Not that the author needs my defense, but that image says to me, 'hey, I'm just a guy who wrote a book and there's no budget for art' -- which fits a DIY aesthetic in 2026
Not to me it doesn't, to me it says, "Hey I couldn't be bothered to put in the bare minimum of effort to look over an image that is going to be the LITERAL face of my upcoming book".
Took me 10 minutes to do this with an equal "budget" and the freeware graphics program Krita. Still has problematic issues (the curvature on that CRT looks like its suffering from bloody glaucoma), but it's vastly better than the original.
Took me 10 minutes to do this with an equal "budget" and the freeware graphics program Krita. Still has problematic issues (the curvature on that CRT looks like its suffering from bloody glaucoma), but it's vastly better than the original.
https://mordenstar.com/share/vb-history-book