True, there are some faults, obsessions and full-on manias that we’re never going to admit to (though do feel free to guess what those are). But one obsession we have no problem putting our hands up to is this: we adore little peeks at the creative process when it comes to design. And our nostalgia for the ’80s runs a close second.
So imagine our delight when we came across the rough sketches for one of the most ubiquitous lines of book covers ever to grace the supermarket book racks during that decade: VC Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic” series.
While our mothers were quietly following the Gothic, um, adventures (?) of the Dollanganger family, some of us were haunted by the stylishly embossed covers that opened to reveal the corpselike paintings of that weird little family. Whether these directly inspired the bevy of similar covers for supermarket horror novels that decade or merely joined them isn’t clear. One thing’s for certain: They’re still sufficiently creepy. An extra treat: the photo references for the characters that graced the covers. Book nerd heaven 🙂
