“The end is near… and apparently, so is the mildew.”
Welcome to our tenth entry at Horrible Covers, and what better way to celebrate than with a visual catastrophe that looks like it was printed on a napkin found in a haunted barn. Introducing: In the End by G J Stevens — a post-apocalyptic thriller that took the word gritty way too literally.
Let’s start at the top, where “IN THE END” looms like a highway overpass warning. The font? Cold. The spacing? Nervous. The impact? Somewhere between government PSA and intro slide for a school shooter drill video. Beneath it, the subtitle — “Their fight for survival is only the beginning” — is typed in what we can only assume was Courier New, chosen for its unique ability to suck urgency out of any message.
Then we arrive at the background, which appears to be a photograph of farmland filtered through an oil slick. The sky is aggressively moody, with teal rot bleeding into burnt orange like a forest fire got lost in a swamp. There’s also a random barn and a silo, in case you forgot the world was ending in rural England’s least visited county.
The characters — and we use that word generously — are silhouettes shamelessly Photoshopped onto a dirt path that’s been aggressively “texture-brushed” to resemble coffee-stained parchment. One looks like a child or time traveler made of static. The other is a trenchcoated figure whose shadow is more defined than their character arc.
And finally, the author’s name: “G J STEVENS” in sickly green, floating like it just emerged from the toxic waste puddle of a Fallout mod. No outline, no drop shadow — just flat green on green, like a chameleon playing hide and seek with its career.
Final Verdict:
A beautifully bleak apocalypse rendered in moldy pixels, mismatched fonts, and Photoshopped silhouettes who clearly didn’t sign a release form. This isn’t just the end — it’s the graphic design equivalent of a low battery warning.