0424 Darker Than Amber
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The next entry in the new McGee cover series is one of the lesser efforts. We have a prominently placed lamp, a cheesy painting of horses galloping through the surf, and part of a girl in shorts or a scandalously short skirt smoking a cigaret. It’s clearly a scene from a cheap motel, and therefore really should be the cover of The Empty Copper Sea. Heck it even looks more coppery than ambery.
Trust me, the remaining covers are pretty good.
0423 Kuolleen miehen viesti
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We haven’t seen any of Bertil’s efforts for quite a while, so I decided it was time. Even I can read his signature on this one!
This cover is better than some of his others. You can practically see the muscles and tendons in the man’s hand, much better than this. Her hair is drawn in soft focus, better than this or this. And her cleavage is … um … ample, almost as good as this.
The lighting, on the other hand, is head scratching. The girl is clearly being lit from the left, but the man’s pants and the wall behind them are lit from the right. And I would never say “the way she’s dressed, she deserved it”, unless she was wearing a dress made entirely from salt water taffy. She deserved it.
0422 Bright Orange for the Shroud
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I promised you that I would show you another new McGee cover before I showed you any more of the nasty Fawcett Crest covers, so here is one. Actually, this is my least favorite among the new covers, which is a shame because I’ve always regarded Orange as the best Travis McGee story. I’m trying to remember a boat in the story (other than the Busted Flush which features in the climax, but this is definitely not the Flush), but I can’t come up with one. Old age has caught up with me at last.
Milk Carton
Have you seen me? I am a USA paperback edition of Bright Orange for the Shroud, printed in 1999 by Random House under their Value Publishing imprint (ISBN-10 0517383802, ISBN-13 9780517383803).
0421 A Tan and Sandy Silence
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After a number of very nice new McGee covers, like this one, it pains me deeply to return to this wretched series, but hey, that’s what the random number generator rolled up. I promise I won’t make you suffer through another one until you’ve seen a couple more good ones.
Oh, the price of being a completist.
0420 Жена полицейского
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Here’s an unusual one: a Russian MacDonald that contains only one novel; in this case, One Monday. It’s a good thing I just read it because now that the story is fresh in my mind, the Russian title makes sense. Mr. Macho in the background doesn’t look like my idea of the protagonist — way too young and manly — and I don’t know why the slutty criminal girl is pictured, except for the fact that slutty girls will always show up on the cover.
This is one of the few JDMs that I can’t figure out what format it’s in. My guess is hardcover, since most Russian JDMs are printed in hardcover (when they’re not illegally sold as mp3s). Perhaps one of my many Russian followers could clue me in.
0419 Mord in karmesinrot
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Image courtesy of the John D. MacDonald Collection, Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. |
Yep, this is just how I think Travis McGee looks. Fedora? Check. Trench coat? Check. Beard? Check. Cheap sunglasses? Check. Cheesy grin? Of course.
There’s just one thing. Is he shown being reflected in a glass-fronted antique medicine cabinet? If so, why is there a chain link fence in the background? Maybe we’re seeing him peeping through a decrepit door or window, which explains the fence but fails to account for his trench coat being on this side of the mullion.
No wonder the artist failed to sign his work.
0418 Dress Her in Indigo
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This is a classic example of the 1980s era “double McGee” covers, most of which were drawn by William Schmidt. They include a main picture at the bottom that relates to the storyline, although I’m not sure how this one does other than the fact that almost every Travis story involves a dead woman somehow, and a smaller picture at the top that, in turn, relates to the bigger picture. This one is cleverer than most because everyone knows how jigsaw puzzle pieces get scattered everywhere.
I know that the artist wants me to wonder why this girl was chopped up with a jigsaw, or at least try to look down her cleavage, but I swear the only thing I can think about is why on Earth is she wearing so much eye shadow?
