User blog comment:NicktheDummy/Escape from Shudder Mansion cover art/@comment-4207976-20171018222524/@comment-28171460-20171018231741

I don't want to sound like I'm parroting you, so I'll just quote myself (from a message wall comment) from earlier today:


 * I actually wanted to read it [this book] more before the cover. It's so awkwardly barren on the left and right sides of the door.


 * Dorman keeps trying to do that thing that he did for the Most Wanted series. Instead of drawing an actual background, pick a solid color and apply the exact same grungy texture. It's so boring and doesn't look half as good as covers where he actually draws a full picture.

On this cover Dorman is clearly trying implement the same boring backgrounds that he did for the Most Wanted series, but it makes no sense here. For the Most Wanted series, I always though the backgrounds looked weird, but I excused them because they were supposed to look like mugshots on wanted posters. But that isn't the case here. This just looks bland, barren, and oddly shaded.

Like, did Scholastic cut his budget or something? This is clearly corner cutting. His work on the Most Wanted: Special Edition books was amazing, so I don't see why every cover in this series looks so half-baked.