[DL] DL] PEG Cover Art (Goff)

["Roy Spence" <roy.ster@virgin.net>]

I have been away for the past few weeks and came back to find my
advance order Hexarcana waiting on me.  As I'm also in the middle of
moving house I have had little time to read it, howeverI thought I 
would post something that I noticed as I eagerly ripped off it's 
packing.

I personally was drawn to the Deadlands books by the whole western
horror atmosphere, this was helped enormously by the image created in
my mind by the cover of initial Deadlands rulebook and subsequent
supplements.  Covers may send out the message "look at me" or "buy me"
however I feel that they also offer a great way for Marshals and
players alike to get a full colour view into how PEG (via the artist?)
views the world, and this in turn helps the Marshals to describe that
atmosphere to the players.  

To me the recent Deadland supplement covers are a bit dull, by that
I mean that I find them static and uninteresting, Hexarcana (which of
course has prompted this) is the most recent case.  I have noticed a
marked change in the covers of late, with the atmosphere set by the
cover for the game changing from the grim, stark foreboding nature of
the Book of the Dead or Law Dogs covers to the Back East: North (don't
have South), Hexarcana etc.  I'm not sure if it is a particular
artists style that I don't like (I haven't checked to see if they are
the same person) however I feel that they fail to grasp the horror and
western genre of the Weird West.  I initially thought it was the
artists use of brighter colour in the cover, however Law Dog's used
bright red/orange to good effect, and the cover to RVCII was dark, and
yet lacked the foreboding atmospheric element to some degree. 
Probably the exception to this is the Agency cover, which I would rate
highly, I like the set up of the picture (subject, angle etc) yet even
as I think back it lacks some sense of feeling.

It was just as I was looking at Hexarcana's cover, it all of a sudden
dawned on me that the cover would probably put me off the book, if I
was browsing through my local store (just as well I now mail order)
rather than drawing me to it.  It then struck me that the cover was
not in the league of earlier covers and seemed even to present a
different "Deadlands" that wasn't as dark and nasty as the original
game and I was wondering if this was the intent of PEG, or if it was
just the artists personal style.

Knowing nothing about art, I've struggled a bit to say what I mean,
but I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this?


Roy