In honor of ASME's cover competition, won handily this week by the New Yoker for its famous "Karma's A Bitch" cover, Gawker has run a "Worst Magazine Cover" feature and has come up with some pretty fine examples of execrable taste, bad photoshopping and just-don't imagery. It should be noted that last year, following ASME's selection of the Top 40 magazine covers ever, then-Observer writer Matt Haber presented his own 'Wors Cover' gallery, an idea which he in turn no doubt stole from Spy magazine. We pulled a few from Gawker, a few from Haber, and threw in a few of our own:
Top (L to R): Newsweek's garish Mark Foley cover combining Foley's weird staring face with an awkward superimposed pic of Bush beneath a bright-yellow frownie-face emoticon; Kate Winslet's GQ cover that she might have liked if it had actually been her body; Time's skin-darkened shot of OJ Simpson's mug shot, released at the same time as Newsweek's untouched version (how embarrassing!);
Middle: Sarah Michelle Gellar's awkwardly-retouched stock photo on Seventeen, featuring totally real-looking arm; coy Hall n' Oates Rolling Stone cover, which made MB's Greg Lindsay wanna sing out strong; Sarah Jessica Parker in a Good Housekeeping cover conceived and executed by someone who obviously hated her (SMG and SJP via Gawker, H&O via Haber);
Bottom: Esquire's nakedly fearful 1978 depiction of a mannish, humorless, emasculating lady boss; Newsweek's "new and improved" version of Martha Stewart (i.e. with someone else's body); Vanity Fair taking a sledgehammer to its credibility with an inexplicably-styled photo of Paris Hilton that tanked on the newsstand. Whoa, here she comes, watch out, boys, she'll chew you up! Wow, any depressing ironies inherent in the order of this last row was entirely accidental.
