I was juggling a couple different possibilities for a cover for Public Policy Hooligan.
Just like in my real life – I couldn’t figure out what to do with that bomb on the cover. So I went with the cigar cover…
Public Policy Hooligan: The Other Book Cover
I had this vision of a book cover put in my mind by some supernatural being from outer space, or maybe it’s just the medication.
I’m seeing a youthful Jim Bovard wearing a leather jacket (like Brando had in The Wild One) and an oversized Brixton hooligan cap (google it to see one) standing in a bathroom. Painted on the wall (near the top of the cover) in large letters: PUBLIC POLICY HOOLIGAN.
Perhaps an open can of paint with a brush in it is sitting on the floor. Jim is holding a large cherry bomb over a toilet and lighting it with a Zippo. The U.S. Great Seal is on the tank of the toilet.
At the bottom of the cover, there is a sort of tag line:
A Hooligan Confesses Why He Throws Cherry Bombs Into The Toilets Of Public Policy.
This thing needs to be done in the style of those sleazy pocket-book sized novels published in the fifties.
Maybe if you checked out a few nursing homes in the Bowery, you could find the artist that did the cover for this William Burroughs book:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WSK3Pwm9c8w/S-sqfok-ciI/AAAAAAAAARk/EN4K3x_knt4/s1600/Junkie_2.jpg
As usual, Tom, you’re about 10 miles ahead of me (and probably everybody else) when it comes to design ideas.
Great idea for a cover. Not sure about the toilet – I was trying so hard to ‘go lofty’ on this cover design. But maybe the cigar & the railroad engineer cap in the final design blunt that aspiration as much as the toilet bowl.