Weird!

I think you've got edge-flirtation over there on the left. Did you try wrapper the character's back to the spine or moving her to the right to leave space over there?

You might get some nice effects by scaling her up and down, too. Does the picture go all the way to her feet?

Post edited 3:38 am – April 23, 2010 by joshua
Post edited 3:39 am – April 23, 2010 by joshua

I guess I'm always gonna feel a bit weird about women on covers being all sexified. It's apropos to the game's theme and all, but I suppose I just wish that we didn't have this whole “sexy=young skinny woman” thing going on, such that if you want to communicate that this is a game where characters have sex with each other, your range of visual symbols for that is limited to a very narrow band of images.

I think that the issue is broader; that, conversely, we can't represent sexiness in men without making them dominating.

That said, this doesn't come across as sexy to me. It comes across as creepy, in part because the character's so skinny. Combined with the gas mask, it's a real boner-melter.

I like the composition of the image.

Moderator moment: "I like" isn't helpful. Please say what you notice and the effect it has on you. Now, back to being a regular person on the crit.

 Photographs and RPGs always seem like an odd mix to me. There's something I find jarring about it, but I couldn't tell you what that is exactly. I think maybe for me photographs colonize my imagination far more agressively. A drawing I can imagine as an interpretation of what is represented, but the actual thing remains in my imagination. There's a step between the representation and what is represented that my imagination fills with colour and movement and smells and context. A photograph is a more exact depiction of the thing depicted, and leaves less room for my own reinterpretation.

Scott McCloud talks about exactly this in Understanding Comics. Lemme see if I can find what he says…

Um, it turns out the “quote” I want is the entirety of Chapter Two. So I guess the summary is, “Go to the library or comic shop and getcherself a copy of Understanding Comics.”

The thing I want to try is red, is all.

OK, I was wrong. That tension on the left gets dissipated into a safe, static composition if it's not rubbing spine to spine.

The other thing to try is to make her spine wrap the edge, then have it interact with the spine text. It won't look like a misfold (I don't think) because the rest of the spine will contextualize it.

… and speaking of which, have you thought about the spine yet? It's gotta be at least as distinct as the front. I like to have elements continue from the front to the spine to the back so it looks like the same book all the way around. There's usually not room for actual pictures or anything, but there can be iconic colors or textures.

I'm of two minds about the red title copy. On the one hand, I see it bursting out of her, which is horrible and weird, which is great. On the other hand, no one is going to see it from a distance and say, "Oo! It's Apocalypse World!" at a con, just because the contrast is too low. In order to make that happen with the red text, people are going to need to be able to recognize the image. You can probably make that happen, but I don't think you want to go that route.