Yoshikazu Ebisu’s Cover for ‘Teachers Who Fell to Hell’

Yoshikazu Ebisu’s 1981 cover for Teachers Who Fell to Hell does the opposite of what a jacket is supposed to do: it gives you no way in. The central figure stands with his back turned, a bright blue collared shirt beneath a solid black silhouette of a head with pointed ears, his own name carried on a yellow label pinned across his shoulders like a shipping tag.

Around him the cover goes loud. A flat blue sky, a yellow sunburst radiating overhead, the title arcing across the top in heavy red characters, and a scatter of toy cars, guns and abstract shapes each dripping thick black liquid. Two small men in blue suits peer down from the upper corners, mid-shock. Primary colours, hard black outlines, and the economy of a Japanese poster with none of its politeness.