The cover to Craig Hinton’s 2004 novel SynthespiansTM went through several intriguing drafts. With thanks to Craig, here we present a potted guide…
Gent demo 
First BS version 
Original Dynasty image 
Second BS version 
Final version 
Hinton’s words of thanks
Click images for full size versions.
(1) Along with the brief to Black Sheep to make the cover “Spearhead From Space meets Dynasty“, Hinton also asked James Gent to design a temporary cover, which he could approve and pass on to the final designs as an example of his concept. This was never intended for public viewing, but simply to help Black Sheep realise his idea.
(2)/(3) Black Sheep took his idea rather too literally, and came up with a cover that used copyrighted images from Dynasty, digitally altered to look like Autons.
(4) After the first run had been printed, someone spotted the gross error, and pulled a stop to the press. The entire batch had to be pulped, and Black Sheep hurriedly came up with a replacement. (Spot the mirrored background, and mirrored female Autons, as ideal source material at such a late stage was hard to come by).
(5) Just before printing started up again, Black Sheep made some final alterations, moving the right hand Auton to the left, and adding in a whole new model for the right of the picture, along with flipping the male Auton, to create the final cover as it appeared on our shelves…
(6) Craig Hinton never forgot Gent’s help, and personalised a copy of the final book.
TME acknowledges our friend Craig Hinton’s support in the creation of this original page in 2005, and James Gent in an update 2020, providing the sixth image.
