David FeBland: Cover Artist - Christie's Pocket Books (US: 1984-1985).

Agatha Christie’s cover artists have been instrumental in driving sales of her books to both new and existing readers. Artists commissioned to create her first edition jackets certainly benefitted from having a new title that eager readers would snap up. However, once a book has been in circulation for years (some now over 100 years),  a publisher must find an artist who can create a compelling design that still drives sales. Prior articles have looked at a number of these cover artists, including Robin ‘Mac’ Macartney (link), Geoff Appleton (link), and Tom Adams (link).

Recently I wrote about Martin Baker (link) who created jackets for Fontana in the mid-1980s. While his cover art was not used in the USA, one of Christie’s American publishers was also updating their covers with new artwork during this period. Pocket Books, based in New York, had previously hired Tom Adams in the 1970s to create a number of Christie covers in a unique wraparound landscape format. Now in the mid-1980s, they hired the artist David FeBland to create a new aesthetic for several dozens of Christie’s books.

David FeBland

FeBland's mother was an American and his father British. When he was 5 years old, he left England, first to live in the Mediterranean, but ultimately in Coney Island, New York, where his grandmother lived.

“All of a sudden, we were in a mosquito-swarming, four-story walk-up. Suddenly, I'd been plucked and moved from this beautiful surrounding into a place of freak shows," FeBland said. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I thought it was fantastic. I looked around and suddenly there were no more genteel, boring people."  

So as an artist his observations began on Coney Island, a rough and urban beach anyone could access by subway from New York’s boroughs. In 1958, FeBland moved from Coney Island to White Plains, New York. After High School, he attended the University of Cincinnati where he majored in Political Science.

“I thought I was going to be a nuclear physicist for about a half an hour and then I thought I was going to be an aerospace engineer for 45 minutes,” FeBland said. “I ultimately studied political science.”

He later studied town planning and design at the University of Manchester and earned a graduate degree in Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. This led to work as a landscape architect in the Boston area. But in 1977 he moved to Manhattan and started a career in the world of advertising and illustration in Manhattan.

As a freelance illustrator, he worked for many major advertising agencies. His work included designing logos for Old Spice and Disneyland. It was also in the 1980s that he was commissioned by New York-based Pocket Books. They tasked him with creating covers for numerous Agatha Christie titles being issued as a new series branded the Agatha Christie Mystery Series.

Shortly after this, at the age of 40, FeBland shifted his focus from illustration to fine art. Today, David FeBland is an internationally recognized American-British artist known for his contemporary figurative oil paintings and expressionist urban landscapes.

He has presented in numerous solo & group exhibitions, and at art fairs in the US, Europe and Asia. FeBland’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums, is represented in major art collections and has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications. For those interested in learning more about his current work go to: https://www.davidfebland.com/

The Agatha Christie Mystery Series.

Pocket Books had been publishing Christie novels for many years, frequently changing the artwork. In 1984 they launched their newly branded Agatha Christie Mystery Series. The overall layout and design was by John Condon while the artwork images were by FeBland. Condon's design aesthetic was simple yet bold. Each paperback’s core colour was silver, Christie's name (in script) was dominant and the title was placed inside a coloured box. For the artwork, FeBland's work was primarily a black silhouette art design, similar to woodblock printing, showing a scene from the novel – often the moment the crime was committed or discovered. Inside each book the image was replicated on the title page.

In almost all the books FeBland was acknowledged and given copyright for the image. However this was not consistent. For example, The ABC Murders failed to credit his work.

All but one book was colour coded by placing the title within a coloured box. Blue was used for Hercule Poirot novels, Orange for Miss Marple and Green as a catch-all for other titles.

A total of 33 novels were published using this design & his art, plus one known box set cover that reused a prior image. There are a few oddities within the series. One title, Ordeal by Innocence, lacked any colour coding. Instead, it referenced the 1985 film with Donald Sutherland that had just been released – effectively making it a tie-in edition but without any stills from the film.

Christie’s novel And Then There Were None (original US title) was published using the alternate title of Ten Little Indians and, very oddly, was given an orange colour band suggesting it was a Miss Marple novel!

By the end of 1985, Pocket Books again changed their design aesthetic. The last Pocket Book published with a FeBland cover was Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, which was published on August 6th, 1985.

Consequently, these FeBland covers are not that common as they were not individually reprinted. Fortunately, they are affordable, selling at typical used book prices. However, a collector will need to be patient to source all of them especially if ‘very good’ condition copies are sought.

The Blue Books: “A Hercule Poirot Murder Mystery”.

Twelve Hercule Poirot novels were published. While the original British title was used for Murder on the Orient Express, the American title was used for After the Funeral.

52368: Murder on the Orient Express.

54203: Hallowe’en Party.

54212: Third Girl.

54318: Dead Man’s Folly.

54717: Curtain.

55695: Funerals are Fatal (UK: After the Funeral).

55700: Cat Among the Pigeons.

55822: The Clocks.

60063: The ABC Murders.

60174: Evil Under the Sun.

60637: The Mystery of the Blue Train.

83440: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.

The Orange Books: “A Miss Marple Murder Mystery”.

Nine Miss Marple novels plus one non-Marple book complete the orange set. Three of the books used the original US titles that vary from the British books, plus the alternate title for And Then There Were None.

54206: Nemesis

54385: At Bertram’s Hotel

55222: Ten Little Indians (Original US title: And Then There Were None).

55267: A Murder is Announced

55523: A Caribbean Mystery

55645: What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw (UK: 4:50 From Paddington)

55701: The Mirror Crack’d (UK: The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side)

55796: A Pocket Full of Rye

60221: Murder with Mirrors (UK: They Do it With Mirrors)

60255: The Body in the Library

The Green Books: Non-Poirot, non-Marple Titles.

A total of ten novels were published in this green series with one using the American alternate title.

44723: Easy to Kill (1984)

54207: The Pale Horse

54208: By the Pricking of my Thumbs

54213: Destination Unknown

54319: Death Comes as the End

54320: Remembered Death (UK: Sparkling Cyanide)

54321: Crooked House

60062: Passenger to Frankfurt

60256: Towards Zero

60427: Endless Night

The Non-Series Book.

While there is no colour title box (image shown earlier) it is a film tie-in edition stating “Now a thrilling motion picture from Cannon films” on the cover.

54209: Ordeal by Innocence.

Numerically Sequenced.

Below I have sorted all the books based on their numerical sequence to aid collectors. All are numbered with an ISBN code which contains the series number. This number is also printed on the top front cover of each book.

44723: Easy to Kill.

52368: Murder on the Orient Express.

54203: Hallowe’en Party.

54206: Nemesis.

54207: The Pale Horse.

54208: By the Pricking of my Thumbs.

54209: Ordeal by Innocence.

54212: Third Girl.

54213: Destination Unknown.

54318: Dead Man’s Folly.

54319: Death Comes as the End.

54320: Remembered Death.

54321: Crooked House.

54385: At Bertram’s Hotel.

54717: Curtain.

55222: Ten Little Indians.

55267: A Murder is Announced.

55523: A Caribbean Mystery.

55645: What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw.

55695: Funerals are Fatal.

55700: Cat Among the Pigeons.

55701: The Mirror Crack’d.

55796: A Pocket Full of Rye.

55822: The Clocks.

60062: Passenger to Frankfurt.

60063: The ABC Murders.

60174: Evil Under the Sun.

60221: Murder with Mirrors.

60255: The Body in the Library.

60256: Towards Zero.

60427: Endless Night.

60637: The Mystery of the Blue Train.

83440: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.

Insights, Additions & Corrections Wanted.

It is highly possible there are some other covers with FeBland’s work on them not captured here as the bibliography in each of these books implies there were other titles in this Series though none can be located.

Thank you to collector Lisa Ridlon who provided inspiration to write this article and provided some of the images used. She also discovered that FeBland’s artwork for What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw was used on a box set sleeve, though rather oddly implies it was a Poirot story. It is also the only time Pocket Books did not remove his signature from the artwork.

However, the books included in the sleeve she located were not FeBland’s design, but from older printings. Whether Pocket Books was using the sleeve to sell old stock or whether the books had just been swapped is unknown. Any collectors out there that may have insights on anything related to this article, do let me know.

IMPORTANT NEWS re: Tickets to the 2025 International Agatha Christie Festival.

The organizers for the International Agatha Christie Festival have been able to add some additional tickets for my event on Thursday 18th September. Since the ticket gains you access to my talk on the artist Tom Adams, a drinks reception and the launch of a new exhibit of his work at the Torre Abbey Museum, there were some capacity challenges. Thank you to both the Museum and Festival teams for expanding the number of attendees. However, what shows as available is it - no additional rollout of tickets will occur once these are sold. More details and tickets can be found at: https://www.iacf-uk.org/festival-2025/literary/tom-adams-and-agatha-christie-partners-in-crime

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