Following my last post on Southern Discomfort cover design, it occurred to me that “urban fantasy” books listed on my Goodreads would provide me with some more cover samples. And it did show that the range of urban fantasy cover designs is broader than I thought.
Deranged Doctor Design’s cover for Crossroads of Bones, for instance, shows the standard “protagonist looks out of cover” but includes fantasy details like the dragon beyond that.
The cover for Wizard of the Pigeons shows a clearly supernatural protagonist, even if I didn’t care for the book.
Jason Chan’s cover for Heroine Complex does a good job: it shows the protagonists in action and some of what they’re fighting against but i dont’ find it overbusy.
Seanan Maguire’s third Ghost Roads book, Angel of the Overpass avoid people: it’s cars and diners, capturing the world of the book. Though I’m not sure it would have caught my attention—
—as much as Aly Hill’s cover for the first book in the series did.
Here we have the female protagonist standing alone but with a distinctive backdrop — and she’s a ghost.
Steven Martiniere’s cover P. Djeli Clark’s Haunting of Tram Car 015 doesn’t have anything beyond the strange glowing lights and the dirigible in the background to suggest urban fantasy/alternate history set in Cairo.
Does that mean all this worry about covers is overrated? Or that when you’ve established yourself as Clark does, you have a little more leeway — I believe this came out when he was already established as a name that sells books.
No firm conclusions from all that but I can feel the outline of a conclusion in my mind … I’ll let you know when it firms up.
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