My Cheesiest Cover of the Year (thus far)

I have a strange tendency to gravitate towards books with some awful cover art. Sometimes I think I take the whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” adage a bit too far. Many times at book sales I make it a side mission to pick one book with a truly awful cover (most often a paperback for $.50). This is not say I read all, or even many, of these ugly covered books, but I do keep them around for some reason. Anyway, inspired by Judge a Book by its Cover, I have decided to share my cheesiest cover of the books I have purchased thus far in 2009... it was pretty tough competition, I’ve bought more than a few.

The runner up (the title alone helped boost it above the fray), Among Madmen by Jim Starlin & Daina Graziunas...

...What the heck is going on in this cover? Thank god Stephen King says it was good, because the cover sure doesn’t seem to. As a side note, the interior illustrations by Jim Starlin really aren’t bad at all - a mass market paperback isn’t the best format to appreciate an artist’s line work - but even so, I do like some of his comic artwork that I have come across over the years.

And the Winner is, Of Alien Bondage: Spacewars #1 by John Cleve...

...Dude, a bimbo and a space pirate, how can you go wrong? It is true, I have been known to buy the random Playboy Press paperback book - I have honestly never read any, but always figure that, who knows, someday I will surely want to read a sexed up space opera, mystery, western, or heroic fantasy - that, and often the covers are too good (awful) to pass up for 50 cents!