I knew George Ziel, but I did not.
Meaning, I was familiar with some of his most iconic covers, but had never explored further,never connected a name with a graphical style, with a certain cover.
Then, yesterday night, I saw this…

… and I decided I need to read this book, and I wanted to know more about the cover artist.
It reminded me of Karel Thole – but he was in fact George Ziel.

Born Jerzy Zielezinski in 1914, in Poland, Zielezinski was first trapped inside the Warsaw Ghetto and later sent to Dachau when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1938.
After liberation, he published two books of sketches and art he had put together during his internment, Prisoner Album (1945) and 24 Sketches From The Concentration Camps in Germany (1946).

Then he moved to the USA, and inNew York he became a book cover artist, specialising in paperback originals.
He died in 1982.
Here’s a little gallery of his works: lots of teased hair and ominous skies. And disquieting architecture. But good.

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