Websites for identifying cover artist

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Websites for identifying cover artist

1gcthomas
Jan 18, 2024, 2:31 am

I've recently gotten back into reading sci-fi / fantasy and I enjoy browsing used bookstores for random paperbacks, often a few decades old, that catch my interest. I really love the vibrant cover art, but sometimes the artist is uncredited!

Is there a website that catalogs cover art by ISBN or book title / edition? I think that would be pretty cool and useful.

2haydninvienna
Jan 18, 2024, 2:42 am

>1 gcthomas: Try isfdb.org. They can usually (I won't say always) give the name of the cover artist.

And of course if you're interested in cover art you need to know about goodshowsir.co.uk, if you don't already, except that it's down at the moment.

3bnielsen
Edited: Jan 18, 2024, 3:28 am

>2 haydninvienna: I'll second that.

Also take a good look at the cover again. Sometimes the cover artist is credited with a tiny line of print on the back of the cover. Or you can find a signature like an A with a circle around it, and then get help on isfdb.org by finding similar covers.

Some of the really cheap Danish SF-series just stole the cover. Here is an example:
https://www.librarything.com/work/4178192/summary

That is stolen from an Italian Urania magazine, nr 130, "Marea Gialla" and the signature of the artist disappeared in the process:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/Urania-%23130-Marea-gialla-Didelot-Fran...

Have fun!

4gcthomas
Feb 18, 2024, 12:49 am

Thanks, ISFDB seems to be just what I was looking for. I was able to easily find the cover artist for a 1984 copy of The Book of Three (artist Jean-Leon Huens), but no luck for the 1980 Dell edition of The Wall of Years.