Here is the new cover and I love the way Diagon Alley looks with the textured cobblestones, candles, and crooked buildings of ancient age, but I don't quite understand the two people with rabbit ears and faces. After quite a bit of discussion on Harry Potter Network, we decided that the rabbit people are supposed to be Goblins from Gringotts, even though it never says in the books or on Pottermore that they have pointy ears. Yet JKR made a drawing from HP and the Sorcerer's Stone that showed a goblin with pointed ears, and we know she was involved with the way they appear in the movies. In the books, it is actually House Elves that have pointed large "bat-like" ears, but maybe all these little people are connected in some way.
The new artist, Kazu Kibuishi, has done several interviews:
From Publisher's Weekly:
The new artwork is by Kazu Kibuishi ... creator of the bestselling graphic novel series Amulet (Scholastic/Graphix). “Initially I didn’t want to see it done,” Kibuishi told PW, “because I love the original covers so much. I’m a huge fan. But after thinking about it for a while, I figured if someone were going to do it, I should try it.”
. . . Kibuishi believes he may have it a bit easier than Mary GrandPré, the artist who created the original U.S. covers for the Harry Potter books. “I have the advantage of seeing the books in historical context,” Kibuishi says. However, he notes that he has put pressure on himself, wanting to live up to GrandPré’s example. “I’ve never worked so hard on single images in my life!” he says. “I’m an author as well and I know how much work I put into my own covers, so I thought ‘this [the Harry Potter project] won’t be bad.’ But when I came to do it, I realized how much more this project meant to me. I want to get it right.”
Via Snitchseeker
What was your inspiration for the new cover for ‘Sorcerer's Stone’?
Kibuishi: That one was the clearest cover for me to do. It probably best signifies the idea of Harry becoming a new perennial classic. I feel like over time [Harry Potter] is going to be looked at like we look at a Dickens novel or a Wells novel. I wanted to give the covers that classic look. It was like I was doing almost a kind of fan art of Harry Potter, but done in the style of classic literature. The initial cover was very Dickens. I was thinking of “Great Expectations” or “A Christmas Carol.” I have a film background and I’m a big fan of movie poster. It’s probably reflective of some of my favorite movie posters as well.
Did you use artist Mary GrandPre’s work as a jumping off point?
Kibuishi: Her work stands alone in its own way. They are like icons….As I said, I came at it as more as an art historian. Taking a look at how we have sort of accepted Harry into our culture and trying to invent it for a new generation of readers. I tried to sever as many ties as I could and try to think about it from a completely fresh perspective while paying respect to the work that came before.
I made stylistic tributes to Mary’s work. There are little elements and flourishes that I probably wouldn’t have done myself, but they’re so subtle, in the technique that I’m not sure someone would notice.
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