Mugglenet Podcast - "Deathly Hallows" Covers Are Discussed

Last week, the UK and US book covers for the 7th and final installment of the Harry Potter book series were released to the public. They became available to view at various websites on March 20th, 2007. The posters of these images are also being sold around the world.

The UK covers have always been more elaborate than the others. They are drawn by Jason Cockcroft, a talented illustrator who has been there from the first book. The illustrations are for the Bloomsbury book publishing company who publish the Potter books in the UK and some other English speaking countries outside the US. The UK book cover will be released in Cockcroft's version in most other countries outside the US.

Cockcroft designed the children's cover of the book and the adult edition has a photograph on the front of it. The adult edition of the book has what appears to be a silver locket with a snakelike symbol in green emeralds on the front. It is laid on stone or granite with the chain disappearing into the dark. The top of the children's cover is black with the title in white. The colors surrounding the trio are reds, golden yellows and the treasure consists of silver and gold goblet, plates and different colored rubies. This edition depicts the trio of the series, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine shocked, scared and determined while surrounded by treasure of immaculate proportions. Hermoine wears a purple cloak, Ron a green one and Harry a grayish sweater/cloak. On the back of the cover appears to be the Hogwarts castle in all its splendor with a full moon behind it, glowing in the dark blue sky.

The US version is published by Scholastic and they only have one edition of the cover, said to be the children's edition. All seven US covers have been illustrated by Mary GrandPre'. She also does artwork inside the books. He cover illustrations have always focused on Harry and his signature moments in the book. They are more like soft sketches with filled in colors that blend into each other. The title on the cover is written in red for the words "Harry Potter" and a darker blackish red color for the words "and the Deathly Hallows". The backdrop is a dark golden yellow. The cover depicts Harry in a brown cloak and green shirt raising his hand high as if to draw something from above him. He seems to be in a coliseum, rocks below him. On the back of the cover is the very scary Voldemort, his red eyes glaring at Harry and his pointy gray fingers stretching out toward him.

Mary GrandPre' talks of drawing for J.K. Rowling. "When I illustrate a cover or a book, I draw upon what the author tells me; that's how I see my responsibility as an illustrator. J.K. Rowling is very descriptive in her writing--she gives an illustrator a lot to work with. Each story is packed full of rich visual descriptions of the atmosphere, the mood, the setting, and all the different creatures and people. She makes it easy for me. The images just develop as I sketch and retrace until it feels right and matches her vision."

Since the covers have come out, there have been many theories on what the book covers mean and new developments have rumored about the ending to the series. Some of the more popular ones are Harry that will learn a spell that even Voldemort cannot stop, from the US version of the cover. From the children's UK version, the theories are that none of the trio will die since they are on the cover. Another is that the last Horcrux something that we have already seen in the series, like the goblet of fire, even though that rumor has been dispelled by Rowling.

On www.Mugglenet.com, the site creators and their main contributors discussed today some of those theories that are popping up. Also from the site, here are some of the other things that were discussed.

"Also in this week's edition of our Harry Potter podcast:

-No time for jokes on this April 1st edition!
-We give our thoughts on the Deathly Hallows covers.
-What castle is that on the back of the UK Children's edition?
-Are they in the Department of Mystery's Death Chamber?
-What is around Harry's neck?
-We have a very special surprise for all of you...
-Snape and McGonagall...? (Oh, our poor minds!)"

You can download the podcast for fre when you sign up through iTunes. Or go to the Mugglecast website and listen there.

The UK version of "Deathly Hallows" will be 608 pages; the US will be 784 due to bigger font size in the US. You can find images of the book covers on the Bloomsbury and Scholastic websites. You can also view them on www.Amazon.com and www.mugglenet.com.

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