs a bit of type help. And, maybe what I chose for the redesign looks like crap to a lot of you? That's the beauty of design lol! We all see things differently.

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Original cover.

My version of the cover.

#7 The Legend of Augustine: The Turn to Darkness

I don't know who's drawing these covers but I want to see more. They are pretty damn cool. I even like the hand drawn type but I don't think it's helping in this case. I went a little weird with my redesign on this one and created some color blocking on the top and right side to give a bit more room for the type. Since this is a series, I don't think you need to emphasize the "The Legend of Augustine" part as much as long as all the covers in the series follow this format, people will be able to recognize it. So, with that taking a back seat, the name of this particular book in the series can come forward as well as the awesome artwork. Now, we have a design system that works for this series going forward and you'll see that in the next book listed. 

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Original cover.

My version of the cover.

#8 The Legend of Augustine: The Road to Nowhere

Sure, the type is intrusive and could be done better but this drawing is so cool! That reaper is a mood. I gave this cover the same treatment as the last because they are part of the same series but updated the color way to fit the artwork.

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Original cover.

My version of the cover.

#9 Things Seen and Unseen

I legit love everything about this cover. I don't think it's lousy at all. I even like the typography. The painting is gorgeous. It's unique, memorable and perfectly reinforces the title of the book. I get a feeling of what type of book I'm about to read. Literally, not lousy at all. I'm fully stumped as to why this ended up on Lousy Book Covers. I didn't design a version of this cover because it doesn't need one.

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#10 Min & Wyx

I think a lot of people would scoff at this artwork but I think it's powerful. That divided colorful face, the swishes of black paint that create a neck and torso of a skeleton. Not sure if that was their intention but I see bones and ribs from those broad strokes. The innocent pencil line cutting through underneath it all. There's an energy to this that takes me places. It's deceptive too. It's easy to see this as a kids drawing but, a big part of me doubts a child made this. The only thing lacking was the type, so I made some adjustments.

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Original cover.

My version of the cover.

If you're the author of any of these books and what the redesigned cover for free, just message me and I'll email it to you.