JAWS by Peter Benchley, Pan editions
Contributed by Rachel Laine on May 24th, 2017. Artwork published in
circa 1975
.
Pan Books, 1975.
The cover of the British paperback edition of JAWS by Pan Books renders the title in caps from Novel Gothic. ‘J’ and ‘W’ were modified for an even more pointy and aggressive look. This logo was repeated in subsequent editions and reprints. It was also referenced in cover designs for Shark Attack.
License: All Rights Reserved.
Pan Books, 1976.
Thirtieth Anniversary Edition, 2005.
3 Comments on “JAWS by Peter Benchley, Pan editions”
Zachary Petit wrote an article about the making of Jaws’ iconic book covers for Print. He mentions how Roger Kastel was commissioned to do the cover illustration for the first paperback edition by Bantam. The US cover appears to use lettering for “JAWS” (the secondary info is in Americana). Kastel’s iconic illustration was used for the Pan edition shown above, too.
The 2 on the posters for Jaws 2 is also set in Novel Gothic, perhaps a nod back to these covers.
The modified pointy forms of the J and W may have come from a pre-existing alphabet. See this book cover for a 1976 edition of Weak Foot by Linda Cline with similar forms: