Judging a Book By Its Cover…
I spent probably as much time at the library when I was a kid as I spent at the video store. The main reason was, of course, to do research for homework. We had this really cool old church at the top of the hill down the road from my house that served as the local library. It had the old parish cemetery right on the grounds, and was even said to be haunted.
MY OLD LIBRARY
I would spend hours there – looking up information, writing papers, etc. Of course, this was all well before the internet and computers…it was the Dewey decimal system at its finest. But while doing work, I would always wander off to the fiction section and take a look at the books. I was never one for the “young adult” section – I thought those books were lame. No, I wanted cool stuff – adult fiction. And not just any adult fiction – horror.
Even at as early as 8-9 years old, I could be most found in either the occult section or the horror section of books at that library. It was around that time that I heard of Stephen King. It was the mid-80s and King was arguably at the height of his popularity, so his name was everywhere…so were his books. And how beautiful they looked… Cujo with the glistening fangs on the cover, IT, with the hand coming up from the sewer. If the story inside those pages was half as intriguing (and scary) as those images, I wanted it. So most trips to the library ended the same way…a scrawny little kid (myself) walking home with piles (and I do mean piles) of hardcover books. Sometimes I had 8-10 books in one trip – and they were all horror.
Now, if you do the math, I only had about 2 weeks with these books before they were due back to the library. Did I read them? Heck no. Sure, I tried… I would get 10 pages into one, 30 into another, but my attention span would wane if there was no carnage in the first few pages. That’s not to say the stories weren’t good – I’ve since read my fair share of them – but I was just too young to grasp them completely.
What I did mostly was just simply gaze at them. I’d arrange them on my floor and stare at the covers like they were Picassos or Van Goghs. I was so entranced by them and the type of imagery they evoked in my mind (did Cujo really look like that? Was Christine that bad ass of a car?) that they told me the story themselves. It was the idea of the books, and what they had waiting inside that captured me. And it all came from the eye-catching covers that I couldn’t ignore.
Below are some of my favorites from when I was a kid. What about you? Did you have a similar experience? What are some of your favorites? Post your comments below!
It seems to me some of these would look cool on a shirt…
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The Dark Half cover will always be one of my favorites, I can remember attempting to draw and paint it multiple times, and being so frustrated that it wasn’t perfect, there was a couple of other novels I remember from being a kid, I think they were by John Saul, Comes the Blind Fury had a great cover of a girl with whited out eyes, and Nathaniel with a classic headstone type cover. Very cool idea to put the King covers on shirts though, I would definitely get one of those!
I think these covers are awsome for shirts!! U can count me in to buying several from you. One of my best Authors would be the King himself…Keep us posted and please concider making them I really think their awesome…Thanks
Awesome covers! Brings back great memories. IT still scares the crap out of me! Stephen King rocks! Hey man, we need some Exorcist shirts!!!! You guys should do a special thing with that like with the Freddy stuff. If you do, sign me up!
Steven King for me also when I was younger.
A. Lee Martinez is my new favorite some examples are Gil’s All Fright Diner & Monster both are great!
The John Jude Palencar covers for the Lovecraft series have always been my favorite….like a crazy fever dream, all of them, and all capturing my imagination.
http://www.johnjudepalencar.com/Images/RoadsToMadness.jpg
http://johnjudepalencar.com/ShadowsOverInnsmouth.htm
http://johnjudepalencar.com/TalesoftheCthulhuMythos.htm
fahrenheit 451 would make an awesome shirt…despite not being exactly horror
Stephen King has been my favorite author ever since I was a kid. I even have a Dark Tower tattoo. I’ve always loved his short stories the best, especially I Am The Doorway. So yeah I’d be all over a Night Shift tee shirt. I also wouldn’t mind a second Pet Sematary tee:P
SO many covers I loved as a kid, but the best to me were the 1980′s Del Rey editions of the Lovecraft stuff, and the old Frazetta covers on Robert E. Howard books.
AND Hodgson’s “House on the Borderlands” with that huge demon hovering over the house….
Yeah love those covers! The Cujo one is really cool too. My favorite
cover art has to be for me the Famous Monsters magazines that were illustrated by Basil Gogos.
clive barker’s book covers are usually cool. also nancy a. holden’s sunglasses after dark stuff has some cool 3 color stuff.
I would just make a Children of the Corn shirt…and The Stuff
I would love a Pet Sematary shirt!
Superb! As a SK fan, I would LOVE to have some of these as a shirt! Go on, make ‘em real!
I was a teenager when these two books came out. The covers didn’t scare me but the were interesting and creepy and very memorable. The two books are, “The Tommyknockers,” by King, and, “Contact,” by Whitley Streiber. I read both of them and the stories lived up to the cover-creepier knowing Contact was non-fiction.
I love IT. It’s seriously my favorite book of all time. I can’t even count how many times I’ve read it. My dad was a Stephen King buff and now he’s passed all of his books to me. I can remember looking at all of his books when I was little. I was especially scared of The Shining. He also made me watch all of the movies with him. I would absolutely love it if these book covers were made into t-shirts. My dad would’ve liked them too.
The first horror that I ever read was Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary”. I read it in less than 6 hours. It set me on a course to many more tales of terror. I would love to see the cover on a shirt. What could be more frightening than an obsession that drives someone to defy nature?
Regarding horror novels, there’s not much I can add to what’s already been said. But I always loved the artwork (And poetry) in these books:
- http://www.amazon.com/Nightmares-Poems-Trouble-Your-Sleep/dp/0688840531/ref=pd_cp_b_1
- http://www.amazon.com/Headless-Horseman-Rides-Tonight-Trouble/dp/0688117058
Yeah, I know, they’re books for kids, but I’d still wear a shirt featuring artwork from them.
I got the fright rags email about this, and found it really funny that Stephen King should be the subject. This is because just this month I made a decision to read every book he’s ever written. So far I have read The Shining (the book is so much better than the film it’s unbelievable!) and Cujo, and just today I bought Carrie. The above images are excellent and striking, now most of them just have plain white covers with different colored spines and black titles. Except the dark tower novels obviously.
To end my rant I would say Pet Cemitary is my favourite Stephen King story, would definately love to see a T for it on Frightrags and would buy it in a heartbeat.
Love them all!!!! Stephen King rules man
I own first editions of a lot of Stephen King and Clive Barker books, the cover art is fantastic on every one of them. Unfortunately, the hardcover of Night Shift doesn’t have the cover shown above, just text.
Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart and The Thief of Always have beautiful cover art. The covers for IT and Pet Semetary ate among my favorites as well.
Are you from Stafford Springs, CT? Because that church looks just like the SS Library!
scary storys to tell in the dark was a good read as well for me in my child hood great pics and covers would make great shirts as well
Nope, I live in Rochester, NY.
The Shining would look amazing.. also try for Amityville Horror and Jaws cover art.. that would be awesome
I still have most of the original King books with those wonderful dust jackets! My favorite cover has to the be Night Shift Those eyes on the fingers still creep me out in a delicious way! I would love that on a shirt!
Very nice Ben, may I suggest Salem’s Lot next? Oh, and Cycle of the Werewolf. Make it so!
Alex.
i was never a king fan. so a line of shirts based on his books dont realy care ……but if love the king god bless
Great idea, Ben! When I was a kid, I got to read or watch anything I wanted. All horror! What I remember the most as a kid was seeing the Zuni Fetish Doll from “Trilogy of Terror.” It scared the hell out of me. Since becoming an adult, I’ve collected many replicas of the doll in an attempt to overcome my fear. I’ve never seen a t-shirt of it, I would love one!
As for the King covers, if you can make shirts of Night Shift, Bachman Books and Pet Sematary, I’d buy one of each!