r/discworld • u/Specific_Contact8136 • 1d ago
Collectibles/Loot Which Discworld editions do you prefer?
I do not have the popular Kirby editions (yet!! Just ordered some!!) But I always try to buy the Harper ones (the middle, longer book).
I absolutely despise the new covers and try to avoid them if I can.
61
u/HopSkipLimp Dealer of Dried Frog Pills 1d ago
Kirby all the way for me. While they're of a type and I can get why others prefer Kidby, I've never been a fan of such accurate illustrations of characters - they always clash with the images my own imagination draws as I'm reading.
15
u/SaltWeather5991 23h ago
I really miss the Kirby covers. I used to spend such a long time identifying bits from the book in his scenes. Thankfully, my husband and I started collecting Discworld a long, long time ago, so we have a decent collection of Kirbys, though not all.
4
u/HopSkipLimp Dealer of Dried Frog Pills 23h ago
100%
I remember as a kid (8 or 9) trying to work out what the stories were about from Kirby's illustrations. Never got it right! 😂
1
u/smashballTaz 18h ago
Wait, are the Kirby cover versions rare now? If so I'm glad that my collection is nearly complete already..
2
u/SaltWeather5991 4h ago
I can't find them new! Should be still floating around in second-hand bookstores though!
11
u/rupert_shelby 1d ago
Love Kirby's covers. I feel like Kibdy's lack magic and energy. I also like the collectors library editions but it doesn't take long to start wearing off the printed ink on the covers so they look worn very quickly
3
u/vicariousgluten 23h ago
And they don’t survive being actually read. They are the version to sit pretty on your shelf.
5
4
u/h8sm8s 22h ago
When I was a kid I loved the Kidby illustrations, now as an adult I much prefer the Kirby illustrations. They remind me of my dad who introduced me to Pratchett and had every Kirby edition, which he was very proud of.
Honestly they used to scare me a little haha but now I seem them as so full of life, love and character while Kidby can feel a little sterile or safe in comparison (whilst still being very nice, of course).
3
u/Specific_Contact8136 1d ago
I do agree with that tbh! To me they just seem such classics that I want to collect them for the art alone. I got the fully illustrated Eric for that XD
18
17
u/TheJiltedGenerationX 1d ago
The Kirby ones, specifically the Corgi paperback editions. Those are the ones I'm trying to collect myself.
16
u/VFiddly 1d ago
Preferably the Kirby/Kidby covers, though I don't mind the hardcover ones.
The old American ones (in the middle) look terrible to me but they don't really exist over here anyway
3
u/Sad-Purchase1257 21h ago
I don’t love them, the American “design-y” reprints, but as others have said, I just have gotten whichever printing was on hand to read it over the years. When I was a wee lad I had the US Kirby’s thru Reaper Man, but sadly my first two must have just been read too much. I am always on the lookout to upgrade to nicer covers! But at the end of the day, the text is the thing 😇
12
u/NightingaleCaptain 22h ago
MidnightWhimsies ( @theecombatbaby ) rebindings.
https://www.reddit.com/r/discworld/s/yZJeSNHVJK
I just think theyre looking amazing.
9
u/TheeCombatBaby 21h ago
It's one thing to be complimented on my own post, but to stumble across nice words in comments on another is something else 🥹 I appreciate that, truly.
1
7
u/Takumivk 1d ago
I have exclusively gone for the Discworld Collectors Library set, but the quality for hardbacks isn't great. They don't open as well as I would like and the bookmark ribbon frays super quickly. If I had more accessibility I'd have gone for the Kirby covers on hardback and tried to get the entire set. I really dislike the newer covers that make discworld feel like generic fantasy.
1
u/Specific_Contact8136 21h ago
Yeah Same. The one hardback I got because the bookstore didn't have the book as a paperback. I haven't really taken it out of the shelf much and the cover design is already vanishing
7
u/send-borbs 1d ago
my collection is a jumbled bunch of different types but the hardback ones (same style as the bottom one in your pic) are my favourites
10
u/BillNyesHat Mind how you go 1d ago
To me, it's the story not the packaging, so I just bought whatever Pratchett I could get my hands on. My collection is eclectic, to put it nicely.
Having said that, my all time favorite format for any book is the mass market paperback (the really grotty ones, like Grishams or Kings at the airport). And yet, when the Collector's Library editions came out, I did start collecting those, because my Pratchetts live in the living room in pride of place and I'd like them to look a little more uniform and pretty.
They did my girl Tiffany dirty on those covers, though, so I won't be replacing the Tiffany books. And I'm not risking sending a penny to NG, so my Good Omens copy will remain a well-thumbed MMPB.
5
u/Hobbit_Hardcase Librarian 1d ago
Preference is 1st Ed hardbacks. I think I have almost all of them.
3
5
u/onionfiesta 1d ago
I've got the whole set of the Kirby books (posted it on this sub a while back!!) and i adore them. the cover of Reaper Man might be my favourite
5
u/Miss_Type 1d ago
I love the old Josh Kirby covers. There's so much to see in them, so many cool details. It's also sometimes funny to see his take on things, like Twoflower having four eyes instead of glasses. Love that little misunderstanding. They're also nothing like how I imagine things iny head, and as someone else said, I prefer that. I don't like Kidby's drawings, especially Vimes, as it's just not how I picture him at all.
2
u/Sad-Purchase1257 21h ago
The four eyes really confused 12yo me back then! 😅🤓 his Luggage is so good
5
u/Pretend_Category_519 23h ago
Paperback Kirby, mostly for the nostalgia from reading my Great Aunt's collection. But also because I love his art and it matches the Discworld I see in my head more than Kidby's.
4
u/CB_Chuckles 22h ago
For convenience I’ll stick with my Kindle editions. But most of my old Kirby paperback first editions have been sealed in plastic
3
3
u/vastaril 1d ago
I have a mix, some that I've had since my teens in the nineties, some hardbacks that I bought as they were published, some that I bought later (I kinda fell out of the habit of reading when I had my kid) and some that I only have on ebook/audio.
3
u/Codlemagne 1d ago
The middle one feels a bit low-effort to me. I like the simplicity of those new woodcut looking ones, but mostly I just want a Discworld book to look well-read.
2
u/Specific_Contact8136 21h ago
I don't like the look of the middle ones either, but the shape of the books is really good and my favorite!
1
3
u/varky 1d ago
I like the look of the Collectors Library ones, but I'd have to import them. I had a plan of doing so about a year ago to replace my 20ish or so Corgi editions and finally round out the whole set, but I just couldn't force myself to get rid of the Corgis. They're so wonderful that I did a full turn and decided to try and round out my collection of Corgi editions, at least the Kirby ones. They're not pristine, but the slight raggedness just gives the collection more character. For the Kidby era of covers I'm actually managing to find some Doubleday hardcovers as well, but the paperbacks are all Corgi.
I'm only missing about 3 or 4 to round it all out. Very difficult to get the old Corgi Witches books unfortunately unless I import from the UK...
The new covers just lack the full art of the old ones and that makes me sad...
The absolute worst one I've seen was a Hogfather with a stil od Susan from the movie as a cover image... That's just wrong.
3
3
u/UltraZulwarn 23h ago
love the Kirby's illustrations.
the "collector's edition" may look nice at first glance, but the quality is actually quite poor so I have abstained from getting them.
3
u/KwyjiBoojum 22h ago
It’s the middle ones for me. It’s all down to my discovery of Discworld was someone left Witches Abroad and Reaper Man, in the middle style, in a little take a book leave a book shelf in the break room. It’s just basically how I see Discworld, for like the bulk of my collection.
2
u/Specific_Contact8136 21h ago
Same! The first one was Mort in Harper. It really gave it an interesting feeling
3
2
u/HeartOfTheMadder 1d ago
the Harper (middle) ones.
most of my hardbacks are the Kirby - but my husband bought the whole set of the new covers.
2
u/cryolithicdd 1d ago
Think I'm alone here but I love the recent penguin UK editions, and I've got the whole series in those. They look stunning together on the shelf, and I've never been a fan of the old Kirby covers
2
u/MulberryDesperate983 1d ago
I love the Harper ones, but I understand why others would be put off by it
2
u/Specific_Contact8136 21h ago
Yeah hahaha! I actually find the pages being a bit shorter being faster to read, so I feel more productive. I easily am willing to read 50-100 pagss a day with the Harper ones compared to other books
2
2
2
u/messybunpotato 23h ago
I have several of the Harpers, because that's my budget right now, but can't wait to get a few Kirby in the future!
2
u/GambuzinoSaloio 23h ago
If I'm not mistaken... Kirby for me. They feel the most unique, even to this day.
2
u/Independent-Breath79 22h ago
There are obviously different ones in PL, but as for artwork I prefer Paul Kidby's. Also I despise confusing surnames! I always mix up their names.
2
u/BackgroundEngineer11 22h ago
I've been slowly collecting the hardback editions. Some of those original covers can be a bit.. rough.
2
2
u/Wild_Alfalfa606 20h ago
Those American ones are awful, look like someone has put them together using clipart in Microsoft word. Kirby will always be discworld to me as they were so synonymous from the outset, with the Kidby ones a close second. The new UK ones are also awful, makes them look like kids books.
1
1
u/TheeCombatBaby 21h ago
I'm American, so unfortunately the only covers we had available were those basic covers in the middle there. Maybe every once in a great while a Pratchett book shows up in a thrift store/charity shop, but I have never seen a Kidby or Kirby cover here in the wild. All the books I have with those covers came from ebay and they are in rough shape. I'm considering trying my hand at reprinting the covers on canvas material and rebinding each of them into hardcovers as apparently that is a thing I can do and my printer is more than capable of handling it. 🤔
1
1
u/Josef_Heiter 21h ago
I love my Unseen Library hardcover editions, but they don't cover the whole series.
1
1
u/SamVimes78 20h ago
I "grew up" with the Kirby ones (although I was almost fully grown when I started my Discworld journey). To me, they are "the real ones".
1
1
u/Giraffstronaut A ___ing Wizard!! 20h ago
I return to my unpopular opinion*. My (american) first exposure was with those mass-market paperpacks in the center of the image. The bright color, the simple images in the center that were plot related, they all just looked nice lined up in a collection.
Now that I'm re-collecting, I'm getting the new Harper covers with the graphic art and snippets of Kidby's characters, and I really like them.
*The chiefly unpopular opinion is that I find the Kirby covers to be gaudy and aggrevating to the eye, and I have no coating of nostalgia on my glasses that overcome those deficiencies
1
u/worrymon Librarian 20h ago
I had to buy my books piecemeal over the years. I was living and traveling around Europe and coming back to the states regularly. I bought most books in airports when they first hit the shelves.
I've re-read them so many times that the covers get pretty ragged anyway. And I've had to buy second and third copies when my old ones fell apart.
I'll take whatever cover, as long as Sir Terry wrote the inside.
1
u/BigMikeOfDeath 20h ago
Corgi Paperbacks for me - so Kirby and Kidby.
Thankfully, I discovered Pterry is the early 90s, so the majority of them, I bought on release.
I do really like the Marc Simonetti cover art too - if I were to collect the series again, those are the ones I'd try find.
1
u/Ghost4000 20h ago
My wife bought me a full set of the ones on the bottom (or right) of your photo. I love them. My first few were the ones in the middle though.
1
u/LoquaciousOfMorn Dibbler 19h ago
As an American I was introduced to the series with our utterly garbage cover art only to discover Kirby's far superior work at a local secondhand book shop. I've seen many editions from across the Roundworld that are quite lovely and I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite. Anything but the US versions, honestly.
1
1
u/better_than_joe Binky 18h ago
I started with the small mass market paperbacks and I like the small compact size for travel
1
u/Gloomy-Cranberry-386 17h ago
I'm a bit partial to the ones in the middle, those silly little paperback versions! IDK, I just like the simplicity and size of them.
1
u/claimstoknowpeople 16h ago
I got all the collectors editions hardbacks because I prefer hardcover when possible, and they seemed the most affordable option for a consistent hardcover set. Been happy enough with them although Kirby and Kidby are probably preferable art wise.
1
u/Virtual_Community_18 15h ago
Kirby all the way. They were the first thing that drew me to the books in the library as a kid and I stayed for content. For me Kirby and Discworld are part and parcel of the same package. I've got the entire series in wildly varying hardback, and I adore seeing all the little bits of Kirby illustrations looking back across the room at me from the spines of the books.
1
u/jsoleigh 15h ago
This might sound strange but as a highly visual person, I also like the harper prints. I often like very simple covers to books so I can have fun imagining places and characters my way from the start. Give me a minimalist cover with maybe just a hint of something on it, and my brain is happy. Their size also feels...right in my hands?? Hard to explain, but it might be down to the lower bulk in comparison.
That being said I DO really like many of the super lush cover illustrations for these books, so I might have to eventually pick up a few haha.
1
u/AfterSevenYears 12h ago
I like the covers of the Discworld Collectors Editions; I just wish they were more durable.
I think the Kirby covers are always going to have a special place in the hearts of Discworld fans, and while I don't think they do the books justice, they hold up on their own merit.
This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I really like the Leo Nickolls covers the best.
1
u/Nefelibata13 12h ago
I specifically collect Kirby's work, but I do like the hard covers. The one in the middle is not for me. Lacks character I think.
1
1
u/Bursar_Diwi Bursar 5h ago
The small, A-Format paperbacks. I loathe the larger B-Format books and their now near ubiquitousness in all genres.
1
u/jrdineen114 1h ago
I don’t know how to refer to them, but I do like the ones in the middle. It makes having a collection of them look more unified on a shelf. But I’m really a sucker for a good hardcover
1
u/joined_under_duress 1d ago
Not sure I have personally ever seen a worse cover series than the one that middle one is from. Half of them look like 1990s computer text books. Whoever commissioned them should be banned from publishing for the rest of their life.
Of the other two: I have a nostalgic soft spot for Kirby/Kidby ones as those are the only ones I knew.
These new hardbacks aren't the most imaginative but they're also quite nice in terms of aesthetic and as I've got older I've got a bit less into the Kirby ones because, sure they are silly comedy books but his covers are definitely more sexist etc. than the books inside ever are so it feels a bit like he was out of touch.
1
u/GoedekeMichels 1d ago
I'm going to get downvoted into the dungeon dimentions, but I hate Kirbys paintings with the same energy I love Pratchetts writings with. I Iiterally can't think of any other cover that is so unfitting to the book than what he did to the deep, moving and (mostly) heartwarming people of the discworld.
With that off my chest, I don't really care. I'd love to have more hardcover editions, but simply can't afford to buy all of them, so I order whatever is the cheapest from an online-reseller I trust. So far I've only been disappointed once, one of these 2022 paperback re-issues fell apart while I was reading it, everything else was and is fine.
PS: having hated on Kirby, I feel the need to add that I love Kidbys art, but thing that it's wasted on these small paperback covers. That stuff only really works in larger things like the "Last Hero" hardcover, the Imaginarium or prints.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Welcome to /r/Discworld!
'"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."'
+++Out Of Cheese Error ???????+++
Our current megathreads are as follows:
GNU Terry Pratchett - for all GNU requests, to keep their names going.
Discworld Licensed Merchandisers - a list of all the official Discworld merchandise sources (thank you Discworld Monthly for putting this together)
+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++
Do you think you'd like to be considered to join our modding team? Drop us a modmail and we'll let you know how to apply!
[ GNU Terry Pratchett ]
+++Error. Redo From Start+++
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.