Am I the only person who actually bought this?
For all the joking we made about it being a $100 book of covers that we already own, it is actually a great book.
If you enjoyed those Eric Skillman blog posts (that he seems to no longer make,
but appears to be a new thing on Criterion's website.) - then this book will certainly get your interest - as it mixes in a lot of alternative / rejected cover designs.
Most interestingly are the blurbs about the cover design choices - like
The Taking of Power by Louis XIV using a font created specifically for Louis XIV (the cover is based on the original engravings). Some are quite lengthy descriptions about the artistic decisions made and what worked / didn't. Its rather fascinating - and helps to make what I thought were some dull covers into, at the very least, intriguing ones. That said, most are just a few sentences - (I would have liked to learn more about their decision on I Married a Witch).
Some other highlights for me: The alternative Uninvited designs, the woodcutting for Master of the House, the beautiful Picnic at Hanging Rock painting (used for the included book), the huge amount of alternate design work for Repo Man (sheesh), etc. At the very least, it is cheaper than buying some of those art prints that Criterion sells (Amarcord and
Monsters and Madmen in particular). Amarcord / Zatoichi / Naked Kiss /etc all get huge fold out recreations of the booklet / sleeve art).
Not every cover in the collection gets highlighted, but I think most of everybody's favorite covers are in there - and the ones with the best design work get at least a few pages devoted to them. I think it is well worth owning as it has a great amount of information on their design process, plus individual artistic decisions regarding the covers / alternate covers, designs. At worst, you can always cannibalize the book and frame stuff.