Reginald Gray DW - Strange Messages

[Moonraker]

Sorry, I mean the same sort of book by the illustrator. The dust cover is as the illustration by Robert. It's the way I put things. I meant all the format is the same.

At least you didn't get a YouTube clip.

[Moonraker]

Moonraker - I definitely prefer the original, by Lilian Buchanan - the one I have myself!

I have now ordered it -it has a facsimile cover, but that doesn't bother me.

[Rob Houghton]

Pity you didn't buy off me a couple of weeks ago! I sold a copy for £9.99 with facsimile dust wrapper.

[Tony Summerfield]

As promised!

[Rob Houghton]

Thanks Tony! That's a very odd idea for a dust wrapper! Pity it doesn't go all the way round. I quite like his style of drawing, but I'm not keen on all the block colour spaces.

The image on the back cover seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the front, and just looks odd!

[Julie2owlsdene]

Mine is the same, Robert.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks, Tony and Julie. There is an awful lot of blank space. It looks as though Reginald Gray thought the blurb was going to be added to the back cover, and left room accordingly. Or perhaps he was instructed to do things that way in case his design was used for paperback editions at some point, which would have had the blurb on the back.

[Rob Houghton]

Thanks for posting that, Julie! I think the dark blue colour looks a bit better than the lime green one - but I still find them quite odd as covers. Definitely prefer the originals!

[Julie2owlsdene]

The hard backed originals for me every time too.

[Kate Mary]

I'm in a minority of one then as I quite like the Reg. Gray covers, but I agree that the originals are best of all.

[Moonraker]

Make it two, Kate Mary; I like them too.

[Rob Houghton]

I like the illustrations - but not keen on the blank spaces!

[Anita Bensoussane]

The image on the back cover seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the front, and just looks odd!

I meant to say yesterday that it doesn't look odd to me because that was often done on Armada paperbacks too. However, on the paperbacks the space between the two images wasn't blank as it was used for the blurb.

[Rob Houghton]

Often on the paperbacks though the image on the back was smaller, and somehow worked better - and as you say, probably if there had been a blurb on the blank section, it would have made more sense.

I think it's mainly the fact that it shows Mr Goon and his housekeeper, and they appear to be looking at the children on the bikes on the front cover, even though its a different scene altogether!