Old paperbacks had way weirder paintings than today's covers

I was at a thrift shop in Tucson last weekend and flipped through a box of 1970s sci-fi novels. The covers were all airbrushed monsters with three arms and women in silver bikinis standing next to lava. Compare that to the new releases at the same store, which are basically just minimal shapes and a font choice. I get that publishers want a clean look for online thumbnails, but we lost a lot of weirdness somewhere in the last 40 years. Anyone else hold onto old covers just for the art even if the book was garbage?

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felixb252mo ago

Those silver bikini covers usually had nothing to do with the plot, right? Did you ever actually read one of those books, or just stare at the painting and make up a better story?

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