Amazon Best Covers of 2009 :: beyond Thunderdome

tomer :: check out Amazon's Best Cover of the Year vote-- they narrowed down the thousands of books sold this year to a small number of finalists to be judged by the surfing public. the cover i did for The Gigolo Murder (blogged here) is competing against five other covers in the paperback category. the rest is in your hands. i'd twitt about about it, but I'm vegan.



* voting gives you a chance to win a set of the top vote-getters in each category

The Kiss Murder :: book cover

tomer :: Illustration is like acting. you need to invest a strand of authentic emotion to make it work. otherwise it feels artificial. So you try to embody, in your head, the protagonist. Let's see: you're a slender man of Turkish descent who's a computer wiz, a private detective, a black belt and an Audrey Hepburn look alike. most prominently you are a transvestite. you sit in your night club, ready to punch someone softly or kiss him to death. either-way it's a deadly move. and then an epiphany: it's in the shoulders-- that potent combination of strength and sensuality. a pair of slender, well defined, boney yet muscular shoulders. a glorious pedestal for your pretty face.


art directed by Roseanne Serra.

happy thanksgiving! don't choke on it.

The Concert Ticket :: a book cover

tomer :: the book in brief (from amazon): On any given morning, on the street corners of a Russian city, little kiosks suddenly appear. As soon as their shutters open, a queue forms, men and women lining up in the hope of a little bit of luxury: a pair of silk stockings or a box of chocolates. One morning news spreads that the exiled composer, Selinsky, will be returning to the city for one concert only, and there is one kiosk, somewhere, selling tickets to this most magical event of the year.

the direction was to showcase people queuing for this kiosk with Moscow in the background, and focus on the protagonist, a melancholic teacher who banks everything on this ticket as a last chance for happiness.



final color/type closer to last sketch.
for Penguin UK, art directed by Richard Bravery.