Project Four: Book Cover

For the book cover project, I'll be doing Dracula.  I have to say, I'm surprised no one jumped on this one before me!
This book has been around so long, and is so ingrained in pop culture, I'm a bit unsure if that will make it easier or harder on me.  On the one hand, there's a lot out there to inspire me.  On the other hand, the pop culture image of Dracula is not the same as the actual character in the book.  I love the original novel and I'm aware of those differences, but I still want to watch myself to make sure I don't start using stuff that's from the plays, movies, TV adaptations, etc.  Here's a few book covers from over the ages that I found:

Quite a variety!  And these are only a few of the many I found just from a quick Google search.

So, what should my approach be?  Even though Dracula is considered the star of the show, most of the protagonists are iconic themselves, particularly Van Helsing and Lucy.  (But Mina Harker was always my favorite!)  I'd like to figure out some way to feature our heroes, if not as prominently.
I'm still iffy on the issue of whether to do a more representational or symbolic cover.  Like, illustrate a great scene/character, or build some sort of design that has symbols from the book.  I'm leaning towards the latter...
Thoughts?