The Friday Face-Off was created by Books by Proxy, where each week bloggers can showcase books with covers centered around a weekly theme. You can visit Lynn’s Books for a list of upcoming themes. Join in the fun each Friday by finding a book whose cover is based on the theme!
This week’s theme: “Is that a lion with horns and a pitchfork?” – A cover featuring a lion.
Well, lions on book covers are harder to find than I expected. Immediately ruling out the obvious (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), I headed for Google to get some help. And I found a good one, I think! A Lion Among Men is the third book in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series, an imaginative retelling of The Wizard of Oz (in case you’ve been hiding under a rock) and even though I’ve only read the first two books, I decided to feature this anyway, because I do have a copy of it on my shelves. Here are the covers I found:
U.S. edition 2008 | UK edition 2009
U.S. paperback 2011 | Portuguese edition 2010
Spanish edition 2011 | Unknown date and publisher (?)
I mean, none of these are really outstanding examples of cover design, except for the first one, I guess. I do like the way you can just see the lion’s tale in the U.S. paperback edition, and I think the Spanish edition is interesting with the upright lion holding a staff. But overall, I’ll have to choose the original U.S. hardcover edition since it matches the rest of the series:
This time all the covers are SO different. I like the Portuguese edition the best because it’s pretty, but the contrast of colors hint at danger.
Oh, I’ve completely lost my heart to the glowing green UK cover… What a very good choice for this week’s theme! I think you’ve got the best selection so far – a lion with a pince-nez is just pure class:))
I think the US edition is the best but that Portuguese one sure is pretty
So many different styles. I’m leaning towards the colorful, bold look of the UK edition.
I agree with the U.S. hardcover too. But the Portuguese one isn’t bad either. ^_^
I would like the UK one the best if the green witch wasn’t on the cover. 🙂
The US hardcover version is the one I have! I think that’s definitely the one I prefer best, too. The others either look too realistic or too cartoony, but the US version has a nice balance between the two!
I like the one you chose best also, Tammy, and I also agree that none are super amazing. It’s too bad because it has so much potential with a lion and then of course Oz things!
I do like the US hardcover and I even like the second one even though the Witch always freaked me out lol.
I love your pick! And what a cool book, a lion in spectacles – now that’s awesome 😀
I love it -so cool. I kind of like the Portuguese edition too but a glasses wearing lion wins the day totally.
Lynn 😀
For some reason I’m finding myself drawn to the ones that feature the lion more in silhouette like the Portuguese and the Spanish ones.
This is a hard choice! I keep finding something to like about each of them. I gravitate towards the UK edition 2009 but then I like the simplicity of the Spanish 2011 edition.. lol. I own the first book in this series. I really need to get to it.
I don’t really love any of these ones, but I like the last one best!
I love that we picked the same one! And seriously, it was more difficult than expected to find lions on covers!
Great pick! I don’t know if I love any of them but I do like the one you went with, the orange is appealing.