Looking at past adaptations of 'The Tale of the Three Apples'

When researching various adaptations of 'Arabian Nights' as a whole, I could find many different approaches. However, when looking specifically at the 'Tale of Three Apples' story, I could not find many previous depictions. It is clearly not as widely-adapted as 'Aladdin', 'Sinbad' and 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'. This is no coincidence, as these 3 stories are undeniably the most well-known (even though they were not part of the original 'Arabian Nights' collection [1]). However, I picked out images that had various styles;

Sarah Piper (2014) [2]

This monotone art style is relevant to the serious tone I want to bring to my e-book telling of the tale. The realistic look of the woman's corpse in the chest sets a dark and depressing tone - something that will help achieve the shock factor I'm looking for. The nooses in the background foreshadow the theme of execution that the story possesses. This is definitely a more adult visual take on the story. The illustration almost resembles an old photograph due to the rough border, and the smudges give a dirty aesthetic, which is emotionally draining. However, I feel that the image tries to include all the factors of the story at once (with the apples in the foreground just placed in a static fashion) giving the objects no purpose.

Nusrat Hajiyev (2013) [3]

The visual style of this artist's approach looks very traditional, as if it could be from a ancient publication. This is aided by the blank facial expressions of the figures, and their statuesque poses. The colours, and the aesthetic of the trees almost look like an oriental painting. The overall mood of the doesn't feel as dark, and depressing as I'm looking for. I get this impression as the woman in the chest seems to be alive, rather than dismembered as described in the story. I can tell from the garments in the image that the artist was trying to recreate a period similar to that in the tale. 

Benny Thomas (2013) [4]

The simplistic art style resembles short comic strips found in newspapers. Although this aesthetic is most likely about content over style, it looks too boring for me. Although it is a black and white piece, the lack of shades is visually tiring. With Sarah Piper's monotone piece, there were still various shades of black, which added more depth. However, the aspect I like about this piece, is the comic page layout. It made me think about possibly using this layout in my e-book. Comic books can be extremely powerful when it comes to telling a narrative effectively. In addition to this, with the potential of e-book technology, I could attempt to make a e-book comic where each panel is animated. This could be very simple and short, using a GIF file.

Bright Readers Childrens Book (n.d.) [5]

Although I am not targeting children with my e-book, I thought it would be worth analysing the visual style of this children's book, for variation and comparison. Due to the young demographic, the characters in this approach look friendly and content. As when compared to Sarah Piper's illustration, there is obviously not going to be any de-limbed woman on this cover. However, just because this version isn't aimed at older audiences, doesn't mean that I can't use this same style, but then alter it. For example, if I want to make my e-book shocking, then surely using an art style aimed at children to portray adult themes, such as graphic execution, would achieve this? 

References:

1. http://interestingliterature.com/2013/01/30/surprising-facts-about-aladdin/
2. http://thearabiannightsprints.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/tale-of-three-apples.html

3. http://book-graphics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/three-apples-fell-from-sky.html
4. https://bennythomas.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/the-tale-of-the-three-apples-13-1-7/
4. http://www.firstcry.com/shree-book-centre/shree-book-centre-tales-from-the-arabian-nights-the-three-apples-and-sindbad-the-sailor/321774/product-detail