Harry Potter and the PHILOSOPHER'S STONE - OFFICIAL alternate covers courtesy Jim Titus

[Nick Parker 3,040]

4 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I just find it ridiculous to say people who prefer the other title are stupid.  How things are measured matters and this doesn’t. It’s a preference.  Leave it.

 

They're just taking out their frustration because they wish they were living here to avoid shipping and customs charges on this set.

[mrbellamy 6,270]

Obviously it’s not a question of stupidity. Harry Potter would have taken off here regardless which makes it weird that they didn’t start re-releasing it as Philosopher’s as soon as the series took off and the reason for the title change became widely publicized. There’s no reason not to let Sorcerer’s editions become collector’s items at this point. 

 

That said, my set stays American. Less work for me! 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Maybe they should just stick with the OSTs.

[Josh500 1,615]

19 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I just find it ridiculous to say people who prefer the other title are stupid.  How things are measured matters and this doesn’t. It’s a preference.  Leave it.

 

To be fair, the official reason given for the change of title of JK Rowling's novel in the USA was that the word "philosopher" might confuse, frighten off, or turn off US kids.

 

So the title was indeed dumbed down for the US audience. They didn't put it in those terms, of course, but that's what it comes down to. Even JK Rowling herself later admitted regretting the decision to let the American publisher change the name of her first novel. 

 

Anyway, so be it. There are more important things to worry about... At this point, we can't change anything anyway. 

[Holko 9,491]

To clarify: I first and foremost hold the publisher's idea to rename a preexisting object stupid, not preferring what one has come to know first or grew up with.

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

1 hour ago, Stefancos said:

How is the German translation regarded? Tolkien disliked the Dutch one, i think.

 

The old one, by Margaret Carroux, highly I think. It's certainly a good one, including the poems (which AFAIR were translated by somebody else). I don't know what Tolkien thought about it though.

 

There's a newer one by Wolfgang Krege from sometime in the 90s. I haven't read that, but I've read his re-translation of The Hobbit (which is supposed to be in the same vein), and it's horrible. Too German, too modern. Supposedly he stayed closer to the original with some places (although I think Carroux did very well in that regard), but what does that help when the tone is completely off. I think they kept the old poem translations.

[Luke Skywalker 1,792]

wow very nice from jim titus. thanks!

 

 

[Demondm810 397]

Jim Titus for President!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Vice President!  Matessino should be President by rights!

[Demondm810 397]

Good point

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Jay can be Secretary of Agriculture or something

[Holko 9,491]

It's not like this cover took much effort at all, but that's the thing about the LLL-Matessino-Titus trio - they're taking all these tiny extra steps toward perfection most people (even those in the business) wouldn't even think of, and it really adds up.

[Bayesian 1,353]

It's still Cabinet-level

[Bilbo 3,709]

19 minutes ago, Holko said:

It's not like this cover took much effort at all, but that's the thing about the LLL-Matessino-Titus trio - they're taking all these tiny extra steps toward perfection most people (even those in the business) wouldn't even think of, and it really adds up.

 

That's exactly it. They're fans like us and they do their nest to release exactly what we want. No Phantom Menace Ultimate Edition style stuff!

[Richard Penna 3,664]

The castle-based cover is awesome! Much better than the other one IMO. Thanks

[Demondm810 397]

The Harry and Hagrid was one of the UK posters, wasn’t it?

[Bilbo 3,709]

5 minutes ago, Demondm810 said:

The Harry and Hagrid was one of the UK posters, wasn’t it?

 

It was a teaser poster I think, yeah. Funny enough I can’t find it online with “Sorcerer’s Stone” on it so it must have been U.K. exclusive! 

[Demondm810 397]

Yeah I remember the Castle with boats well. And of course the Struzan. But I don’t think we got the other here in the states. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,153]

1 hour ago, Bilbo said:

It was a teaser poster I think, yeah. Funny enough I can’t find it online with “Sorcerer’s Stone” on it so it must have been U.K. exclusive! 

 

I think they used it for the German DVD release as well. I never liked it.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

It reminds me of LLL's E.T. cover with cartoon Elliot's back turned to us looking over a cliff at a blue sky. I didn't care for that one either.

[Laserschwert 473]

5 hours ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

It reminds me of LLL's E.T. cover with cartoon Elliot's back turned to us looking over a cliff at a blue sky. I didn't care for that one either.

It's not a cartoon though, but a kid Jim Titus photographed at the playground or something. Sounds weirder than it probably was.

[King Mark 3,624]

if you print a cover yourself it will look shit.  You can't match the quality with a home printer

[Laserschwert 473]

7 minutes ago, King Mark said:

if you print a cover yourself it will look shit.  You can't match the quality with a home printer

That's not true at all. Official booklets and covers are printed using offset printing, which is ideal for mass producing. But it also creates a much "grainier" image, because you can still see the pattern of the printing screens up close. Printing on a home photo printer will create a much finer, more detailed image than that.

[redishere 697]

This is so great! Even if I’ll probably end up changing the cover art every other day on iTunes

[rough cut 1,714]

I love the LLL cover for E.T.. Preferences aside, Jim Titus deserves nothing but praise for that one.

[Manakin Skywalker 4,889]

14 hours ago, Laserschwert said:

That's not true at all. Official booklets and covers are printed using offset printing, which is ideal for mass producing. But it also creates a much "grainier" image, because you can still see the pattern of the printing screens up close. Printing on a home photo printer will create a much finer, more detailed image than that.

Not my printer!

[Bilbo 3,709]

#NotMyPrinter 

[1977 1,743]

On 11/25/2018 at 10:02 AM, King Mark said:

if you print a cover yourself it will look shit.  You can't match the quality with a home printer

 

Mine look fantastic. As long as you print on high quality photo paper and have a decent-ish photo printer using the highest output resolution and print options (and a quality source image of course).

 

The problem is double sided printing, I've not been able to find double sided photo printing paper.

[Laserschwert 473]

9 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

The problem is double sided printing, I've not been able to find double sided photo printing paper.

Like this? https://www.amazon.com/Double-Glossy-Inkjet-8-5x11-20-Sheets/dp/B01LYJQMIH

[1977 1,743]

That's it. If only I could find this locally. Importing is too cost-prohibitive.

[Laserschwert 473]

Where are you from?

[1977 1,743]

5 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

Where are you from?

 

South Africa

 

Here are some custom fronts I've printed (still to be trimmed to size) - some are my own work:

 

 

Unfortunately the photo does not do them justice.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

@JTWfan77 you are very talented. I've only seen your Star Wars fronts until now.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

3 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

South Africa

 

Here are some custom fronts I've printed (still to be trimmed to size) - some are my own work:

 

 

Unfortunately the photo does not do them justice.

 

Roelof?

[Bespin 8,472]

Hey Mr. Titus, can you make french versions of your covers too?

 

[Bilbo 3,709]

I have the first book in French! 

[Brundlefly 2,385]

7 hours ago, Bespin said:

Hey Mr. Titus, can you make french versions of your covers too?

 

No covers with translated movie titles!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

55 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

No covers with translated movie titles!

 

Agreed!

[1977 1,743]

12 hours ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

@JTWfan77 you are very talented. I've only seen your Star Wars fronts until now.

 

Thanks so much for the compliment. The ones I did above are the 1st Right Stuff, 1st Goonies, both A Patch of Blue covers and the 1st Lilies. The others that aren't originals are by the brilliant raferjanders at the FSM forum and the guy that uses RAFCD as his moniker (found on the Plisken custom covers site).

 

I added the Intrada Special Collection logo to rafer's Quiller custom (I'm pedantic that way).

 

I've done hundreds of others, some very dodgy (when I was self-teaching) but I think I've gotten better over the years. I'm just an amateur though, there's plenty of others posting here, at FSM and elsewhere that are leagues better than me. I was going to post some of my Potter's but they're a bit low-res (being some of my earlier work).

 

10 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

Roelof?

 

Who's Roelof? You mean there's another soundtrack fan in SA???

[Laserschwert 473]

12 hours ago, Bespin said:

Hey Mr. Titus, can you make french versions of your covers too?

 

Here you go:

[Holko 9,491]

You left the white flag off.

[redishere 697]

[Bilbo 3,709]

A L’ecole de sorcers * 

 

 

appologies for mispellings 

[redishere 697]

1 minute ago, Bilbo said:

A L’ecole de sorcers * 

 

 

appologies for mispellings 

 

another country discarding the "Philosopher" element!  

Anyway, Italians always mess up movie and book titles.
An infamous one is "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" being titled

"Se mi lasci, ti cancello", which means something like "If you dump me, I'll erase you".

So I was actually surprised to realize HP1 is titled "Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale", the word-by-word translation of "the Philosopher's Stone".
On the other hand, a lot of characters' surnames were changed. Peter Pettigrew is Peter Minus, Snape is Piton, Trelawney is Cooman, Dumbledore is Silente. 
The worst case was Susan Bones becoming Susan Hossas ("ossa" means bones in italian, but Hossas is a stretch). Cringe-fest.

[Bilbo 3,709]

The French titles are often very different. Book 1 is the Sorcerers’ School and Book 7 is the relics of death! 

 

 

Harrius Potter et philosophi lapis is the Latin which is basically word for word.

 

The Irish is Harry Potter agus an Órchloch which is word for word but it’s interesting that we already had our own word for the Philospher’s Stone. 

[Holko 9,491]

A lot of names were changed creatively here, too, but we left most of the "normal" English names alone, instead changing the more imaginative and descriptive wizard names like Fudge or Sprout that would have meant absolutely nothing to Hungarian kids. Snape is also Piton here. Dumbledore is Dumbledore, Tom Riddle however was changed to fit an anagram - Tom Denem is basically "Tom but not [really]", which is the only cringy eample I can think of. Also a ton of spells were changed, but still retained the latin flavour. Muffliato is Disaudio, for example. Hogwarts is Roxfort, combining Oxford with Roquefort for some reason.

 

We call the object "wise man's stone", so that's what the title ended up being.

[redishere 697]

That's really interesting! 
Yeah Tom Riddle's full name had a bunch of weird translations to make the anagram work.
The italian version is Tom Orvoloson Riddle, which becomes "Son io Lord Voldemort", literally «I am Lord Voldemort»

Didn't know Hungary and Ireland had their own name for the Stone!

[Holko 9,491]

Our anagram is a bit cheaty, Nevem Voldemort (My name is Voldemort) becomes Tom Rowle Denem - they combined the two Vs into a W! The Hallows also ended up as Relics of Death here.

[Bespin 8,472]

2 hours ago, Bilbo said:

A L’ecole de sorcers * 

 

 

appologies for mispellings 

 

Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers.

 

(HP at wizards school)

[Bilbo 3,709]

3 hours ago, Bespin said:

 

Harry Potter à l’école des sorciers.

 

(HP at wizards school)

 

French was inebriate if my worst subjects at school. Perhaps you can see why!