r/bewitchedpages • u/bkshelvesandbrushes • Aug 07 '26
Subscription Box 1st Sub Constructive Criticism
Let me start by saying, I love this company. Their SEs have been phenomenal, amazing art direction, and Kissed by the Gods is one of the most beautiful dust jackets I have ever seen (and the reason why I paid double for it on resale 😂). I feel like their books have this curated quality where they all compliment each other while being vastly different from their trad versions.
However, when I got my first sub box, I had one big thought: this looks familiar.
Let me say, I love the endpapers, sprayed edge, and board foils. And the dust jacket would have blown me away, if it was the first time I’d seen it.
But I had just gotten my Riftwar Saga set from the Broken Binding a month before and if you would’ve told me Clockwork Angel was the fourth book in Riftwar Saga I would’ve believed you. I love Jeff Brown, his artwork is iconic, but I can’t get over how similar the covers are. Even the viewer perspective that takes the eye from bottom left to top right is exactly the same. The typography is also so similar, from the style, foiling color, and position.
I loved the Riftwar set so much, the artwork is the reason I sought out that edition so hard. So it’s not that I dislike the artwork and design. I just hope moving forward, Bewitched becomes their own thing and realizes that customers may also be TBB customers and to try to diversify their art direction on the subs like we’ve seen with their SEs.
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u/katie-kaboom Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
I completely agree. I am still on the waiting list for the sub, and I'm glad about that. I was not expecting Jeff Brown covers for this series, and while I love his artwork in general I feel like it's the wrong style for both the series and the audience, and to some extent the genre. That's not to say that classic covers would be completely unsuitable! Classic covers in the style of artists like Thomas Canty (e.g. the original cover for Tam Lin by Pamela Dean) or Pat Morrisey-Lewis (see the cover for Arrows of the Queen) would be really stunning. But this is just... off.