Neil Gaiman is the author of a variety of different materials including graphic novels, short stories, comics, novels and films, for which he has been given many awards.
His fiction is known for its allusiveness – his stories allude to Victorian fairy tales, to Shakespeare and Chaucer, to myths and legends and various historical periods. He is also associated with feminism and the ‘uncanny’ – a concept postulated by Sigmund Freud.
His work is often illustrated, and he has had the benefit of illustrious illustrators such as Chris Riddell. In 2014 Gaiman and Riddell revisited his work Neverwhere first published in 2004 to produce a new artefact.
William Morrow paperbacks
I am particularly interested in the book cover designs of the editions published by William Morrow paperbacks. The typography and use of dramatic Victorian ornament framework on several covers is concurrent with Gaiman’s allusiveness captured within these stories.
Here we can see how both the book cover design, and the illustration of a story give weight to its value – both the text and the book as an object of art. The Reading Agency interview Jack Noel, book designer, here. You can read what an author thinks of her own book covers here.
Appletree Books 