2. Another idea was for the cover to have a film-noir or pulp feel to it. One of the stories in the book (“Knife Party”) involves a character bleeding to death in the hallway of an apartment building, which felt appropriate for a noir-inflected cover. I found this really interesting photo of a man face down half in a hallway and half in an elevator. This was the first use of a bloodstain in the shape of Italy, which became dominant in the rest of my concepts.