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A distinctive series design links three of author Michael Moorcock’s best-known London titles, with linocut imagery contributed by an artist whose connections with the capital are equally renowned. Danny Arter reports
“I
t’s not often you get a brilliant artist, a really open author and an encouraging editor all working together,” says
Lucie Stericker, creative director at Orion, “. . . but we did on these.” She is referring to reissues of Michael
Moorcock’s trio of London titles—London Bone, King of the City and Mother London (all £9.99, B-format paperbacks, published 30th June)—which are to be jacketed with covers designed by printmaker and artist Paul Cath- erall, who is renowned for his crisp, clean linocuts of London’s architectural monu- ments. Te combination is a capital one: Moorcock’s novels are “very London, literary books, they needed to shout London”, Ster- icker says; and her instrument of choice to achieve this was Catherall’s minimal designs, envisaged as a triptych of sorts, of some of London’s most iconic cityscapes. Te artist has also become synonymous
with London, a consequence of the subject matter of many of his linocuts, which depict some of the city’s most distinctive struc- tures—ranging from the Oxo Tower to the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre—and also of his work on commissions for Trans- port for London. If his work appears familiar to London-based eyes, it is likely through exposure on the city’s transport network.
Genre bending Stericker also intuited that Catherall would be a good fit because the titles were to be taken in a new direction; not SFF, but more of a literary bent. Te artist was instructed against creating a “genre” cover; and the titles will carry W&N’s Classics branding instead of that of Gollancz. Te only residual SFF angle is a tenuous one: the stark, almost brutalist angle—most evident in the design of King of the City—appears slightly dystopic, especially given the gloomy, encroaching clouds from behind. “I came up with a few ideas for the series,”
Stericker says, “but my favourite by far was using Paul Catherall—he is a really cool
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artist; I had brought a print of his at Te Hayward Gallery a few years ago, of the Southbank. I didn’t think he would actually do the covers as he’s a big artist, but he was really keen. Michael Moorcock is also really forward-thinking and he loved Paul’s work straight away . . . so these were actually really easy! “Designing these was a joy. Te artworks do all the work,” she adds. Tey also provide a clean break from some of Moorcock’s previ- ous livery (pictured overleaf), which could be accused of taking the London theme a little too literally, exhausting a series of the capital’s more notorious imagery—street
“I didn’t want any text overlapping the image, and I also didn’t want to crop into the images at all—so I made them slightly smaller, giving me the space to have quotes at the bottom”
—Lucie Stericker, Orion creative director
signage, blue plaques; the kind of aesthetic emblazoned on many a tourist-tat market stall—and, in the process, blending in somewhat. Cathedral’s compositions are an antidote to this: clean and minimal, yet bold. (Each of Catherall’s linocuts were printed by hand; the prints are available to purchase directly from the artist.) Te linocuts are framed on the three titles in a passe-partout style; the white border is only broached—scarcely—on the cover for London Bone, in which a graphic element bleeds off to the left of the livery. Te grid that contains the illustrations accommodates room for brief, praiseworthy testimonials under the images, imbibing the covers with a clean, classical feel.
Such an aesthetic is added to by Catherall’s style, and it’s also a consequence of method. His approach is striking yet spare, with only the key identifying elements of a building or skyline printed: his sketches for the covers,
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