Hellish Advertising

Rumpus cartoonist Jon Adams brought this ridiculous cover for Dante’s Inferno to our attention.

Not only does the cover image look like it has more to do with a Ridley Scott movie than one of the greatest literary works of all time, but the blurb at the top reads: “The literary classic that inspired the epic video game by Electronic Arts.”

Pretty sure there’s a special circle of hell for soulless marketing execs. Larger image after the jump:

This photograph is a Rumpus exclusive and was taken by Rumpus pal Tienlon Ho.

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4 responses

  1. I also love that Inferno “includes an exclusive 16-page full-color insert and a special introduction from the game’s executive producer.”

    Also, the book next to it has a blurb that reads “It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is still alive today… as a vampire.”

    Great shot Tienlon!

  2. If it gets a bunch of video game-addicted kids to read it, isn’t that a good thing?

  3. There’s a funny satire of this over at Penny-Arcade worth checking out:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/15/

    While I will (self-consciously) defend video games as a viable artistic medium, I have a feeling young gamers who explore the source material will look at the poem, try really hard for a few pages, and toss it aside.

  4. @Michael Is it wrong that I totally want to play a video game version of Moby Dick that looks like that? Thanks for posting that link!

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