33 responses so far ↓

• 1 korg20000bc // May 27, 2008 at 8:14 am

  Why does Harry look like a girl on the cover? He’s got girl lips, girl chin and a girl nose. I’ve never been impressed with Grandpré’s art.

  I like the back cover. Its moody but I never pictured Hogwarts like that.

• 2 Dave the Longwinded // May 27, 2008 at 8:28 am

  I’ll have to see this “bonus material” before I pass judgement. I’m always suspicious of “collector’s editions” or “special editions” of major franchises.

  I hate you, George Lucas, for doing this to me!!!

• 3 Tina // May 27, 2008 at 8:37 am

  About Harry looking like a girl–I once read an interview transcript from Mary Grandpre where she said when it first came time to illustrate Harry, she didn’t have a proper human face/form to reference so she looked in the mirror to reference her own face. If you’ve ever seen a picture of Mary Grandpre, particularly with short hair, you’ll see the resemblance between her and Harry.

• 4 korg20000bc // May 27, 2008 at 8:45 am

  Tina,
  You’re right!
  Look at these.
  

  Surely that’s bad form for an artist. Self-agrandising. I find it hard to believe that an illustrator coudn’t get access to a human face.

• 5 Tina // May 27, 2008 at 8:51 am

  Thanks for posting those–now we’ve got the hard evidence!

• 6 Travis Prinzi // May 27, 2008 at 8:54 am

  I like the back cover a lot. Not a huge fan of the front.

• 7 Michael // May 27, 2008 at 9:13 am

  I have always preferred the UK covers more. As an illustrator, I believe they capture the feel of the books more. Even though they have had like three to four separate artists.

  As for not having reference, there are so many images if out there that she can base the boy off. You have to be resourceful when doing this so that your work doesn’t look like it has ripped off anyone else’s photo/illustration. It is always best to take your own image. That way no one can sue you for copy-right. Perhaps that is what Mary was referring to. She had no image that she took, so she used her face. Still, a good illustrator can change the face a lot and make it there own. I’m not saying Mary isn’t a good illustrator, I think she’s great for the most part, but it was lazy to just use her face. I mean this is Harry Potter!

  I do like the dark back cover, however I prefer Jason Cockcroft’s version of Hogwarts so much more (on the back cover on the UK edition of DH.)

• 8 reyhan // May 27, 2008 at 9:55 am

  I do like the back cover: it seems magical and mysterious and whimsical all at the same time. Hagrid taking up his own rowboat is a nice touch.

  Front cover? Not so much.

• 9 Michael // May 27, 2008 at 10:14 am

  I like the composition of the front cover. And it is quite saddening… Though it’s a cliche’ scene from that book. I’d have picked something less obvious.

• 10 revgeorge // May 27, 2008 at 11:01 am

  Don’t really like the front cover. Back cover is good. There’s a scene in the first movie when they’re crossing the lake. In it, Hagrid does have a whole boat to himself, although in the movie his boat is in front.

  Will wait & see the reviews of the book & what ‘extra’ material is included before buying it. But I’ll probably buy it in the end, unlike Lucas’ crappy remakes of his own movies. I’d rather live with my memories of the originals than support his delusions of making things better.

• 11 reyhan // May 27, 2008 at 11:38 am

  The “exclusive bonus material” sounds intriguing.

  Could this be the first taste of the encyclopaedia that JKR has promised? Will it be backstory? Extra “footage” that didn’t make it into the book?

  Is this a marketing ploy, to get us to buy another copy of a book we already have, or is there in fact something “value added” that’s worth the investment?

  Must confess to having mixed reactions to this. The publishers could milk the HP phenomenon for many years to come with this strategy.

• 12 Travis Prinzi // May 27, 2008 at 12:30 pm

  I’ve always like Grand Pre as an artist (she happens to be Rowling’s favorite HP illustrator as well), but there’s something about Harry’s face in that particular picture that doesn’t work.

• 13 Eeyore // May 27, 2008 at 2:20 pm

  It seems I’m the only one that likes it–front and back covers. It shows the scene from the book that I found most poignant and it’s always been a favorite of mine. Perhaps it’s because, like Harry, I would love most of all to have just a few minutes more with my parents. I think GrandPre’s artwork captures the spirit of the books, especially her later work.

  Pat

• 14 Travis Prinzi // May 27, 2008 at 3:01 pm

  reyhan is the first, after Johnny in the post, to comment on the “additional material” from Rowling. Forgive my cynicism for the moment, but I fear the realization of my satirized idea of the annotated authoritative interpretive editions of each book, with study notes from Rowling. I really, really hope that the additional material is not expressed in footnoted passages throughout the book.

• 15 reyhan // May 27, 2008 at 3:24 pm

  The reading public won’t go for footnotes.

  And I don’t think we need to fear interpretation. Life is too short, when you’re an author. I mean, why interpret when you can write history? Or rather, backstory?

  There is an honorable tradition for backstory, a la Tolkien and the Appendices of LOTR.

  Look in your heart Travis. Wouldn’t you be tempted by the prospect of some backstory?

• 16 Travis Prinzi // May 27, 2008 at 5:11 pm

  Of course I would!

• 17 Dave the Longwinded // May 27, 2008 at 5:18 pm

  For me, the merit of the “bonus material” depends on its breadth and depth — something I’m not sure HP can hope for at this point. There’s a lot of criticism and interpretations of the books. But for fans, picking up just a few HP-related books would serve the purpose. And most fans were more interested in speculation concerning Dumbledore and Snape anyway — actual study and analysis isn’t something the average fan is all that worried about.

  For me, I like varorium editions of books, like the Norton Critical Editions. I have multiple versions of books like Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, Leaves of Grass, Paradise Lost, and others purely because of the critical commentary.

  I’m just afraid this “bonus material” is going to be something like the “bonus material” for DVDs.

• 18 Michael // May 27, 2008 at 10:12 pm

  Is Jo behind these projects? If so then I think the bonus content will be great. She knows how much we want more information. And now that the story is done, she doesn’t have to hide anything.

• 19 Johnny // May 27, 2008 at 11:46 pm

  I’m probably the only one who likes the front cover. What strikes me about the cover was Harry looking up at the two blurry figures of his parents in the Mirror of Erised. Yes he does have girl lips (in the mirror image…Harry standing in front of the mirror is not as bad), but he is 11-years-old here. I agree on the back image. Like Matthew, I never pictured Hogwarts like that, and with Hagrid and the students in the boats, it’s just brilliant.

  I wonder about the bonus materials also. I know in the new deluxe anniversary editions of the His Dark Materials trilogy, there were bonus “Lord Asriel’s Papers”. Maybe it will be the same, like a “Papers of Albus Dumbledore” or something. Or some background information on the writing of the first novel or even more backstory in some appendices as reyhan suggested. I hope it’s not a potential revision. Consider this exchange in a World Book Day Interview with JKR on 4 March 2004:

  Tanya J Potter: If you could change anything about Harry Potter what would it be?
  JK Rowling replies -> There are loads of things I would change. I don’t think any writer is ever completely happy with what they’ve written. One of these days - once seven is finished - I’ll revise all seven books.

  God forbid. There is no indication in the press release of a revision and it’s probably not likely, but I was reminded of JKR’s above statement when I first read Scholastic’s statement.

• 20 Travis Prinzi // May 28, 2008 at 12:00 am

  Yikes, I never saw that statement before. Um, no revisions please. They’re published now.

  PS in particular is interesting, because she said she had to do some major edit jobs with that book, since in its original form, it gave away too much of the plot. I wonder if we’ll see some of that material in an appendix or something.

• 21 Eeyore // May 28, 2008 at 1:09 am

  That actually is what I would like to see, but in an appendix form, not as a change in the book itself, or in footnotes. I don’t mind footnotes in a 19th century novel where it clarifies what a word or even a passage is referencing. Most recently I came across those in Thomas Hardy and in Dickens, but the footnotes/endnotes were because something is now not commonly used or understood and it helped with the meaning in the context of the book.

  HP isn’t old enough that we need that sort of thing, so I’m a little cautious as well. I did remember Rowling saying something about wanting to revise. No, thank you–please let the books stand as they are. Edit, maybe, so things are consistent. But I think that’s already been done by the time the books came out in paper back form.

  And I do still like the cover. Yes, Harry looks a little girly, I suppose, though I didn’t particularly think that when I saw it. But so do a lot of 11 year old boys. And Harry is never described as a big hulking type, even when he is older.

  Pat

• 22 Michael // May 28, 2008 at 9:44 am

  I’ll want an edit, but what is a revise exactly?

• 23 revgeorge // May 28, 2008 at 10:07 am

  I’d just want a clarification. In SS, Hagrid says that James & Lily were the best head boy & girl Hogwarts ever had. James, as head boy? Probably one of those things she wrote before she had his character fully fleshed out.

  But revisions, no way!! Once you go down that dark path, forever will it dominate you. Just ask Lucas.

• 24 reyhan // May 28, 2008 at 10:25 am

  Johnny’s got some good suggestions about what the bonus material might consist of. I am especially intrigued by the idea of ‘Dumbledore’s Papers’.

  The books work as mystery fiction because we almost always see events from Harry’s perspective. His quest for knowledge and understanding becomes ours. There are only a few places where the perspective shifts; via the pensieve, principally, and also in the opening scenes of GoF, HBP and DH. And once or twice we see things from Snape’s and Voldemort’s perspective without benefit of pensieve. The shifts in perspective usually (invariably?) introduce new information, information otherwise unavailable to us.

  I’m thinking that it would be interesting to see some of the same events from a different perspective than Harry’s. Thus ‘Dumbledore’s Papers’ could be a recounting of the events of PS from Dumbledore’s point of view. Mind you, part of the appeal of the stories, for me anyways, is trying to figure out what goes on in Dumbledore’s mind. So that’s not a veil I’d like completely lifted. So maybe the perspective of another character might be more dramatically intriguing. Filch’s, say, or Petunia’s.

  Just speculating.

• 25 reyhan // May 28, 2008 at 10:28 am

  Down that dark pathway, go you must not. Forever dominate you, it will.

  You tell’em, Yoda.

• 26 Johnny // May 29, 2008 at 1:48 am

  Pat, I know I did when I was 11-years-old.

  Travis, didn’t JKR provide an early draft of PS/SS on her website way back? If that is one of the bonus materials, perhaps she will give us more than that one handwritten page she allowed fans to see on her site.

  reyhan, I’m liking the Dumbledore’s Papers idea more and more. We hardly know what he’s doing behind the scenes,and it will be interesting to get an idea of what he’s up to. How about Nicholas Flamel? Now that’s an idea.

  revgeorge, James was Head Boy. OOTP confirmed this when Harry found out that James wasn’t prefect even though later on, he became Head Boy. I guess you don’t have to be prefect to become Head Boy although sometimes it happens in the case of Percy and Bill Weasley. I’m thinking James matured quite a bit from his younger student years to his seventh. Plus I think James saving Severus Snape’s life helped Dumbledore’s decision a bit.

• 27 reyhan // May 29, 2008 at 10:41 am

  The Peter Wimsey mystery Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers opens with a series of letters between various people who are attending the Wimsey/Vane wedding. I just looked it up and learned that this is called the epistolary style.

  The Wimsey stories are usually told from the third person limited perspective, like Harry Potter. The shift to the epistolary style is like a window opening, reality comes flooding in, and then recedes as we return to the third person limited perspective.

  I think that an exchange of letters between Dumbledore and Flamel, the goblins of Gringotts whoever provided Fluffy, and other exchanges expanding on minor plot points would be fascinating.

• 28 revgeorge // May 29, 2008 at 11:34 am

  Thanks, Johnny. I had forgotten that part in OOTP about James.

• 29 Dave the Longwinded // May 29, 2008 at 11:41 am

  Epistolary narrative is old and popular. Henry Fielding used it. Aphra Behn used it. So did Dostoevsky. The famous epistolary novel I can think of is Dracula. Frankenstein toys with epistolary, too

  I often have mixed reactions to epistolary forms — sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. It all depends on how well the author can pull the reader through the important details. Sometimes, piecing together a plot from epistolary narratives can be kind of difficult. It’s like the plot is often left for the reader to piece together within their own imaginiation.

• 30 revgeorge // May 29, 2008 at 11:54 am

  Good comments on the epistolary style, Dave. I think it could work for whatever bonus material might be planned. Of course, we’re jumping ahead of ourselves & thinking that it’s going to be something astounding like bonus story material. It could just be addendum pieces, like her chart of the students & the bloodlines & houses, etc.

  Ah, Dracula. One of my favorite novels & done pretty much entirely in epistolary style. One of those books I need to get on audio.

• 31 reyhan // May 29, 2008 at 12:16 pm

  We are totally jumping ahead of ourselves with conjectures about the bonus material. But it’s fun.

  Dracula, eh? The letters back and forth worked very well, I thought. They were very conducive to a mystery story, which is what Dracula also is, in which the reader’s job is to piece together the different snippets of information to try to figure out what’s really going on.

  With PS/SS we already know what’s going on. Or at least we do from an 11 year old Muggle-raised wizard’s perspective. Might be interesting to see it from an adult wizard’s perspective.

  But most likely it’s what revgeorge says: family trees and student charts.

• 32 Jim // Jun 28, 2008 at 1:49 am

  Wow! Plenty of ignorance in this blog regarding GrandPre’s work as an illustrator. Apparently most of you don’t know squat about illustration. Many illustrators put a bit of themselves into a particularly favorite character. It has nothing to do with vanity. Many of us have a mirror at our drawing table to study lighting and shadow on the face. Art is personal and certain things take on some of our personality. It’s part of the creative process of drawing characters.

  And korg20000bc , you’ve actually proven that you really are a neanderthal. Heads up Korgy, if you’re going to use big, grown-up words like “aggrandizing”, at least spell them correctly. Surely THAT’S bad form, even for a pinhead such as yourself.

  I take criticism well and receive good and bad input on all my projects each week. Next time you want to criticize and artist, just be sure you know what you’re talking about before you open your mouth.

• 33 korg20000bc // Jun 28, 2008 at 2:39 am

  Jim,
  I sorry for leaving a “g” out of my spelling of “aggrandising” which is the correct spelling for the word anywhere else in the English-speaking world besides the USA. I’m claiming it was a typo and not evidence of my simian ancestory.

  You said it yourself, illustrators use their own faces as references but I have never seen an illustration of a male character look so much like the prepubescent version of the female illustrator. You say art is personal and so appreciation of art is personal. I don’t appreciate GrandPre’s illustration and I think the likeness is so apparent that it strikes me as very bad form.

  Your post is an obvious flame job and the attitude is really immature. If you want to discuss without the name-calling and juvenile attitude please repost. If not, you won’t be welcome.

  Show us your character… but only if it is different to what you’ve already exposed.

  Matthew

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