Good morning hobbits! I have been staring at that cover, even enlarged to super-size, and I am not seeing as much as you are. Grim faces? - Long hair? hmmm. I see the little blob figure of Merry or Pippin on the ground next to something red... but I can't tell what the thing is in the left hand corner.
[sipping coffee]
Ok, here is a description of the picture above (the hobbit that I believe is Pippin, in the lower left hand corner of the book):
It shows a right profile of a slim hobbit climbing using hands and feet up a root. He has on a black shirt and blue knee-length pants. His dark hair is long, just past his shoulders. My copy of the picture shows that he is barefoot and that his eyebrows are furrowed down a bit, giving him an intense expression (even in my book which is in fair condition, this is hard to see.) You can't see much below this one's knees, so you'll just have to take my word for it till we get a better copy (if anyone is interested at all.)
Ok, now this is the one that I think is Merry (because he looks in worse shape than the other). It's a left profile picture of a hobbit lying on his abdomen, arms flung up above his head, with his face burrowed into where the crook of his left arm should be (Tolkien didn't put the crook in!) He also has dark hair that comes to his shoulders. He's wearing a bluish colored long sleeve shirt and black knee-length pants. He is barefoot. He has two items beside him which I believe must be some belongings, but I don't know what.