My favourite is the Italian one with the mouse 😂 because I grew up with it. The artist was given very few details about the story when she made that illustration, so all she knew was that there was a rat and a chessboard and it was magical 😂 in the very first edition Harry didn't even have glasses!
The Thai version is definitely the most pleasing one to look at. 9 3/4 ! Also: 20:42 "It's so intense! Oh, it's German." The dichotomy of finding the stereotype annoying, but still laughing along.
Jay speaks for the entire book community when he talks about how much he hates REAL PHOTOGRAPHS on covers, it never looks as good as anything drawn or painted
While I agree for the most part, I would argue it does look better than some things painted and drawn. There were a couple that I think I could do better on and that's a very scary prospect.
I agree mostly. More common on adult novels. A fantasy series I love called the Broken Earth (which won a Hugo for each entry in trilogy) just has stock images of like stonemasonry, but the books are about an Earth-bending people.
Italian adult here. As a kid the first edition with the rat hat mislead me to belive that it was the Sorting hat. Looking back I have to say I have never been the brightest kid of the bunch😂
I was an Italian kid. And I remember looking at the surface against after reading the book. Later they interviewed the designer and she said that she was commissioned without giving her any context of the books but just hints. So the printing house said her that there was a mouse that would have been part of Harry's adventure (Scabbers I guess) and magical chess. So it's not her fault lol
As an italian I feel qualified enough to explain the cover with the rats: To put it simply, when that edition came out that particular style was quite popular for book covers, and its whole point is to make you question what you're seeing (admittedly it's dialed up to 9&3/4 for Harry Potter). Also, mice are usually associated with kids in Italy (sometimes parents will refer to the kid as "topino/topetto/etc", meaning little mouse in a cutesy way), I don't know if that matters here... oh well.
@@vallentinac9513 @joedylan9267 @pipparose_odptopa Indeed, it's not uncommon for cover artists and others to be left in the dark here in italy, though I don't know if in this case it was intentional or not, my point was simply going a little bit further into the particular style. That it makes no sense contextually is something I think we can all agree on, lol
The illustrator of the 20th anniversary Bulgarian version was very very famous Bulgarian illustrator and when he did that cover he was almost a 100 years old :) Almost all the fairytale books from my childhood...and my parents' childhood was illustrated by him. And they all was this type. When I saw the cover of the Harry Potter's books, I immediately thought of me at 6...reading folk stories. :) It's definitely not the best, but I think it was nostalgic for everyone over 30 in Bulgaria, that saw it. Greetings! Nina
Wonderful! Thank you for the context. I would've assumed that the publisher organized a contest for fans to submit self made covers for the 20th anniversary edition. Also, I think the scene on the cover is meant to represent the night Harry had his detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest and was taught to shoot sparks from his wand as a location-signaling message.
Hi Nina, I am also bulgarian. Do you know who the illustrator is? I read that it was actually a contest for childrens drawings and your comment surprised me. Thanks!
@@dianaivanov1516 Hi! :) I am pretty sure, that the illustrations are by Lyuben Zidarov (1923-2023). I don't know if there was a contest, but I am almost entirely certain, that he draw this cover (and the other 6 of the anniversary edition). :) Now...when I read these comments, a doubt is rising in me a little bit, but just a little bit. First because I know I've read about him illustrating Harry Potter, and second...because it's just his style. I don't know how old are you (I am 34), but I remember tales by Anderson, Scheherazade, and by Angel Karaliichev, and by Nikolay Raynor from my childhood illustrated just like the cover we are talking about (if you are interested, you can Google them). Hope I am not misleading you! :)
@@Nin4oni Im 27, so a bit younger. I don't have such a vivid memory, but also feel like I've seen the art style somewhere. I will check him out, thanks!
To be fair to the French edition, black pointed hats are part of the official Hogwarts uniform as outlined in Philosophers Stone, and are required day wear - thats why they were depicted in the first movie. References to the school hats are peppered sparcely throughout the series too, but none of us imagine a 6th year student walking around with one on.
this feels like it should have been a J vs Ben tbh, like how you guys ranked all the marvel movies or all the HP movies. still fun to look at all these different cover arts though
Hopefully for the other ones it can be both of them. I assume only J filmed this one solo because I believe that Ben was recently on a family trip to Vermont so they probably filmed this around the time he was away. I could be wrong on that but that’s my guess.
Like a Rhett & Link episode where they rate food together, then shortlist their top 3, then select the best. Maybe they're trying to avoid the similarity in format.
I think you should be rating these on multiple levels, like how representative it is of the book or just overall art style, because the Chinese versions aesthetic is grrreat but it’s definitely not representative of the actual story
I feel like Jay has a hard time separating the books and movies sometimes. Hagrid is for sure at the wand shop with Harry when he gets his wand in the book. He knocks over the stool and is super proud when he gets his wand. And Ollivander says he remembers his, and asks him if still tries to use it.
This is the comment I came down here to find, because I just went through the whole scenario in my mind, starting back when Hagrid left for a pick-me-up at the Leaky cauldron, and I was like, "I'm SURE he was there in Ollivander's!"
It’s funny, I don’t remember him being there at all in the book, apart from Ollivander asking about his wand. The movie version probably stuck out to me more, since you find out Hagrid was off buying Hedwig during this scene. It’s hard to forget the moment where Harry first sees her.
33:25. In the movie, Hagrid isn’t there for the wand scene. But in the book, he is…..sitting on a stool and clapping and cheering when the wand chooses Harry.
I have to say that you did sweden dirty with a 5/9¾! I'm swedish so nostalgia probably plays a part but I still just love the swedish cover, it's so whimsical and I love how colorfull it is
As a swed I love my books, have the series but my favoritcover is the 4th book. Bit hard to read the silver/gold-print at the back especially where it has flaked thou. They are so pretty all around
Probably because we hadn’t had any movies of visual representation of the movies yet. Now I am Swedish, and an artist (And no matter the art is drop dead gorgeous) so I’m definitely biased, but I still, I can remember the gasp when I looked at the cover art and how you felt like the coolest person ever just holding the book because of the cover art. I absolutely love the art on all our books, they’re just beautiful and so enchanting
Watched the video and that's from the same book in 28:47. One thing to correct though, the 28:47 is the 20th anniversary Traditional Chinese version published by Crown publication in Taiwan. The original version has the same cover art as the US one excet having Chinese text over it. It is also different from the one in 12:17 which is the Simplified Chinese published in China. These two versions have totally different translation.
Actually, the TW cover is mirrored (and redrawn?) from the US one. I wonder if it's because the spine is on the opposite side. For those who don't know, Traditional Chinese books read from right to left, so the spine is on the right side of the cover.
The fact that you laughed at the Finnish one so much, I NEED to see your reaction to the other ones! XD Please continue this and keep going with the other books!
yeah as someone who read the books in French just for the sake of learning French through reading HP, I can agree with that and I guess when they first translated the book they just didn't know they would be more books or didn't think the subtitle was that important so they made it more obvious.
French here, the editors just thought that "philosopher's stone" translated to french "la pierre philosophale" wasn't evocative enough for a public of french children, so they changed it. Not a matter of "getting it right", it's a matter of adapting to another audience The american version also changed the title. Not to mention, Lithuania even changed Harry Potter's name into Haris Poteris so..
@mathisg.8393 that's not changing Harry's name though, that's just adapting the name to your language, japan had to do it as well because there's no ry or er sound in japanese so it's ハリポタ (ha,ri po,ta)
For the bulgarian 20th, the artist is Lyuben Zidarov, an artist who is known for his illustrations of children's books. He was an active artist since the 30/40's and sadly passed away at the beginning of January this year (99 yo). He illustrated more than 200 books. As a book made for children and as the age of the character is 11, I think the cover fit well. One of my favorite. (I also didn't like the adult edition with the photo of the stone.)
I agree, it's a great bit of art. I love the light reflecting off the lake so that the castle is almost in silhouette. No idea what J was thinking when he said it looks like its about sport. It features a boy in a robe on a broomstick, a landscape, a castle, and ... some sort of circus tent? Unless you already know about quidditch, it doesn't suggest sports at all.
Really? If I didn't know about quidditch I'd think the crowd under a canopy looking at a boy on a broom headed towards three giant rings would indicate precision broom flying to me. Equating that to a sport like dressage or some sort of slalom race feels right. It isn't accurate but a reasonable interpretation of what is shown. That said, I liked it more than he did, and less than you. Probably an 8 for me. Edit: add the shin guards and elbow padss in the picture and the general uniform feel of his outfit to the crowd and rings and it definitely adds a cricket sort of feel as well. Heck three posts could be a wicket.
I think some the "capes" on the American and Spanish editions are how the artists visualized the "robes" characters are always wearing in the books. I feel like you could make an entire video discussing possible interpretations of wizarding attire as described in the books.
Yes, wizarding clothing has always intrigued me! The way the films made the robes looked good but never quite sat right with me, so it would be really interesting to hear theories about how their clothing could have looked!
I think it's also similar to why Superman was given a cape, to begin with: it's an easy way to depict flying. If he's just on a broomstick w/o the cape it's harder to see that he's flying than if he's on a broomstick with a cape snapping in the wind.
Hey SCB, I have a "What if" question I think would be interesting for you to explore: "What if Voldemort went through The Veil?" He was at the Ministry on the night of the attack on the Department of Mysteries, so what if he had joined the attack and through some set of circumstances, went through The Veil? What would happen to his soul? To his body? Would it stay anchored to the mortal realm due to his Horcruxes, or is The Veil "too strong" to overcome, and now traps him on the other side, or are they balancing themselves out and he stays in limbo, as he does in the main story, except this time, instead of his soul being too mangled to pass on, his Horcruxes and Prime soul are essentially "pulling" on each other and cancel themselves out?
I think they already answered that more or less in the video "Could the veil destroy a horkrux". It is more about one of the Horkruxes going through but I'm not sure it makes much of a difference. The resolution was I think if he still has Horkruxes on this side of the veil he will be trapped in limbo. But I would need to watch again to be totally sure if I remember that correctly.
@@resathe6760 Not really. The video only references what would happen to a Horcrux if it went through the Veil. A Horcrux isn't tethered to the mortal realm in the way that Voldemort would be. Once a Horcrux is destroyed, the soul inside of it is also destroyed, which is what the Veil would do. Or, at the very least, that bit of soul would anchor Voldemort to the other side, putting him in limbo since his other Horcruxes would want to anchor him to life. But it's different for what we might call the Prime soul, since that is the bit of soul that is being anchored entirely to the mortal realm by the Horcruxes. The entire purpose of a Horcrux is to prevent the soul from passing to the other side, so what would happen if the Prime soul essentially took a shortcut to the other side via the Veil.
I wonder if, instead of destroying each individual horcrux they threw them all together through the veil. Would the Voldemort body have to go also, or would all of the pieces of his soul be enough to shatter his human body? Imagine "Yo Harry, whatcha got in the bag?" "Oh nothin much, just a collection of horcrux."😂
The castle on the French Adult Edition is Bran Castle aka Dracula's Castle. Just a little fun fact for ya... the "artist" didn't even pick an obscure castle, they picked a famous one.
I'm from Belgium, so I grew up with the Dutch edition (the one with the broom, not the blue sky). It's not the most beautiful cover, the photoshop of all the dutch books is so bad. But I vividly remember studying these covers in my bed before I went to bed. What I do love about the Dutch editions is the fact that on none of the seven books you can see a face of the character (maybe some hair, a foot, a shadow...) but no full face, which leaves the reader a lot of imagination. Also, all the Dutch editions have those little icons on the top (like Hedwig with the letter on the philosopher stone). And all those little icons are sneak peeks of what's going to happen. So when you pick up the book for the first time, you don't know what they mean and while reading it or after reading it, it just makes sense. As a kid I got so excited to finally understand what that little icon was for. For example 'The Deathly Hallows' had a doe for the icon and 'Prisoner of Azkaban' had a rat :p
I feel like it’s worth mentioning that on the spine of the US 20th anniversary children’s edition if you line up the whole series they makes a big picture of Hogwarts!!
Dang, your cover is sick! I wish I could buy the book in my language but with that cover. I'd easily put it on my wall as a poster. Very creative and beautiful at the same time. Lucky you!
The Spanish edition that you gave a 9 looks sick, but I would have shifted the perspective of the train a bit, because now it looks like Harry is about to get hit by it.
I've heard that even though movie sets are largely artificial, the sets in many of the Harry Potter films featured real wood and stone and fire and things like that for the magical feel.
The library used for the first movie had a policy against lanterns, so the crew was the first in centuries to bring one inside it for the Restricted Section scene.
Most of the frequently used sets were made of real, durable materials. They knew they would be filming in the Great Hall in all the films, so they invested in real stone for the floor.
I grew up with the original Dutch versions, and I looooooove them. They are so mysterious and dark, you never see a face on any of the covers, only intriguing figures. I'm a bit shocked you only rated them one point more than the Finnish one haha.
Fun fact about the Bulgarian 20th Anniversary edition: you were actually correct with your comment that it looks like it is done by a second-grader. The Bulgarian publisher held a children's drawing contest for the 20th anniversary :) All the books got covers with children's art.
"Is this supposed to be Dumbledore? Thats a terrible Dumbledore." It looks pretty darn close to Richard Harris's Dumbledore to me! "A blue t-shirt and jeans? Not in a robe at all..." I'm pretty sure Daniel Radcliffe wears that exact outfit at some point in the first act of the movie, down to the shirt being too big because its Dudley's.
True, we're being shown the book covers, but I like to think the covers showing Harry in oversized jeans and shirts represent the hand-me-downs of Dudley we read about in Philosopher's Stone
I love the first German one, because I grew up with that book and have a lot of nostalgia for it. I really liked the rest of them too and was very interested in seeing how they looked in other countries that are not the US, the UK or Germany
The Bulgarian one is not bad, they got a really important artist to draw them. Lyuben Zidarov was 96yo when this collection was released. For the Danish, I believe it's supposed to be the moment the wand chooses Harry (no idea about the cave) I'm reading the 1st book with my son, and yes, Hagrid is present when Harry gets his wand, he is seated on a stool at the corner of the room and he claps when the sparks get out of the wand. For my favorite, I think it is the 15th Anniversary Edition, Harry and Hagrid in the Diagonal Alley is awesome. I also like most of the German ones.
The Indonesian cover’s version of Dumbledore almost looks like the later movies’ version of Professor Flitwick to me. The cover art of the first adult version looks like something a fanfic writer would make for their Wattpad story.
5:45 No way you rated that the same as that incredible looking Slovak edition. Jaw-dropping coloring and detail vs that deformed looking Harry in the anniversary edition with too much emphasis on the title. Fair but just caught me off guard haha
to add a little to the Dutch books, that little icon in between Rowling's name (in this case it was Hedwig) is different for every book Chamber has a spider, Prisoner has a rat, etc and etc really neat
Not only does the French cover scream “pilgrims trapped an owl”, but the title also loosely translates to “Harry Potter and the magic/wizard/sorcery school” which gives away the wizard reveal.
As a Swede I grew up with the Swedish covers. Even though the first book gets a bit much the others are really beautiful. My favorites are Prizoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix, but Half Blood Prince is also really good.
Finn here! I love both the swedish and Finnish covers. I collect HP books and the swedish ones are some of my favorites, my top 3 are OotP, DH and GoF.
The following Italian book covers from the first edition get so much better! I recommend checking them out, they get less inaccurate and somewhat more abstract, whilst becoming more deep in meaning, e.g. The deathly hallows has Harry and Hermione under the invisibility cloak visiting the Godric's Hollow cemetery, with as a background a very faint print of Lily and James' tombstone inscription and lilies on the back of the book.
its kinda interesting that on the uk children's edition harry already has a scarf with Gryffindor ish colors, also swedish edition has the scar over the wrong eye
Defending the swedish cover a bit now, but they don't describe where the scar is. At least in the Swedish translation. I think they only say it's a "thin scar on his forehead". So the illustrator (when the Swedish version was made) didn't have a description of where to put it. I'm not even sure the eng version has a description...
It never specifies scar location in the books, beyond forehead. The movie int rpretation is now the most common interpretation. Before the movie I saw middle of the forehead all the time in kids wearing costumes.
Kinda feels like you gave the british and american original covers so high scores simply because they were successful and not because you actually liked them
I agree with the Thai cover being wonderful. In 1999, I had a 13-hour layover in London, and picked up a paperback copy of HP1 (to read on the plane). It was a 12th printing or something, and had the brown-bearded wizard on the back cover, similar to the first printing. It has pride of place on my shelf. :)
The US 20th adult edition is the one that I have for the entire series and all the covers of the books connect. If you put them all next to each other in order then it’s like one big, long drawing instead of 7 different drawings. That’s also why the snake is there. The snake goes across the entire series
13:10 - That "hat" in the Danish Edition is from an old danish children tv show called "Busters Verden" (Busters world) And is about this boy Buster, who wants to be a magician and do magic. That blue hat, with the stars and the moon, is part of his stage outfit.
Haven’t watched all the way through yet, so I don’t know your take on them, but my alternate favorite covers from the originals (US or UK) is the Swedish versions. They’re very unique and beautiful and kinda epic. Half Blood Prince is the best one!
6:02 I have that one. I agree it's not particularly appealing but I feel the simple picture can't go wrong, whereas a drawing could be too childish. Something to consider is also how they fit into the series when you have all 7 books. They all have similar dark pictures but with a different highlight color which is kind of nice. Also, zero spoilers for anyone who has never read it 😂
Okay, now you definitely have to do an episode of this for every one of the books! It would be so cool to see what elements stay consistent across the covers for the different countries/editions.
14:26 that cave is probably the underground harbor for the boats. If that's what the artist intended, I give them props, that is some good attention to detail. This was very fun. Please make this a full series, I'd love to see you rank all the books in the series for their covers.
A "fun" fact: The original print of the artwork for the Swedish edition has gone missing. The artist lost it during a trip to see his mum to show it to her 😅
The cave on the Danish edition is where the boats go when they travel across the lake. It's missing the curtain of Ivy that's described in the book, though.
As finnish guy I like the Finland version because it looks like kids would get interested because the trio is on big and anyway I remember when my 4th grade teacher read it to us and shoved the book to everyone
I have the full US Children’s edition. I love looking back at the cover after I’ve read the book and seeing how much foreshadowing there is. One thing about Goblet of Fire’s cover continues to confuse me though. What is the weird spiky looking bit at the bottom? Is it supposed to be a blast ended skrewt or something?! 😂 Does anyone know what it is? 😅
Always thought it was the Hungarian Horntail Harry faced in the first task as it was described as having "bronze spikes protruding along its tail every few inches." Remembered reading that line and staring at the cover thinking that's what that spiky thing had to be. 😀
My favorite cover is from the US HBP. That erie green with Harry and Dumbledore looking at a big bowl. We thought it was the pensieve but it was the bowl from the cave. The students looking up at the dark mark. That one was fire!!! And the actual hardcover part was a beautiful deep purple color.
At first I assumed that the Bulgarian 20th anniversary edition might be the winner of a kids "design the book cover" competition, but it turns out the artist was 95!
I grew up with the Swedish cover. It's whimsical and colourful. It's showing off some kind of magic but not too much about a school. Harry looks fantastic! Oversized clothes, unruly black hair, the works! I would give it at least a 7. Points deducted for not including more characters we will get to know and love.
That "adult" cover is almost exactly the image I used for a spoof contest designing "the worst alternate cover" for an existing book. Alt title to go with it: Harry Potter and the Smart Guy's Rock.
The original Danish cover (starts at 13:09) was painted by Per Jørgensen - he actually won the popular vote for the best cover illustrator of the Harry Potter books in a competition by MuggleNet, so I feel Jay is being a little unfair here. But that might be my nostalgia talking.
What I love the most about the US 20th Anniversary Adult Edition is that you can lay them all down with the front up and it will create one long image. That snake goes through all the books. It’s amazing.
I agree that for the first book, the hogwarts express is probably the best motif for the cover. Our swedish covers look a bit crazy but I tell you one thing, they get so much better and they all really made me wanna read the books. So much whimsy and fantastical imagery.
I know only the first 3 books have been done so far but I would LOVE for you guys to do a video about the Mina Lima special editions of the Harry Potter books (not just the cover but the artwork and moving elements throughout) - they are truly so beautifully crafted! Especially as they put like a year into creating each one it’s so impressive
J, as for the US School Market Edition, Hagrid is definitely there when Harry gets his wand in the books. Ollivander says hello to Hagrid, then recalls the wand he made for him and asks if they snapped it when he got expelled. Hagrid says yes but he still has the pieces. Ollivander asks him if he uses the pieces, and he says no but grips his umbrella tightly when he says it. I remember rereading the book after having read the series and thinking it was a weird question to ask since Harry's wand doesn't work at all once it's snapped in half.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these 20th-anniversary additions with the really childish art (like the Bulgarian one) were actually covers designed by kids and entered into some sort of competition.
![We Try EVERY Harry Potter Candy from Honeydukes [J vs Ben]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TZKhK5uA-v4/mqdefault.jpg)
Which cover is your favorite?!
The American one, cause I grew up with that one
The OG ONE! grew up on it!🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤❤❤
My favourite is the Italian one with the mouse 😂 because I grew up with it. The artist was given very few details about the story when she made that illustration, so all she knew was that there was a rat and a chessboard and it was magical 😂 in the very first edition Harry didn't even have glasses!
The Thai version is definitely the most pleasing one to look at. 9 3/4 !
Also:
20:42 "It's so intense! Oh, it's German."
The dichotomy of finding the stereotype annoying, but still laughing along.
My favorite is the Japanese cover 📔
Jay speaks for the entire book community when he talks about how much he hates REAL PHOTOGRAPHS on covers, it never looks as good as anything drawn or painted
True
While I agree for the most part, I would argue it does look better than some things painted and drawn. There were a couple that I think I could do better on and that's a very scary prospect.
I'm sure it "could" look good in the right circumstances, but well, I've never seen one that I've liked so. . .
I agree mostly. More common on adult novels. A fantasy series I love called the Broken Earth (which won a Hugo for each entry in trilogy) just has stock images of like stonemasonry, but the books are about an Earth-bending people.
I agree I agree, the adult edition cover just reminded me of Twilight which as a kid I definitely thought was like some rated r adult sexy stuff 😂
If I were an Italian kid, I know I'd have been looking back at the cover every few chapters and thinking "When is he going to get the rat hat?!"
Italian adult here. As a kid the first edition with the rat hat mislead me to belive that it was the Sorting hat. Looking back I have to say I have never been the brightest kid of the bunch😂
😂😂😂
I was an Italian kid. And I remember looking at the surface against after reading the book. Later they interviewed the designer and she said that she was commissioned without giving her any context of the books but just hints. So the printing house said her that there was a mouse that would have been part of Harry's adventure (Scabbers I guess) and magical chess. So it's not her fault lol
As an italian I feel qualified enough to explain the cover with the rats:
To put it simply, when that edition came out that particular style was quite popular for book covers, and its whole point is to make you question what you're seeing (admittedly it's dialed up to 9&3/4 for Harry Potter).
Also, mice are usually associated with kids in Italy (sometimes parents will refer to the kid as "topino/topetto/etc", meaning little mouse in a cutesy way), I don't know if that matters here... oh well.
Thank you for the insight! I was very curious about that one. :) Makes a LOT more sense now!
I'm also italian and that is the version I read at 11... yet i agree it makes no sense LOL
It was because the illustrator did not know any detail, apart from the fact that the book was about a wizard kid
the context is good thank you, however, it looks like they just did not bother to actually read the book
@@vallentinac9513 @joedylan9267 @pipparose_odptopa Indeed, it's not uncommon for cover artists and others to be left in the dark here in italy, though I don't know if in this case it was intentional or not, my point was simply going a little bit further into the particular style. That it makes no sense contextually is something I think we can all agree on, lol
The illustrator of the 20th anniversary Bulgarian version was very very famous Bulgarian illustrator and when he did that cover he was almost a 100 years old :)
Almost all the fairytale books from my childhood...and my parents' childhood was illustrated by him. And they all was this type. When I saw the cover of the Harry Potter's books, I immediately thought of me at 6...reading folk stories. :)
It's definitely not the best, but I think it was nostalgic for everyone over 30 in Bulgaria, that saw it.
Greetings!
Nina
Wonderful! Thank you for the context. I would've assumed that the publisher organized a contest for fans to submit self made covers for the 20th anniversary edition. Also, I think the scene on the cover is meant to represent the night Harry had his detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest and was taught to shoot sparks from his wand as a location-signaling message.
Hi Nina, I am also bulgarian. Do you know who the illustrator is? I read that it was actually a contest for childrens drawings and your comment surprised me. Thanks!
@@dianaivanov1516 Hi! :)
I am pretty sure, that the illustrations are by Lyuben Zidarov (1923-2023). I don't know if there was a contest, but I am almost entirely certain, that he draw this cover (and the other 6 of the anniversary edition). :)
Now...when I read these comments, a doubt is rising in me a little bit, but just a little bit. First because I know I've read about him illustrating Harry Potter, and second...because it's just his style. I don't know how old are you (I am 34), but I remember tales by Anderson, Scheherazade, and by Angel Karaliichev, and by Nikolay Raynor from my childhood illustrated just like the cover we are talking about (if you are interested, you can Google them).
Hope I am not misleading you! :)
@@Nin4oni Im 27, so a bit younger. I don't have such a vivid memory, but also feel like I've seen the art style somewhere. I will check him out, thanks!
@@arde29 I had the same thought regarding the contest. It would have been fitting for a 20th anniversary editon ...
To be fair to the French edition, black pointed hats are part of the official Hogwarts uniform as outlined in Philosophers Stone, and are required day wear - thats why they were depicted in the first movie. References to the school hats are peppered sparcely throughout the series too, but none of us imagine a 6th year student walking around with one on.
I think it's the buckle on the hats that is giving Pilgrim, not just the hats themselves, but it is accurate lol
Also, the name of the book is changed in French "l'ecole des sorciers" is "the School of Wizards".
I always had a head cannon that the hats were only a requirement for first years, and that's why we didn't hear about them much in the later books.
@@PhilBagelsSnape becoming Rogue too 💀💀
I kind of like this one. It's unique. It looks like what I imagine if Harry Potter was set during the Salem Witch trials.
this feels like it should have been a J vs Ben tbh, like how you guys ranked all the marvel movies or all the HP movies. still fun to look at all these different cover arts though
Hopefully for the other ones it can be both of them. I assume only J filmed this one solo because I believe that Ben was recently on a family trip to Vermont so they probably filmed this around the time he was away. I could be wrong on that but that’s my guess.
Like a Rhett & Link episode where they rate food together, then shortlist their top 3, then select the best. Maybe they're trying to avoid the similarity in format.
I think you should be rating these on multiple levels, like how representative it is of the book or just overall art style, because the Chinese versions aesthetic is grrreat but it’s definitely not representative of the actual story
Interesting analysis
Agree, some of the ones J gave bad grades I was inwardly screaming "but it's soo beautiful!' so yeah, 2 ratings please!
I feel like Jay has a hard time separating the books and movies sometimes. Hagrid is for sure at the wand shop with Harry when he gets his wand in the book. He knocks over the stool and is super proud when he gets his wand. And Ollivander says he remembers his, and asks him if still tries to use it.
Oh right! And Hagrid sheepishly looks at his pink umbrella or something after Olivander asks him about his wand, right?
That's true
The Danish Edition gives me Bad Boxart Mega Man vibes in the artstyle
This is the comment I came down here to find, because I just went through the whole scenario in my mind, starting back when Hagrid left for a pick-me-up at the Leaky cauldron, and I was like, "I'm SURE he was there in Ollivander's!"
It’s funny, I don’t remember him being there at all in the book, apart from Ollivander asking about his wand.
The movie version probably stuck out to me more, since you find out Hagrid was off buying Hedwig during this scene. It’s hard to forget the moment where Harry first sees her.
33:25. In the movie, Hagrid isn’t there for the wand scene. But in the book, he is…..sitting on a stool and clapping and cheering when the wand chooses Harry.
PLEASE turn this into a series!!!
Ooh I Think This Is Going To Be A Very Fun Series If They Do All The Covers ⚡️🪄
Yess
Agree! The danish art gets better through the years, haha
Methinks this will be a series. Based on them starting with book 1
Don’t worry he will… free content is inevitable
I have to say that you did sweden dirty with a 5/9¾! I'm swedish so nostalgia probably plays a part but I still just love the swedish cover, it's so whimsical and I love how colorfull it is
Swedish covers are great! I’m American but I absolutely love them! Esp HBP!
Points for colorful. But who are the random people with him?
Why is he floating?
Why does the train look like it has a bulbous head?
And why is the 9 3/4 on the train instead of the platform?!?
As a swed I love my books, have the series but my favoritcover is the 4th book. Bit hard to read the silver/gold-print at the back especially where it has flaked thou. They are so pretty all around
Probably because we hadn’t had any movies of visual representation of the movies yet. Now I am Swedish, and an artist (And no matter the art is drop dead gorgeous) so I’m definitely biased, but I still, I can remember the gasp when I looked at the cover art and how you felt like the coolest person ever just holding the book because of the cover art. I absolutely love the art on all our books, they’re just beautiful and so enchanting
I recently purchased a new box set in Taiwan and their book spines can combined into a beautiful view of the Hogwarts.
Watched the video and that's from the same book in 28:47.
One thing to correct though, the 28:47 is the 20th anniversary Traditional Chinese version published by Crown publication in Taiwan. The original version has the same cover art as the US one excet having Chinese text over it. It is also different from the one in 12:17 which is the Simplified Chinese published in China. These two versions have totally different translation.
Actually, the TW cover is mirrored (and redrawn?) from the US one. I wonder if it's because the spine is on the opposite side.
For those who don't know, Traditional Chinese books read from right to left, so the spine is on the right side of the cover.
The fact that you laughed at the Finnish one so much, I NEED to see your reaction to the other ones! XD Please continue this and keep going with the other books!
Tulin etsimään kommenteista tätä kommenttia.. 😅
fun fact: the french covers didn't even get the title right. they called it "Harry Potter at wizards school"
yeah as someone who read the books in French just for the sake of learning French through reading HP, I can agree with that and I guess when they first translated the book they just didn't know they would be more books or didn't think the subtitle was that important so they made it more obvious.
French here, the editors just thought that "philosopher's stone" translated to french "la pierre philosophale" wasn't evocative enough for a public of french children, so they changed it. Not a matter of "getting it right", it's a matter of adapting to another audience
The american version also changed the title.
Not to mention, Lithuania even changed Harry Potter's name into Haris Poteris so..
@mathisg.8393 that's not changing Harry's name though, that's just adapting the name to your language, japan had to do it as well because there's no ry or er sound in japanese so it's ハリポタ (ha,ri po,ta)
For the bulgarian 20th, the artist is Lyuben Zidarov, an artist who is known for his illustrations of children's books. He was an active artist since the 30/40's and sadly passed away at the beginning of January this year (99 yo). He illustrated more than 200 books. As a book made for children and as the age of the character is 11, I think the cover fit well. One of my favorite. (I also didn't like the adult edition with the photo of the stone.)
I 1200% want videos for the rest of the books now.
This was a great change of pace, and I loved every minute of it. Make this a full series please.
I'm sorry I disagree the Slovak version is so cool it actually made me gasp out loud, that is a 9 out of 9 3/4 for me
Even in the Finnish is so stylized and unique for me!
I agree, it's a great bit of art. I love the light reflecting off the lake so that the castle is almost in silhouette. No idea what J was thinking when he said it looks like its about sport. It features a boy in a robe on a broomstick, a landscape, a castle, and ... some sort of circus tent? Unless you already know about quidditch, it doesn't suggest sports at all.
Really? If I didn't know about quidditch I'd think the crowd under a canopy looking at a boy on a broom headed towards three giant rings would indicate precision broom flying to me. Equating that to a sport like dressage or some sort of slalom race feels right. It isn't accurate but a reasonable interpretation of what is shown.
That said, I liked it more than he did, and less than you. Probably an 8 for me.
Edit: add the shin guards and elbow padss in the picture and the general uniform feel of his outfit to the crowd and rings and it definitely adds a cricket sort of feel as well. Heck three posts could be a wicket.
That Japanese 20th anniversary edition is absolutely a 10/10, amazing cover and depiction of Hogwarts
I think some the "capes" on the American and Spanish editions are how the artists visualized the "robes" characters are always wearing in the books. I feel like you could make an entire video discussing possible interpretations of wizarding attire as described in the books.
Yes, wizarding clothing has always intrigued me! The way the films made the robes looked good but never quite sat right with me, so it would be really interesting to hear theories about how their clothing could have looked!
I always thought the "cape" was the invisibility cloak
I think it's also similar to why Superman was given a cape, to begin with: it's an easy way to depict flying. If he's just on a broomstick w/o the cape it's harder to see that he's flying than if he's on a broomstick with a cape snapping in the wind.
For each book cover version of each book, I kind of want both Ben and J to film their rankings separately then react to each others rankings.
I want to see the progression of the Italian Rat covers!
I laughed so hard at J's stunned silence!
Hey SCB, I have a "What if" question I think would be interesting for you to explore:
"What if Voldemort went through The Veil?"
He was at the Ministry on the night of the attack on the Department of Mysteries, so what if he had joined the attack and through some set of circumstances, went through The Veil?
What would happen to his soul? To his body?
Would it stay anchored to the mortal realm due to his Horcruxes, or is The Veil "too strong" to overcome, and now traps him on the other side, or are they balancing themselves out and he stays in limbo, as he does in the main story, except this time, instead of his soul being too mangled to pass on, his Horcruxes and Prime soul are essentially "pulling" on each other and cancel themselves out?
I think they already answered that more or less in the video "Could the veil destroy a horkrux". It is more about one of the Horkruxes going through but I'm not sure it makes much of a difference. The resolution was I think if he still has Horkruxes on this side of the veil he will be trapped in limbo. But I would need to watch again to be totally sure if I remember that correctly.
@@resathe6760 Not really.
The video only references what would happen to a Horcrux if it went through the Veil. A Horcrux isn't tethered to the mortal realm in the way that Voldemort would be. Once a Horcrux is destroyed, the soul inside of it is also destroyed, which is what the Veil would do. Or, at the very least, that bit of soul would anchor Voldemort to the other side, putting him in limbo since his other Horcruxes would want to anchor him to life.
But it's different for what we might call the Prime soul, since that is the bit of soul that is being anchored entirely to the mortal realm by the Horcruxes. The entire purpose of a Horcrux is to prevent the soul from passing to the other side, so what would happen if the Prime soul essentially took a shortcut to the other side via the Veil.
I wonder if, instead of destroying each individual horcrux they threw them all together through the veil. Would the Voldemort body have to go also, or would all of the pieces of his soul be enough to shatter his human body? Imagine "Yo Harry, whatcha got in the bag?" "Oh nothin much, just a collection of horcrux."😂
The castle on the French Adult Edition is Bran Castle aka Dracula's Castle. Just a little fun fact for ya... the "artist" didn't even pick an obscure castle, they picked a famous one.
Please turn this into a series, the All the Thai covers are friggin amazing.
Day 78 of asking the SuperCarlinBrothers to please bring back Google Auto Fill videos
Yes i agree
I'm from Belgium, so I grew up with the Dutch edition (the one with the broom, not the blue sky). It's not the most beautiful cover, the photoshop of all the dutch books is so bad. But I vividly remember studying these covers in my bed before I went to bed. What I do love about the Dutch editions is the fact that on none of the seven books you can see a face of the character (maybe some hair, a foot, a shadow...) but no full face, which leaves the reader a lot of imagination. Also, all the Dutch editions have those little icons on the top (like Hedwig with the letter on the philosopher stone). And all those little icons are sneak peeks of what's going to happen. So when you pick up the book for the first time, you don't know what they mean and while reading it or after reading it, it just makes sense. As a kid I got so excited to finally understand what that little icon was for. For example 'The Deathly Hallows' had a doe for the icon and 'Prisoner of Azkaban' had a rat :p
I feel like it’s worth mentioning that on the spine of the US 20th anniversary children’s edition if you line up the whole series they makes a big picture of Hogwarts!!
As a Thai person who grew up reading the Thai version I’m so proud it got a good score.😊
Dang, your cover is sick! I wish I could buy the book in my language but with that cover. I'd easily put it on my wall as a poster. Very creative and beautiful at the same time. Lucky you!
The Thai cover honestly needs an international release. It is SO GOOD!!!
@@robertgronewold3326 Have you seen the other ones? They are all that well executed. My favorite is book 6. I need those RIGHT NOW :D
We don't need a live action Harry Potter series - we need an animated series in the style of the Thai artwork!
Slovak edition as a 5 is a crime ngl
The Spanish edition that you gave a 9 looks sick, but I would have shifted the perspective of the train a bit, because now it looks like Harry is about to get hit by it.
I agree about the train being about to hit Harry! I always felt that way with the original UK cover too.
I've heard that even though movie sets are largely artificial, the sets in many of the Harry Potter films featured real wood and stone and fire and things like that for the magical feel.
Sometimes they filmed on location using courtyards and corridors from real castles.
The library used for the first movie had a policy against lanterns, so the crew was the first in centuries to bring one inside it for the Restricted Section scene.
Most of the frequently used sets were made of real, durable materials. They knew they would be filming in the Great Hall in all the films, so they invested in real stone for the floor.
I liked the Bulgarian one. Hagrid has that perfect look of wild, yet friendly.
I grew up with the original Dutch versions, and I looooooove them. They are so mysterious and dark, you never see a face on any of the covers, only intriguing figures. I'm a bit shocked you only rated them one point more than the Finnish one haha.
True.
I cant believe how you gave the slovak one a 5. That cover was incredible!
Time stamp ?
@@Maayrakk its right at the beginning. Weird that you are asking for a timestamp, but its at 3:54
i agree with u. looks awesome
The Swedish covers have an amazing artstyle
this should've been a tier list ranking! that wouldve been so fun to see them all in tiers at the end
"Why is there a rat? Why is Harry wearing a rat hat?"
I was already laughing, but that line killed me! 😂😂😂
Fun fact about the Bulgarian 20th Anniversary edition: you were actually correct with your comment that it looks like it is done by a second-grader. The Bulgarian publisher held a children's drawing contest for the 20th anniversary :) All the books got covers with children's art.
"Is this supposed to be Dumbledore? Thats a terrible Dumbledore." It looks pretty darn close to Richard Harris's Dumbledore to me!
"A blue t-shirt and jeans? Not in a robe at all..." I'm pretty sure Daniel Radcliffe wears that exact outfit at some point in the first act of the movie, down to the shirt being too big because its Dudley's.
These are the books though, not the movies.
True, we're being shown the book covers, but I like to think the covers showing Harry in oversized jeans and shirts represent the hand-me-downs of Dudley we read about in Philosopher's Stone
I love the first German one, because I grew up with that book and have a lot of nostalgia for it. I really liked the rest of them too and was very interested in seeing how they looked in other countries that are not the US, the UK or Germany
The Bulgarian one is not bad, they got a really important artist to draw them. Lyuben Zidarov was 96yo when this collection was released.
For the Danish, I believe it's supposed to be the moment the wand chooses Harry (no idea about the cave)
I'm reading the 1st book with my son, and yes, Hagrid is present when Harry gets his wand, he is seated on a stool at the corner of the room and he claps when the sparks get out of the wand.
For my favorite, I think it is the 15th Anniversary Edition, Harry and Hagrid in the Diagonal Alley is awesome. I also like most of the German ones.
33:20 in the book Hagrid is present for Harry getting the wand, then Hagrid and Harry both together go get Hedwig, you're thinking of the movie.
I saw the Finnish one, it was my childhood.
And I always thought Hermione looked more adult than the other two.
That "photo of a red gem" cover gave me big "red kryptonite" vibes. And a lot of the really bad ones reminded me of choose your own adventure books.
I have the adult edition of Deathly Hallows and it's just a photo of the locket. Not a fan.
You should design your own cover! I would love to see what you come up with and put it on my old copy. Love your work!
Amen to that! A Super Carlin Bros. designed HP book cover (series)!
Yes, there **IS** a cave in the first book, J! That's the entrance for the "firs' years, firs' years over here" at the end of their boat ride.
And Hagrid is with Harry at Ollivander's. Looks like someone needs to re-read the books XD
I always imagined the cave in the danish edition to be were the boats entered because it is connected to the lake
At the bottom of the Japan version, there were boats going into a cave, too, so that's likely. 🙂
that's what I thought too!
The Indonesian cover’s version of Dumbledore almost looks like the later movies’ version of Professor Flitwick to me. The cover art of the first adult version looks like something a fanfic writer would make for their Wattpad story.
Hagrid was at Ollivanders in the book. He wasn’t there in the movie, but was definitely there in the book
5:45 No way you rated that the same as that incredible looking Slovak edition. Jaw-dropping coloring and detail vs that deformed looking Harry in the anniversary edition with too much emphasis on the title. Fair but just caught me off guard haha
yea this is where i lost the understanding of the grading scale lol. after a while i couldnt tell if 1 was good or if 10 was bad
@@tjhall1000 Well 5 would be middle of the road either way haha
to add a little to the Dutch books, that little icon in between Rowling's name (in this case it was Hedwig) is different for every book
Chamber has a spider, Prisoner has a rat, etc and etc
really neat
Not only does the French cover scream “pilgrims trapped an owl”, but the title also loosely translates to “Harry Potter and the magic/wizard/sorcery school” which gives away the wizard reveal.
Actually the french translates directly as - Harry Potter and the School of Sorcery... Which as you say - is a huge spoiler!!!
Yeah when I ´ve learnt than in every other language it is about the sorcerer’s stone, I really wondered why 😂
As a Swede I grew up with the Swedish covers. Even though the first book gets a bit much the others are really beautiful. My favorites are Prizoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix, but Half Blood Prince is also really good.
Finn here! I love both the swedish and Finnish covers. I collect HP books and the swedish ones are some of my favorites, my top 3 are OotP, DH and GoF.
The following Italian book covers from the first edition get so much better! I recommend checking them out, they get less inaccurate and somewhat more abstract, whilst becoming more deep in meaning, e.g. The deathly hallows has Harry and Hermione under the invisibility cloak visiting the Godric's Hollow cemetery, with as a background a very faint print of Lily and James' tombstone inscription and lilies on the back of the book.
The puzzled Swedish owl strongly resembles a marginal drawing in a medieval manuscript so it fits for me, unlike most other images on that cover
I wanna see all of the cover reactions. Would deeply enjoy if you made this a series.
its kinda interesting that on the uk children's edition harry already has a scarf with Gryffindor ish colors, also swedish edition has the scar over the wrong eye
Defending the swedish cover a bit now, but they don't describe where the scar is. At least in the Swedish translation. I think they only say it's a "thin scar on his forehead". So the illustrator (when the Swedish version was made) didn't have a description of where to put it. I'm not even sure the eng version has a description...
learning something new everyday@@asanordell1487
It never specifies scar location in the books, beyond forehead. The movie int rpretation is now the most common interpretation. Before the movie I saw middle of the forehead all the time in kids wearing costumes.
Kinda feels like you gave the british and american original covers so high scores simply because they were successful and not because you actually liked them
I agree with the Thai cover being wonderful. In 1999, I had a 13-hour layover in London, and picked up a paperback copy of HP1 (to read on the plane). It was a 12th printing or something, and had the brown-bearded wizard on the back cover, similar to the first printing. It has pride of place on my shelf. :)
Idk why your rankings got me so mad 😅 its not just about the story accuracy, some of the ones you ranked low were really creative and beautiful!
I got the Thai edition as a special 20th anniversary in Brazil, and gotta say, all the covers are beautiful. Gotta be my favorite.
Slow-vac had me dying haha
Now you point out how common Quidditch covers are, makes me wonder which book focuses the most on it or has the best Quidditch moments?
Actually the characters on the French Edition cover looks more like they are wearing the classic depiction of witches' hats.
The US 20th adult edition is the one that I have for the entire series and all the covers of the books connect. If you put them all next to each other in order then it’s like one big, long drawing instead of 7 different drawings. That’s also why the snake is there. The snake goes across the entire series
13:10 - That "hat" in the Danish Edition is from an old danish children tv show called "Busters Verden" (Busters world)
And is about this boy Buster, who wants to be a magician and do magic. That blue hat, with the stars and the moon, is part of his stage outfit.
14:34 they kind of go in a cave, that's where the boats finish their trip after crossing the lake. But we never hear of that place again 😄
Haven’t watched all the way through yet, so I don’t know your take on them, but my alternate favorite covers from the originals (US or UK) is the Swedish versions. They’re very unique and beautiful and kinda epic. Half Blood Prince is the best one!
6:02 I have that one. I agree it's not particularly appealing but I feel the simple picture can't go wrong, whereas a drawing could be too childish. Something to consider is also how they fit into the series when you have all 7 books. They all have similar dark pictures but with a different highlight color which is kind of nice. Also, zero spoilers for anyone who has never read it 😂
Okay, now you definitely have to do an episode of this for every one of the books! It would be so cool to see what elements stay consistent across the covers for the different countries/editions.
14:26 that cave is probably the underground harbor for the boats. If that's what the artist intended, I give them props, that is some good attention to detail.
This was very fun.
Please make this a full series, I'd love to see you rank all the books in the series for their covers.
A "fun" fact: The original print of the artwork for the Swedish edition has gone missing. The artist lost it during a trip to see his mum to show it to her 😅
I’m pretty sure 90-95% that the French adult addiction castle is Vlad the impaler’s (Dracula) castle all through it could be similar architecture
That would certainly be a choice.
The Thai editions are all done with the same art style, and it's absolutely incredible
The cave on the Danish edition is where the boats go when they travel across the lake. It's missing the curtain of Ivy that's described in the book, though.
There was a very nice new edition in France illustrated by Stephane Fert, they are gorgeous!
As finnish guy I like the Finland version because it looks like kids would get interested because the trio is on big and anyway I remember when my 4th grade teacher read it to us and shoved the book to everyone
The swedish one looks like an acid trip. 10/10
For the Bulgarian edition, the illustrator was apparently 95 at the time they announced it and he's a renowned artist (according to MuggleNet)
The adult German edition was beautiful ❤
The us 20th edition is one of my favourites aesthetic wise
I have the full US Children’s edition. I love looking back at the cover after I’ve read the book and seeing how much foreshadowing there is. One thing about Goblet of Fire’s cover continues to confuse me though. What is the weird spiky looking bit at the bottom? Is it supposed to be a blast ended skrewt or something?! 😂 Does anyone know what it is? 😅
Always thought it was the Hungarian Horntail Harry faced in the first task as it was described as having "bronze spikes protruding along its tail every few inches." Remembered reading that line and staring at the cover thinking that's what that spiky thing had to be. 😀
My favorite cover is from the US HBP. That erie green with Harry and Dumbledore looking at a big bowl. We thought it was the pensieve but it was the bowl from the cave. The students looking up at the dark mark. That one was fire!!! And the actual hardcover part was a beautiful deep purple color.
At first I assumed that the Bulgarian 20th anniversary edition might be the winner of a kids "design the book cover" competition, but it turns out the artist was 95!
I grew up with the Swedish cover. It's whimsical and colourful. It's showing off some kind of magic but not too much about a school. Harry looks fantastic! Oversized clothes, unruly black hair, the works! I would give it at least a 7. Points deducted for not including more characters we will get to know and love.
That "adult" cover is almost exactly the image I used for a spoof contest designing "the worst alternate cover" for an existing book.
Alt title to go with it: Harry Potter and the Smart Guy's Rock.
The original Danish cover (starts at 13:09) was painted by Per Jørgensen - he actually won the popular vote for the best cover illustrator of the Harry Potter books in a competition by MuggleNet, so I feel Jay is being a little unfair here. But that might be my nostalgia talking.
What I love the most about the US 20th Anniversary Adult Edition is that you can lay them all down with the front up and it will create one long image. That snake goes through all the books. It’s amazing.
Why does "Adult Edition" just translate to "Less Fun Edition"? Adults like colorful covers too!
33:49 the snake is actually a part of a bigger picture if you put all seven 20th anniversary books side by side
You should do this for all 7 books!
I agree that for the first book, the hogwarts express is probably the best motif for the cover.
Our swedish covers look a bit crazy but I tell you one thing, they get so much better and they all really made me wanna read the books. So much whimsy and fantastical imagery.
I know only the first 3 books have been done so far but I would LOVE for you guys to do a video about the Mina Lima special editions of the Harry Potter books (not just the cover but the artwork and moving elements throughout) - they are truly so beautifully crafted! Especially as they put like a year into creating each one it’s so impressive
The Caitlin’s Way footage gave me so much nostalgia! Lol 😂
I will say that the French "pilgrim" cover is more true to the authors sketches of the uniforms, so more accurate than a red cape
J, as for the US School Market Edition, Hagrid is definitely there when Harry gets his wand in the books. Ollivander says hello to Hagrid, then recalls the wand he made for him and asks if they snapped it when he got expelled. Hagrid says yes but he still has the pieces. Ollivander asks him if he uses the pieces, and he says no but grips his umbrella tightly when he says it. I remember rereading the book after having read the series and thinking it was a weird question to ask since Harry's wand doesn't work at all once it's snapped in half.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these 20th-anniversary additions with the really childish art (like the Bulgarian one) were actually covers designed by kids and entered into some sort of competition.
I actually wrote a paper on HP covers for my Master's degree - a lot of weird and cool covers out there, and they do a lot of different things
The Bulgarian 20th Anniversary edition looks like a child’s drawing that they just put on the cover! 😂
30:49 I'd be disappointed it's not a book about playing chess with rats, but as a peice of art, i love it! 😍