I'm back! Also; Harry Potter cover art!

` Three days ago, just after my last post, Phil and EdgeWalker moved my computer and piano into our bedroom - and a couple of bookshelves out! Oh, so wonderful! It's like... my own bedroom office!
` EdgeWalker also has one, now that my comp is cleared out of his room. He even has his own desk, thanks to a guy who was moving out of B Building - he ironically was helped by Jontrello Pontrello lug his belongings down the stairs, as the elevator had given out.
` I'm not sure, but I think that was also the guy who was forced to move out due to not being able to shut his dog up. (The one that used to really annoy me, which I've mentioned before...)
` A-ny-how... today is the first day that we changed the position of the wireless router, so I now have the internet in here! Whee!

` And what else did I do today? I walked a bunch - all the way up to the crazy house, in fact. After crazy lessons, I had lunch at a cafe, deposited a check from EdgeWalker, returned Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to the library, picked up a couple neato coffee-table books about elephants, and lugged those and a safe we'd gotten in the mail up to the apartment. Whew!
` Man, that Half Blood Prince is such a good book! It's at least as good as The Prisoner of Azkaban, (though sadder, but not as depressing as The Order of the Phoenix), and it explains a great deal about what's really been going on all this time in books 1 through 5. Lotsa detail, and as usual, I found it hard to put it down.

` It's kinda sad to think that the next book will be the last... Hey, that's right! I've got those images on hand... yes, I just love book illustrations all of a sudden. They're so... illustrative. I think I finally understand them, now that I can use pictures to help me visualize things I've never seen before. Really, I've had a tough time picturing things in my head for practically my whole life, although now, at age twenty-three, I'm finally learning to use my imagination.
` Doesn't that sound odd? That also makes this the first Harry Potter book in which I could picture what's happening! At least a little bit. The other ones? Well, let me tell you, I don't know exactly what was going through my mind, but it wasn't pictures. I was what I call 'mind's eye blind'.
` Amazingly constant stress does that to me - stress I've had until about now. You see, I had grown up without learning to use pictures to fuel my imagination! You might not think so because I'm such an artist - and you'd have evidence of that if EdgeWalker would please take some pictures of my artwork... I think he has to buy a flash first (his was stolen).

` Anyhow, these are the pictures of cover art I just happen to have on my computer... you see, until this year, I didn't know that the covers of Harry Potter books were entirely different in Britain (and possibly other countries), even though I've seen ones in other languages sold in other countries have the same cover art as the American editions! Weird.
` In fact, as you can see, the first book even has two different English titles, depending on what country it's sold in. I didn't know before, but originally, the Sorceror's Stone was called the Philosopher's Stone.
` I also really didn't care for the artwork by the American edition's artist, Mary GrandPre (especially that unicorn), though in the later books, it thankfully evolves from goofy to more awesome and realistic (even though everyone's eyes are drawn too high).
` The other Harry Potter cover is... well, British looking! As it should be!
` I'd also like to see the page illustrations - they're probably less weird than Mary GrandPre's. I really thought that a lot of her illustrations were... um... clumsy-looking, and a couple times I couldn't even tell what they were supposed to be at first!

` And even better than finding this out, I also discovered that there are two different editions of each British book! These are all Year 5...



` U.S., U.K., and U.K. adult!

` I like the adult editions's covers even better. They're so pretty! They're meant to look like; 'this means business!' Well, how else could an adult get away with reading this kind of thing in public?
` And now my curiosity's piqued... I've found Year 6's various covers on the internet...

` See, the American version's cover shows Harry and Prof. Dumbledore looking over Something That Isn't Very Palatable, and on the back is Ron, Hermione and apparently Ginny, and the Dark Mark of unspeakable evil and whatnot over the castle, signifying that someone's been killed by A Really Evil Person.
` Yes, a Really Evil Person. It may be Voldemort - I mean, He Who Must Not Be Named! - or it may be one of his Death Eaters. I won't spoil it for you.

` Here are the British covers of the same book (which of course have the original British spellings, as well as a few other variations).
` The regular edition shows Dumbledore with Harry, warding off some Really Scary Things with a kind of fire-lasso.
` The adult edition cover depicts the old book which used to belong to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

` I just wish they'd kept the British artwork for all the editions of the book! Don't you think that would be better? I mean, who is Mary GrandPre to draw entirely different artwork in 'soft geometry', when it already has perfectly decent artwork! Darn her!
` Darn her to heck!!!
` Likewise, I don't generally care for her illustrations, as most of them aren't that helpful, being all clunky and weird. While some of them have the realism the story evokes, I think that most of GrandPre's illustrations kind of 'screw it up.'
` In addition, I bet the British editions have even better page illustrations! I just don't know what they look like, or who made them. Grrrrr.

` Of course, there's plenty of other perfectly good Harry Potter Illustrations by many people, such as Sebastien Theilig. I think his Dumbledore looks more like Gandalf from the LOTR movies! Most of the other characters he's drawn, unsurprisingly (and I'm sure, coincidentally), look almost exactly like the ones from the Harry Potter movies!
` There's also a lot of 'cartoony' fan art on the web, including manga-style. *Shudder* That brings back bad Anime memories... In fact, there are all different styles and... levels... to be seen in the Harry Potter Fanart Challenge's archive pages! But I go on too much...

` Anyway I hope that from now on, my own illustrations will be able to depict the new images I am forming in my head. I haven't yet tried it out.
` Fancy that... drawings from my real, honest-to-goodness imagination - instead of copied from real life! I bet I could do it...
` And you could see, too, if Edgy ever gets another flash. I could get him one for Christmas... oh that's right. He doesn't celebrate Christmas. Well, neither do I. But I'll use that as an excuse. Gee, I wonder when his birthday is?
` Anyway, someday, I know, I'll have drawings up here. And they will be imaginitive.

` Speaking of being imaginative, I think J.K. Rowling has a really imaginitive website! [OBVIOUS PLUG!!] The Flash version's got all kinds of objects to manipulate - which can be disorienting, though there's little games you can play with them. Joanne herself is also a very cool person, and I'm glad she's busy dispelling rumors about all sorts of things as well!

` Anyway, I gotta go.