Let’s return to Asian publishing for some more unusual editions of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
The left one is from 1969 and published in Hong Kong through a Christian publication company. Clearly the cover artist did not read the book and created a Halloween scenario — with Halloween colors — based on the “witch” of the title. The illustration is the most literal I’ve ever seen. There’s a witch with a candy receptacle shaped like a cauldron. And a wardrobe which is just lying on the ground. And a lion. ’nuff said. Why go further?
The second is from 2002 and from Beijing. Another Halloween witch, this time with flaming red hair, flies against the moon. The wardrobe looks suspiciously like one of those huge cabinets meant to hold and hide CRT TVs in the 1990s. The realistically rendered lion doesn’t match the other elements or the pretty folk art frame. Oh! And a bat is flying into the wardrobe’s vortex. Can’t forget the bat.
