Cover art - Chuck Wendig's Miriam Black novels

One of the great joys of this digitized era is the easy access I have to the multitude of excellent works done by so many talented artists, plenty of them at the top of their game. I have a very large list of favorites and you’ll certainly find Joey Hi-Fi included there. I love Joey Hi-Fi’s works a lot and I have a great admiration for his original take on art, especially when I see it on book covers. It’s not easy to match Joey Hi-Fi’s book covers, not for the lack of other very talented artists, but because of its unique approach. This task can be attempted, but the results are dependent on various factors, including a comparison with what Joey Hi-Fi previously did. Well, Saga Press had confidence in tackling the matter, the imprint will release this year new editions of Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black novels, “Blackbirds”, “Mockingbird” and “The Cormorant”, all with new covers. Now, Joey Hi-Fi’s covers done for the editions of Chuck Wendig’s novels published by Angry Robot Books are top notch. They were an instant hit for me, the initial impact of the larger picture leading me straight to digging for all the little details encompassed within worked to perfection in my case. Saga Press went for a different approach and although I’ll always have Joey Hi-Fi’s covers in mind the end result is excellent. Going in a different direction was a good initiative, like I said, matching Joey Hi-Fi’s artwork could only lead to an inevitable comparison and I am not sure how advantageous that can be. So, Saga Press commissioned Adam S. Doyle for the new covers and they hit the jackpot. There are no smaller details this time, only one impacting image with a very interesting style. Adam S. Doyle’s artworks are very attractive, the contrast between the colors (or non-colors depending on how one wishes to address the issue) of the background and the painting has the desired effect and the art pieces make me think of charcoal drawings, which is an amazing technique when it’s done right. The only complaint I have is about the lettering, from its positioning more exactly. I find those to be too big and covering too much of the artwork, fracturing it as a whole. I would have liked it more if the lettering didn’t interfere as much with the artwork. In the end Chuck Wendig is now the proud owner of not one, but two excellent series of covers for his Miriam Black books and we, as readers and art lovers, have nothing but to gain from this. Of course, in my case I’ll have more to gain if I actually manage to catch up with the novels as well, but I’ll certainly do my best to achieve that.