Book cover design has been a cornerstone of graphic design and illustration since they evolved into professions at turn of the 20th century, an era that also birthed the modern horror and ghost-story literary genres.
Over the last hundred years, these chilling covers have employed innovative and unique design approaches, including the use of original oil paintings, hand-drawn illustrations, as well as photography and digital manipulation by the likes of Rowena Morrill, Frank Frazetta, Dave McKean, and Edward Gorey. A history that has only recently been chronicled in such works as Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, Horror: A Literary History, and countless blogs.
This Halloween season, The Gradient invited Greg Ketter, founder of Minneapolis-based DreamHaven Books and Comics, and his team to gather a selection of their favorite spine-tingling covers from the last five decades. Celebrating its forty-fifth anniversary this year, DreamHaven Books and Comics is the only bookstore in the Twin Cities dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and film comics and graphic novels. With terrifying tomes spanning from fright fiction to supernatural scholarship, and spine-tingling love stories, every boil and ghoul is sure to find the perfect book to sink their teeth into under the next full moon.
Read on if you dare!
Tomorrow Midnight by Ray Bradbury
(Ballantine, United States, 1966)
Cover by Frank Frazetta
This collection of illustrated stories comes from the classic EC Comics of the 1950s. The dean of fantasy/horror artists, Frank Frazetta started his career with comic books in the late 1940s; by the 1960s, his art graced the covers of countless books by such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. Since his death in 2010, paintings by Frazetta have sold for over $1M. Today, many consider Frazetta to be the greatest fantasy artist of all time.
Night of the Wolf by Frank Belknap Long
(Popular Library, United States, 1972)
Cover by Gray Morrow
The Frankenstein Horror series consisted of nine books by different authors. Night of the Wolf stood out from the pack because of its dramatic cover by artist Gray Morrow. Primarily known for his work on comic books for Marvel and DC as well as for other smaller publishers, Morrow also created covers for many books, magazines, and movie posters. Too often overlooked, this hard to find werewolf novel is a unique read.
San Diego Lightfoot Sue by Tom Reamy
(Earthlight, United States, 1979)
Cover art by Leo & Diane Dillon
Traditionally, horror book covers are black-tie affairs, a term describing the mostly if not totally black fields surrounding the cover images. This cover perfectly illustrates the ominously titled story by Tom Reamy, who, as the saying goes, “died much too young” from a heart attack at age forty-two while typing an untitled story for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Leo (1933–2012) and Diane (born 1933) Dillon were an art team who produced hundreds of book covers, children books, and miscellaneous works, but who rarely ventured into horror. This beautiful, and not black, cover illustrates the title story well without giving everything away.
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
(Ace, United States, 1983)
Cover by David Mattingly
Though this cover looks comedic, this is actually one of the darkest, most frightening novels ever. A humorous fantasy, The Land of Laughs is very dark, very strange, and very good. It is the first novel by Jonathan Carroll, a prolific author who continued to pen strange and wonderful books during the 1980s and ’90s. The cover designer, David Mattingly, is also prolific, creating dozens of painted covers, particularly in the fantasy and science fiction genres, including the Animorphs series for younger readers.
The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal
(W.W. Norton, United States, 1993)
Cover art by Edward Gorey
This seminal critical study of the role of horror fiction and cinema in American culture boasts a wonderful original cover by the late great Edward Gorey. An iconic illustrator and author, Gorey was best known for his off-beat drawings and stories featuring gothic touches. Gorey also designed costumes for the 1977 Broadway revival of Dracula, and his work inspired the original title sequence to PBS series Mystery!
Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
(CFMMiller/Underwood/Miller, United States, 1994)
Cover by Bernie Wrightson
This, in DreamHaven’s humble opion, is the definitive edition of Frankenstein. Wrightson’s evocative, highly detailed black-and-white drawings perfectly illustrate Shelley’s classic novel. In addition to boasting a striking cover, the original having recently sold for $1 million at auction, this edition includes several dozen interior illustrations that give life to Shelley’s monster and its creator. A popular comic book artist, Wrightson also created many book and magazine covers. Still, Frankenstein was his love and absolute pinnacle of a long, distinguished career.
Dark Terrors, eds. by Stephen Jones and David Sutton
(Victor Gollancz, UK, 1995)
Cover by Bob Eggleton
Dark Terrors is a premier showcase anthology of the best of the new horror writers while highlighting masters of the field. Having illustrated numerous science fiction and horror books through the years, including many books by Brian Lumley (Necroscope), Bob Eggleton designed this particularly disturbing cover in a style more common to British books from the 1980s and ’90s. American covers of the time tended to be more demure and less horrific.
Creature from the Black Lagoon by Vargo Statten
(DreamHaven Books, United States, 2011)
Cover by Bob Eggleton
Never published in the United States until 2011, this novelization of the classic 1954 film from Universal Studio, written by British author John Russell Fearn, was originally published in the United Kingdom to coincide with the film’s debut. Artist Bob Eggleton’s affinity for the undersea creature led him to beg to create the original cover for this first American edition. Though the film is often considered a “monster movie,” at its core hides a love story.
The Black Phone: Stories by Joe Hill
(William Morrow, United States, 2022)
Cover © Universal Studios
This collection of stories by Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, was originally issued as 20th Century Ghosts. Retitled and repackaged as a movie tie-in for the feature film The Black Phone, based on one of the stories, this collection features poster art created by Universal Studios, which, like many film studios, did not credit its designer. This release approach to books that had movies made after them is a decades-old tradition. The image is reminiscent of Guy Rolfe’s character, Mr. Sardonicus, from the film Mr. Sardonicus (Columbia Pictures/William Castle, 1961) and, more recently, Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story (Seasons 4 & 7). It highlights the interplay between horror literature and cinema that has only increased over the past fifty years.▪︎
DreamHaven Books & Comics, established 1977 by Greg Ketter, is a Minneapolis, Minnesota independent bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy and horror.
DreamHaven is the oldest continuously running science fiction, fantasy and horror bookstore in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. The store sells new and used genre fiction, comics and graphic novels, film books, and merchandise. The store won the Will Eisner Spirit of Retail Award in 1999 and is home to DreamHaven Press, the store's in-house publishing company.
Explore more in the series You Can Judge a Book by It's Cover as well as other articles on publishing and design in the Gradient
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