The Japan Times - Talk of the town: Iconic covers of the New Yorker magazine

Here are some of the magazine's most memorable covers:

- Dandy turned mascot -

The publication's first edition came out on February 21, 1925 priced at 15 cents, emblazoned with a caricature of a fictional dandy, inspired by the Count d'Orsay, looking at a butterfly through a monocle.

Created by the artist Rea Irvin, the fictional character dubbed Eustace Tilley has become the mascot of the journal, reappearing year after year in a humorous way, depicted variously as a hipster, wearing an anti-Covid mask -- and with a smartphone in place of a monocle.

- Hiroshima -

In 1946, the New Yorker devoted an entire issue to John Hersey's report on the consequences of the US atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The cover features a bucolic landscape, drawn by Charles E. Martin.

At the time, "the images had to be almost a way to console ourselves over the world's trauma," said the New Yorker's artistic director, Francoise Mouly.

The disparity is such that it necessitated the inclusion of banner on the cover -- "this entire issue is devoted to the story of how an atomic bomb destroyed a city."

- September 11, 2001 attacks -

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center adorn the front cover, shrouded in darkness so black and opaque that they are barely distinguishable.

"It responds to what I experienced that day," said Mouly, who was near the towers with her husband, the famous cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and her daughter when the two skyscrapers collapsed.

The couple co-signed the cover.

"I really felt that there was no possible reaction," Mouly said.

- Controversial Obama issue -

One cover of note published when the 2008 presidential campaign was in full swing, as hardline conservatives had brought a lawsuit against Barack Obama, questioning his "American-ness" and falsely insinuating that he was not born in the United States, or that he was Muslim.

The New Yorker responded to the kerfuffle with satire, a drawing titled "The Politics of Fear" by Barry Blitt, depicting the Democratic candidate in a djellaba, and his wife Michelle dressed as an armed militant in the Oval Office.

The illustration shows a portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall and an American flag burning in the fireplace.

The caricature "raised an outcry," said Mouly.

M.Matsumoto--JT