Should We Call This “High Concept?”

Somebody, somewhere, someday really has to write this book, if only so they can use the artwork featured above. It’s the creation of New Jersey freelance illustrator Rob Kelly, about whom I have written before on this page. In addition to his commercial assignments (many of them for Time Out New York), Kelly has created a series of posters promoting old monster movies, a companion series of what he calls “monster PSAs,” and spec covers for crime, mystery, and thriller paperbacks.

Dope Doll might be his best mock-up paperback cover yet, even though the entrancing woman at the center of things looks less drugged-out than she does delighted to be caught in the buff. And Kelly concedes that it “is more of a ‘drug book’ than a mystery/thriller, but that’s okay--sometimes sex and drugs are enough!” I couldn’t agree more.

Why isn’t Kelly’s art all over real paperbacks? Let’s face it, in a world where copycat covers and unimaginative book jackets predominate (how many more fronts with shadowy figures does the world really need, guys?), we could sure use his creativity in the book design department.