It’s rainbow flag time. Via the Huffington Post, a forthcoming cover of the New Yorker:
From the HuffPo story:
The New Yorker is celebrating President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage on its upcoming cover, an image of which it released Friday.
The cover, done by artist Bob Staake, is an illustration of the White House. The front columns are appropriately rainbow-colored, donning the colors of the gay pride flag. Staake said he was “honored” to do the cover. “I wanted to celebrate the bravery of the President’s statement—a statement long ovedue—but all the more appreciated in this political year,” Staake said. The cover is titled “Spectrum of Light.”
The New Yorker hasn’t always been open to such covers. Here’s Jason Stout, posting on Blown Covers: New Yorker Covers You Were Never Meant to See, by Françoise Mouly:
As art director of the [Austin TX] Chronicle, I can tell you that one of the most dangerous, yet obviously necessary things about deciding on a cover is talking about it with others. You can talk yourself right out of a great idea. Case in point: Robert Crumb‘s fantastic gay marriage cover art. The reasons for not running this seemed to presume way too much about what a very few readers might bring to it. (link)
The cover in question:
Well, it is a lot less subtle than Staake’s rainbow White House.
May 12, 2012 at 7:12 am |
The first time I saw the Crumb cover, I thought “Slightly built guy on the left, drag queen on the right.” So presumably they’d fail the gender inspection.
Looking at it today, I thought “Butch woman on the left, drag queen on the right.” The couple would pass the gender inspection test, but the clerk seems to have a fixation on the drag queen’s cleavage.
Interesting that the character on the right is simultaneously both more feminine and more masculine than the one on the left.
May 13, 2012 at 1:52 pm |
On Google+, Tom Christiansen now recommends the Newsweek cover (and story) here.
May 21, 2012 at 4:07 pm |
[…] Following up on President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage (as here). […]
June 23, 2012 at 6:08 am |
[…] addition to the covers in my “More gay flag” posting (by Bob Staake and Robert […]
June 26, 2012 at 1:53 pm |
[…] Facebook comments, debate” by Tiffany Hsu, today. (“More gay flag” on this blog, here; and earlier rainbow stuff, […]
November 29, 2012 at 7:59 am |
[…] In any case, I think the tree pairs up nicely with the bold colors of the New Yorker‘s “rainbow White House” (here). […]
November 30, 2012 at 11:37 am |
[…] A completely digital version of the book was published in 2006 by Fantagraphics Books — with the text reinterpreted and illustrated by Bob Staake (the illustrator for the New Yorker “gay White House” cover (here)). […]