Friday Face-Off is an idea originally thought up by Books By Proxy which I stole from the fantastic The Tattooed Book Geek. The idea originally was to compare UK and US covers based on an assigned theme each week and choose the winning cover. I will be twisting it slightly: not specifically US and UK covers, just different editions.

This week’s theme is a cover for Halloween: “And I, Jack, The Pumpkin King!”

This quote comes from my very favourite film, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. With that in mind, my book choice for this week is one and the same. Before anyone complains it’s not Halloweeny, but is more Christmasy, consider this. At a Q and A session the director of the film, Henry Selick, was asked by a little girl: is this a Christmas film, or a Halloween film? And his initial reaction was “Oh boy” knowing this was opening a can of worms. But he definitively clears the matter up – this is a Halloween film: it’s all about the holiday and the people of Halloween, and how they deal with the concept of Christmas.

That’s good enough for me, but doesn’t mean I won’t be watching it all the way through to December 25th! Now, on with the show!

Cover A:

Cover B:

Cover C:

Cover D:

And the winner is… COVER C!

A reasonably simple pick for me. I like the sketch-like quality that C brings, and the art style hints just enough to some of the underlying darkness within the story. D came a close second, but I loved the representation of some of the other characters in C.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s theme: 4th November – “Nomad is an island” – a cover with a wanderer.