Here’s one for the old school super-nerds. When I was in grade 6 back in 1988 my friend Scott brought some adventure books into class one day and the things caught on like wildfire. By “wildfire” I mean within the confines of myself and about three of my other friends. While the girls were reading Sweet Valley High or whatever, this is what the guys were into. Monsters, swords and fire.
Shown here are the covers of 10 Fighting Fantasy books created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Well, these were like the upgraded version where you kept track of stamina, strength and powers as you battled various monsters along the way. Even needed dice to read these things. So much fun. I have fond memories of playing through some of these books, and dissecting the killer artwork on the covers. It was just recently I started thinking back to these, and the art really holds it’s ground. Some nice typography in there too. Look at that Phantoms of Fear title! And I love the colours on the Vault of the Vampire cover.
Hell, Fangs of Fury as a 2-headed fire-breathing snake! How could I not be into this what I was 10?
Sorry about the low image quality, these suckers were hard to track down. Anyone else out there read these when they were kids? If so, you were obviously with the popular crowd.
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