{"id":3514,"date":"2010-04-21T16:03:08","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T00:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/?p=3514"},"modified":"2010-04-21T16:03:08","modified_gmt":"2010-04-22T00:03:08","slug":"cover-art-enders-game-by-orson-scott-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanmoher.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/art\/cover-art\/cover-art-enders-game-by-orson-scott-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Cover Art | Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Ender's<\/a>\n

As always, Tor.com<\/a> has a fantastic post<\/a> about the process behind the cover, and showcases the reaction of several people close to the project. Most interesting, perhaps, are the comments of Beth Meacham, the editor of the novel, who had some concerns when she first found out that Tor was creating a new cover for the novel:<\/p>\n

\n

When Irene told me that she\u2019d been cleared to create a new art package for Ender\u2019s Game for the eBook release, I confess that I groaned. Covers for this book have always been a problem. It\u2019s not a children\u2019s book, but when you ask for a painting of a ten year old boy, it\u2019s hard not to get something that looks like a children\u2019s book. This can lead to problems, like the email I recently got from a school librarian who was sure that there was some mistake; this children\u2019s book had \u201cbad words\u201d in it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gallo, however, wasn’t so concerned:<\/p>\n

\n

I had no doubt Sam could portray a boy who wouldn\u2019t put off older readers. I have often felt a number of his paintings show a cool exterior while suppressing some kind of underlying trouble or anxiety; if anything describes Ender, that\u2019s it. When I contacted Sam, I wasn\u2019t surprised to hear that Ender\u2019s Game is one of his favorite novels.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In the end I was intrigued by Sam\u2019s use of scale in the chosen sketch. I loved seeing Ender large with an entire planet underfoot\u2014whether it\u2019s Earth or the alien planet, the fate of both worlds depend on this small boy. The weightlessness, of course, refers to the Battle School exercises so memorable in the book. The flat-color triangles, representing the holographic game pieces, set against the realistic rendering of Ender and the planet, enhance the lie of the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Upon seeing the final art, even Meacham was sold:<\/p>\n

\n

The sketches that I saw were very good. The artist is wonderful, and it looked very promising, though again the sketches were of children. Irene and Sam heard me when I said that if we were going to put a child on the cover, that child had to have old and wary eyes, had to look like a real child who had been under great stress. The finished art has that quality in spades. My reaction to seeing the finished art was \u201cOh! That\u2019s Ender!\u201d<\/p>\n

The composition is spectacular, too\u2014it actually illustrates something that is such a powerful part of the novel: Ender has been separated from Earth and humanity even as he is being forged as a weapon to protect them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Also interesting are some of the early sketches, which are a bit more experimental:<\/p>\n\"Early<\/a>\n

Though I’m not a fan of Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game<\/strong> remains one of my very favourite novels and I’m glad to see it getting the treatment it deserves from Tor<\/em>. The typography alone makes me giddy. Now, if only they’d release the retail edition with this cover!<\/p>\n

The wonderful art is courtesy of Sam Weber<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, Tor.com has a fantastic post about the process behind the cover, and showcases the reaction of several people close to the project. Most interesting, perhaps, are the comments of Beth Meacham, the editor of the novel, who had some concerns when she first found out that Tor was creating a new cover for… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-art"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n