Idiosyncratic Cover Art: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

So you've got a series planned out, and want people to instantly recognize that the thing sitting on the bookshelf there is part of it. What do you do? Give every installment of your series idiosyncratic cover art!

 

One popular variation is to have the covers of all the installments of a work form a larger picture when they're placed side by side in the correct order.

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* When you put all of the boxes of the DVDs of ''[[.hack//Sign]]'' together, you'll notice the first letters of each DVD title spell out "LOGOUT" (mirroring the title of the first disc, "LOGIN", making it a not-quite [[Recursive Acronym]]).

* The spines of the Finnish volumes of ''[[Ranma ½]]'' form pictures, each taken from the cover art of some of the volumes. The last one cuts a bit short. When they accidentally misprinted one of the spines with wrong picture, they provided the correct picture on their website, so people could print it and glue it on top of the wrong one.

** The original Japanese collected editions all had female Ranma's mugshot (in a variety of colors) at the top of the spine. Mainly comedic, romantic, or filler volumes would depict her with a whimsical or cute expression; volumes that were predominantly serious or action-oriented would instead give her a determined, or even ''fierce'' one. The final volume gave her a genuinely happy look.

** [[Natsuki Takaya]]'s [[Fruits Basket]] [[Shoujo|shoujo manga]] did the same thing.

*** Same with [[Yuji Iwahara]]'s ''[[Cat Paradise]]'', [[Koge Donbo]]'s [[Kamisama Karin]] and its sequel, [[Hiroyuki Takei]]'s [[Shaman King|various]] [[Karakuridouji Ultimo|series]], and many more.

** The German edition had it too.

** And so did the Finnish.

* The spines of the ''[[Sin City]]'' books published when the movie came out form a picture of Nancy when assembled.

* Some older ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' comics published by Archie featured 3-part mini-arc comics fairly often; each mini-arc's cover could be placed side-by-side, forming a large piece of artwork relevant to the story within.

** Plus the distinctive color scheme: black, white and red.

* The ''[[Symphony of Ages]]'' fantasy novels all have the same format of cover art: [[The Hero|Raphsody]]'s current [[True Companions]] are standing, viewed in profile, against a very pretty backdrop. One of them is holding a plot-relevant item in hand.

* Some recent editions of the World Book Encyclopedia form the title WORLD BOOK across the spines when the volumes are arranged in order.

* Old British editions of [[Robin Hobb]]'s novels all had fantasy art within an ornate borderwork, with the style of the border changing with each trilogy. Newer editions all have a single animal on a plain background (although one had a ship), similiar to...

*** Feasting crows, on the other hand, tend to drink from the veins of corpses, though...

* The UK covers Scott Westerfeld's ''Midnighters'' trilogy form a clock on the spine, hands at 12 o'clock.

* The ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' novel trilogy ''Millenium'' has a long shot of the station and wormholes (yes, plural) spanning across the three front covers.

* Barbara Remington's wonderful painting that became the cover of Ballantine Book's paperback edition of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. What started as the cover for "The Hobbit" became a 38" x 73" long oil on masonite painting transitioning from the Shire to Mordor. The cover for each volume was 1/3 of the painting, and when you set the books next to each other you got the whole thing. The full poster was on this troper's bedroom wall for years ...

* The ''[[Babylon 5]]'' box sets (at least the UK versions) each have a big 5 logo on the spine with and end-on picture of the station in the crook of the 5, tinted a different colour on each volume. Unfortunately the overall effect is ruined by the Fourth Season version being too big and the Fifth Season misaligned.

* The UK ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' DVD spines join up to form the show's logo.

* The Contender DVD box sets of ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' join up to form portraits of Steed and Mrs. Gale, Steed and Mrs. Peel in black and white, Steed and Mrs. Peel in colour, Steed and Tara King, and Steed, Purdy and Gambit.

* Contender uses similar designs on its ''[[Lexx]]'' box sets (which unfortunately don't include Season 4).

* Starting with ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Morrowind]]'', every installment of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series has featured [[Minimalistic Cover Art]] showing an emblem of some sort from the Elder Scrolls universe. ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'' goes a bit further: the normal edition is printed in white, the collector's edition in brown, and the Game of the Year Edition in black.

* Each video game in the main ''[[Halo]]'' trilogy features [[The Hero|Master Chief]] staring at something with a gun in hand.

* The first three releases in the ''[[Warcraft]]'' series (two games and an expansion) keep the theme of a close-up on a human and an orc staring each other down. Warcraft 3 broke from this trend by having four different editions, each featuring the face of a hero from each different faction. The expansion continued this trend, featuring a more recent picture of one such hero after his [[Evil Makeover]].

* Continuing the [[.hack]] example above, placing the cases for the first 4 games side by side reveals a picture of [[Hello, Insert Name Here|the main character]] riding a grunty along the bottom of the spines.

 

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[[Category:Paratext]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]