Not a whole lot of trio going on there, either. It's like they're taking a tip from Pottermore and not showing character faces if they can help it.

They should've bribed the artist from the Swedish edition for all our sakes.

 

They are horrible.

Prisoner of Azkaban is the only good one, probably because you can't see Harry's face.

The artist might actually think he's female.

and what is he, like four feet tall at 17?

 

I see one of those fem!Harry authors managed to land the book cover redesign gig.

 

Any chance of the "Philosopher's Stone" cover being available in high-res? I really like the Hogwarts in the background.

Other than that, poor, poor Harry. Never got to grow up.

 

Wow. They are beautiful. I like them a lot. Fawkes really looks like a phoenix, not like some inflamed chicken, Dumbledore looks imposing, and Thestral finally looks like a real thestral. While Harry truly looks child-like in all of them, I don't mind all that much. If I wanted even better quality of these pictures, someone would have to resurrect Picasso or Rembrandt. Stop complaining people and just really look at these pictures.

 

PoA is definitely the best one. I also like the background of the CoS (dat basilisk, woah) and FuckYeaH!Dumbledore on the HPB.

EDIT: Is it just me, or do the parts of Voldemort's robes (in red, duh) make him look a little like a priest? lol

 

It's actually kind of sad, because looking at them more, I like almost everything about them, except for Harry Potter's portrayal. They are highly detailed, and beautiful.

And then I look at Harry Potter, and the quality of the rest of it doesn't matter anymore.

Except for PoA.

 

It would explain why he's going on and on about how he can touch Harry, in the graveyard...

That Harry does look remarkably androgynous. Would it be cynical of me to suggest that perhaps this was done on purpose to make the books even more welcoming to young female readers than they already are?

Is that Neville's head on the PS cover? It certainly doesn't look like a redhead. Hermione's hair, though, is one-hundred percent Emma Watson: All those blond highlights, and more wavy than bushy, with the little braids.

The only cover on which Harry's appearance truly irks me, though (aside from him looking a bit too young in half of them), is Deathly Hallows; then again, I don't like anything about that cover. As for the rest... Hagrid and Dumbledore look a tad cartoony, as does the face of the dragon on the GoF cover. Also, that dragon is the wrong breed.

The thestrals do, indeed, look like thestrals, though, for perhaps one of the first times ever.

Does the cover of PoA count as a spoiler?

They're far from being the worst covers I've seen, and are probably among the better ones (though certainly not the best).

 

Oh Pedobear, y u not leave my head alone?

How so?

I think all except PS and OotP count as spoilers.

 

Hungarian Horntails are black with bronze-colored spikes.

Now, some would argue that the dragon on the cover is black but had to be rendered in a slightly different color, in the same way that most cartoon/comic book characters with black hair always seem to have a slightly green, purple, or blue cast to their hair, because actually rendering their hair as black wouldn't work due to various reasons... and I'd tell those people that Harry's robe on that cover is black, thus their argument is invalid.

Oddly, the artist got the 'granite-gray' color of the eggs right.

I probably wouldn't care so much, except that I think that particular dragon looks a bit goofy, anyway: Mostly because of its flip-top head and horns that are so big compared to the rest of its skull that, if you managed to put a few pounds of force on them, you could probably break its head in half.

 

The Swedish covers still remain the best of the bunch though.

 

Am I the only one that actually likes the dragon? It may not be the right breed and therefore wrong for the cover, but as a rendering of a dragon in general I think it looks pretty cool.

And holy shite those Swedish covers. Why couldn't we get something like that in America back in the day?

 

I actually like those better than the Swedish ones. Cuz damn, BASILISK!

 

Speaking of covers, I just saw this earlier today, a fanmade series of covers. Gorgeous, IMO, and they don't spoil anything, which so many covers seem to do....small text, though. I'm not entirely happy with all of the color schemes, but otherwise I love them.

An example:



Here they all are.

 

While I'm not saying that HP book covers ought to have some kind of divine-inspired artwork, those are a tad too simplistic. I'd go so far as to say they're quite dull. The one for Chamber of Secrets isn't all that bad when compared to the rest though.

The GoF one uses the image of the Tri-Wizard Cup from the film, correct?

Speaking of fan-made covers, I found this one to be neat (could have picked better font though), if a bit spoiler-y:

 

Who is this anime kid and why is he never growing up? Oh god, is that you Ash Ketchum?

 

Damn those Swedish ones are awesome!

 

Beautiful, but it woud have been better if they had foregone Harry entirely.