{"id":143,"date":"2016-08-31T13:41:15","date_gmt":"2016-08-31T13:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/?p=143"},"modified":"2016-08-31T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T14:30:12","slug":"stephen-kings-the-gunslinger-book-cover-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/uncategorized\/stephen-kings-the-gunslinger-book-cover-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen King’s The Gunslinger Book Cover Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gunslinger<\/a>Published in 1982, Stephen King’s\u00a0The Gunslinger<\/em>\u00a01st edition cover is very different from the newer covers during the following 34 years.The first book in King’s Dark Tower<\/em> series,\u00a0the 1st edition does not even show the Dark Tower on the cover at all. Instead it focuses on what seems to be the titular character, a young boy and what looks to be a monkey, with some dark outlines of rocks in the foreground. The characters are shown as if a light is hitting them, with the rest of the cover in darkness, symbolizing their goodness and emphasizing they are surrounded by the dark. I would even say the cover is as plain as it can be but still giving people an idea of the struggle between the light and the dark.<\/p>\n

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\"gunslinger<\/a>The newest edition cover, printed in 2016 and with a reference to the upcoming major motion picture of\u00a0The Gunslinger<\/em> shows the background in more detail. The gunslinger is standing in what looks to be a desert, giving an idea of what sort of place the book is set. The Dark Tower is visible in the background, but there is a light behind it. Perhaps the light is supposed to give the impression of a duality. Even though The Dark Tower is a foreboding name, the light shining behind it signifies that once the tower is reached, the gunslinger will have found the light at the end of the tunnel, and finally be finished with his journey. The gunslinger on this cover does not look like the Howdy Doody character on the 1st edition. He looks like he could draw his gun and kill a person before they even knew what was happening. The imagery on the 2016 edition makes it seem as if this character could do anything. The inclusion of the raven perched on something could mean there is death in this book. Due to their status as carrion eaters and scavengers, ravens are often viewed as a dark symbol.<\/p>\n

I noticed in almost all the covers throughout the years there were a few recurring elements. The Dark Tower was usually in the background, signifying a long journey ahead. The gunslinger is present in the foreground of a few of the covers, and if he is not then there is usually some sort of bird or raven, possibly meaning death or darkness. Often when The Dark Tower is present, there is a light behind it. The light also shows there is still a journey to come in the future for the gunslinger.\u00a0The covers of the books throughout the years bounce between serif and sans serif fonts, although it is unclear why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in 1982, Stephen King’s\u00a0The Gunslinger\u00a01st edition cover is very different from the newer covers during the following 34 years.The first book in King’s Dark Tower series,\u00a0the 1st edition does not even show the Dark Tower on the cover at all. Instead it focuses on what seems to be the titular character, a young boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheilaliming.com\/428DH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}