Keith Berdak was the cover artist for the first editions of the first six novels in the Black Company series. His 6 original artworks were the first face of the series. Two of these covers were later reused for their respective Polish and Bulgarian translations (shown below).
Regarding Berdak's artwork for the cover of the first edition of The Black Company, Glen Cook revealed in a 2002 interview (external link) that it was not originally slated to be published. Rather, it was selected during a chance encounter:
“ | The cover of The Black Company was a cover somebody made up for me. It was just an example. The marketing guy absolutely didn't want it. But, while it was on his desk, a buyer from a large chain bookstore came in and, not knowing anything about the book, said "I'll buy fifty thousand copies of anything with that on the cover," so they went with it. | ” |
Later in a 2009 interview (external link), Glen Cook praised Berdak's covers and their direct connection to the contents of the stories:
“ | The covers for the first 6 Black Company books here, because they were painted by a very good friend [Berdak]. Though they’re a little primitive they do have some actual connection with what is inside. | ” |
For the category of Keith Berdak's Black Company images on this wiki, see: Category:Images (art by Keith Berdak).
English editions[]
United States[]
Mass market paperbacks:
Audiobooks:
United Kingdom[]
In 1992, the first trilogy was published by Roc, an imprint of Penguin Books, in the United Kingdom using Keith Berdak's covers. These were mass market paperbacks, like their American counterparts:
Polish edition[]
The first printing of the Polish translation in 1994 featured Keith Berdak's cover artwork, shown below. (When this was reprinted by the same publisher in 2002, however, Berdak's cover was replaced by an unrelated image by artist Walter Velez, which had first appeared on Wings of Omen, the 6th anthology of the Thieves' World series.)