Friday Face-Off: Historical Figure
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe…has been answered”
~ a cover featuring A HISTORICAL FIGURE
Mogsy’s Pick:
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother’s bedside. She’s been stricken with something the old-timers call “Milk Sickness.”
But unbeknownst to young Abraham at the time, Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s death was actually caused by a vampire. Losing her became the catalyst for his revenge and lifelong obsession with ridding the world of the nefarious bloodsuckers. In this highly entertaining fantasy-historical mashup, Seth Grahame-Smith actually managed to fit the plot around historical events quite well. Not much more to say about this book, besides it was an fun, interesting read (and much better than its movie adaptation).
Let’s check out the covers:
From left to right:
Grand Central Publishing (2010) – Corsair (2011)
Grand Central Publishing Movie Tie-in Edition (2012) – Thai Edition (2011)
French Edition A (2011) – French Edition B (2012)
Portuguese (2012) – W. F. Howes Large Print (2011)
Winner:
As usual, the movie tie-in editions have the brighter, more visually appealing covers, but they do seem to lack a bit of the class and elegance I prefer from the “old-timey” covers, blood-splattered as they are. I’m going to have to go with the original Grand Central Publishing edition for this one.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I liked the Corsair (2011) edition.
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I like all the “historical” covers too!
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I thought this was a decent read and I actually liked the film too! The version I read was the cover you picked and I like it.
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Yeah, the movie was fun, but I don’t think it’s one I would ever rewatch lol!
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I own the version you picked, and think i like it the most as well. Was a good read
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It was definitely a fun one.
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Never read it, but saw it by accident, my kids will watch anything with ‘zombies’ in the title.
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Yeah, I believe he has written quite a few historical/horror mashups!
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I love the original cover too, but I also like the Corsair edition. With that splash of blood across his portrait, it’s very dramatic!
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I gotta say the blood splatters were used to great effect on these covers! 😀
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Some nice covers here. I like the WF Howes edition the best, I think, mainly for the moonlit background and just the eeriness of it.
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Ah I think you mean the French edition, and I agree, I love the moonlit effect!
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Oh, great pick for this topic! I don’t often say this, but I kind of love the movie tie in cover. It has really great atmosphere. 🙂
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I do like what they’ve done with the movie covers, though I’m a sucker for the old photo covers 😀
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I have to go with the first movie tie-in
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I like the repeated theme of the hatchet present i most covers, which plays like a tongue in cheek joke for Lincoln’s past as a woodcutter and herebhints at… other activities 🙂
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For this story, I prefer the Grand Central Publishing Movie Tie-in Edition (2012). It seems dark and mysterious and thus appealing to me.
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Definitely the original 2010 one, but the GCP movie tie-in is quite appealing as well – didn’t read the book so don’t know if it’s more historical (as the first cover suggests) or more vampiric (as the movie tie-in seems to indicate ;))
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I really like French Edition B (2012) and Portuguese (2012) ones thought I wish the guy on the front looked more like Abe Lincoln. (I’m guessing they are the movie tie-ins and that is the actor?) If they replaced that guy with Lincoln pictures it would be much better!
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I really like both the French editions for this – great choice for this theme.
Lynn 😀
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