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Another Interpretation of Jig

  • May. 16th, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Goblin Quest
I was chatting with my agent about the foreign sales of the goblin books, and who to target next. (I want to see Danish and Finnish goblins, for my cousin and my in-laws, respectively.) After our chat, it occurred to me that the Polish version of Goblin Quest [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] should be out by now.

Lo and behold, look what I found:


I like this one. It's a very different interpretation of Jig & Smudge, but still feels fairly true to the character. Maybe a little darker in tone than I would have gone, but definitely not as much as the original Five Star cover. The Goblin Artwork page has been updated, and I can't wait to see what they come up with for the next book. (They've bought books one and two. Hopefully the agent will be persuading them to pick up book three as well :-)


Total word count as of yesterday: 4800. So far, so good.
  • Mood: happy

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[info]will_couvillier wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 02:33 pm (UTC)
Mine wishes for good luck are heaped upon you!
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:36 pm (UTC)
Thanks, Will! That's always appreciated.
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[info]temporus wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:22 pm (UTC)
Neat.

Okay, I followed the links over to the Gablin artwork page. Am I the only one a bit confused by the art on the covers of the Russian editions?
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:26 pm (UTC)
You're not alone :-)

It's not unusual for publishers in Russia to recycle cover art. The art for book one was originally used on a John de Chancie novel. I'm assuming it's much cheaper to do this than to commission original art. (Why they couldn't recycle my own cover art from the DAW release is another question, one I haven't figured out yet...)
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[info]temporus wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:38 pm (UTC)
Interesting, I'll file that away for future reference.
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[info]mroctober wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:25 pm (UTC)
Smudge looks gayer in this one, as well.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:31 pm (UTC)
Clearly the arist was able to pick up on all that subtext :-)
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[info]rhondaparrish wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:33 pm (UTC)
I less than three that icon ;)
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:34 pm (UTC)
Context is here, if you're curious :-)
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[info]rhondaparrish wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:53 pm (UTC)
I was.

And I stole it.

The icon, not the context :)

I credited you :)
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:55 pm (UTC)
Thanks! That's why I made them :-)
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[info]bodlon wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:28 pm (UTC)
Oh, that's brilliant. I love the art. You're right that it's a little darker in tone, but it's not so dark it feels out of character.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:36 pm (UTC)
You know, with a tiny bit of Photoshop tweaking, we could have a goblin with dreads...
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[info]bodlon wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:41 pm (UTC)
Jig didn't shoot the sheriff. However, it's very likely that Golaka cooked him. Also, the deputy.

Hey, speaking of Photoshop, I was going to work up some tat-friendly Smudge art. Any guidelines on what you'd want to see? Authorial intent and all that...
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:43 pm (UTC)
What would I want to see? How about a pic when it's done? :-)

I am very much not a visual artist. Go wild!
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[info]bodlon wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 03:57 pm (UTC)
Deal. ;)
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[info]rhondaparrish wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:30 pm (UTC)
The Five Star cover is remarkably creepy LOL While I like creepy, sometimes, I think I prefer the DAW cover :)

I really like Smudge in this Polish verion though :) Very cool.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 05:09 pm (UTC)
My biggest problem with the Five Star cover was that it didn't match the book at all. If you bought that book expecting dark and scary, and found yourself reading light and funny, you're much more likely to be annoyed and post nasty reviews all over the place...
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[info]threeoutside wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 04:44 pm (UTC)
Mmmm. Danish goblins! >:>

Wonder if they'll make him look like the bog-preserved guy...
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 05:10 pm (UTC)
The bog-preserved guy?
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[info]alanajoli wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 09:04 pm (UTC)
I like him--the sort of dear-in-the-headlights look works well. :) (Of course, I read the one with the original Five Star cover, so I may be biased.)
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 17th, 2008 08:37 pm (UTC)
Hardcover or trade paperback? I'm pretty sure there are fewer than 1000 books out there with the original cover...
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[info]alanajoli wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 01:00 pm (UTC)
Hardcover. One of the libraries in the Connecticut state system had it. (My own library did not. Yet. I'm trying to figure out if I can justify recommending your books as YA titles, as it is much easier to convince my youth services librarian of fantasy titles than it is the adult fiction buyer.)
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 19th, 2008 01:03 am (UTC)
Not that I would try to influence your decision in any way, but it occurs to me that my French publisher bought the first goblin book for their YA line.

DAW (my U.S. publisher) doesn't have a YA line. Otherwise I suspect they might have ended up being marketed that way here in the states as well.

Or maybe I should just put you in touch with the teacher who e-mailed me, telling me how the goblin books were the very first books one of her kids had ever read from start to finish?

Okay, I'm done now :-P
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[info]alanajoli wrote:
May. 19th, 2008 01:36 am (UTC)
Actually, that's exactly what I needed. ;) A little bit of info goes a long way!
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[info]katatomic wrote:
May. 16th, 2008 10:50 pm (UTC)
I'm a big sucker for Jig and Smudge, whatever country they are currently dominating. But I must admit I like that deer-in-the-headlights look on the Polish cover.
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 17th, 2008 08:38 pm (UTC)
It's a good look for Jig. They did a nice job giving him a more realistically blue skin tone, too.
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(Anonymous) wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 03:37 am (UTC)
okay, weird comment...are these the best version of Jigs abs or what? No seriously, suddenly i want to go back to all the book covers you posted and see, are these the best abs Jig ever had? you know they are so air brushed.

;) ~GoGo
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 06:26 pm (UTC)
I don't know ... I think the Czech version of Goblin Quest might give this one a run for the abs money.
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[info]allaboutm_e wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 04:38 pm (UTC)
Striking -- and while he doesn't look like the Jig in my head, he does look like someone adventurers would thoughtlessly slaughter, IMO...
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 06:27 pm (UTC)
He does have that "cannon fodder" look to him, doesn't he?
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[info]mikaela_l wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 05:10 pm (UTC)
It is great that you have sold the Goblin books to Europe.. Now I have just one question: Any chance of them being translated to Swedish?
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[info]jimhines wrote:
May. 18th, 2008 06:23 pm (UTC)
I certainly wouldn't object to a Swedish edition. Unfortunately, this isn't something I have any real control over. My agent does a lot of marketing to various overseas agents. At this point, I'm not expecting many more foreign sales of the goblin books ... but I wouldn't mind being proven wrong.
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