Cover Design

The draft version of the cover for 'The Missing' has arrived. No one has said I can't so I'm sure it's okay to share it with you:

I like what they have done. The colours, deep red and yellow, represent the fact that the story is set in the middle of a heat wave. The urban setting is obvious and even though the warehouse does look a little American, it also looks like the big old warehouses in Nottingham's Lace Market area (the location of the book). The font for the title I think really works and the black band helps my name stand out. I also like the fact it's a wrap around cover.

There are to be a few changes, a tag line is to be added to the top of the front cover which I think will read "They are the missing, lost souls, the disappeared," and the blurb on the back is to be tidied up. My name will also be up-cased as this seems to the be main format on most novels today.

I'll post the finished cover when it arrive but in the meantime let me know what you think.

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Midnight Days is a series of Neil Gaiman's early works for Vertigo collected together. It shows how he matured as an author and comic book writer. The Hellblazer short 'Hold Me', is brilliant, a slow burning, grimy story set in an acid lit London tower block. It's stark and simple and wonderfully drawn by Dave McKean.

Other stories are less easy to enjoy mainly because they are read out of context. The first two are both based on the 'Swamp Thing' mythos and require you to have some understanding of what has happened to the character previously, whilst the Sandman story is a little long winded but has a great pay off.

An enjoyable collection if only to show how Neil Gaiman has gained in competence and style.

Read this week:

Midnight Days by Neil Gaiman.