Life, 1923-10-04 · page 18 of 44
Life — October 4, 1923 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**Main Article: "For Magazine Covers That Mean Something"** Author Don Herold satirizes the predictable, formulaic cover designs of popular fiction magazines of his era. He mocks magazines' reliance on two stock image types: "pretty girls" and "freckled faced boys" engaged in rustic activities (fishing, swimming, farm work). Herold argues these covers bear no connection to the actual magazine contents—whether Princess memoirs, political articles, or serialized fiction. His solution: replace generic imagery with relevant visual clues (ham and eggs for food content, etc.) that actually preview what readers will find inside. The cartoon shows an editor at his desk receiving this pitch from a contributor, capturing the frustration of someone trying to convince magazine publishers to think more creatively about cover design rather than recycling tired clichés. **Secondary Items:** - "Great Moments in a Man's Life" humorously lists financial milestones - The bottom illustration ("Sculptor's Son") is a gentle joke about a child asking to borrow his mother's beauty products for modeling clay
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16 LIFE We shall attack some very great voblems in our December number and T wan you le putnt us rhe beat prily-Gir] cor Jat you fave'evek For Magazine Covers That Mean Something By Don Herold THINK a good idea for a nice cover for a popular fiction maga- zine would be a pretty plate of ham and eggs. Or what about a cute little group of a bowl of pansies, a briar pipe and a roller skate? Or perhaps just a big heaping shoveliul of anthracite coal would make a nice cover. There are a lot of interesting things and people in the world besides pretty girls and freckled faced boys and farm hands. The magazines seem to be ina rut on covers and I am perfectly will- ing to help them out. Why wouldn't a dish of brown escalloped oysters make a lovely cover for September, the first oyster month? (Get the connection?) I am just thinking out loud. All I want to do is to start the editors thinking. They are not, at present. But I think nice brown escalloped oysters would be quite tempting, and I am sure the newsstand sales would be big for a magazine with such a cover. Not too brown. Just brown enough. Oh, I think that would be tempting. I know I shall scream if the maga- zines don’t quit pretty girls, freckled faced boys and farm hands. Espe- cially freckled faced boys. I have lost every bit of human interest in human-interest freckled faced boys. Yet I know there will be magazines galore in the next few months with covers something like the following: Freckled faced boy stung by a bec. Freckled faced boy going fishing. Freckled faced boy going swimming. Freckled faced boy pulling little girl’s pigtail. Freckled faced boy getting haircut (by mother). Freckled faced boy watching ma feed chickens. Freckled faced boy pulling sticker out of dog’s foot. Freckled faced boy mend harness. Freckled faced boy making snow man. watching pa There will also be covers with a farm hand out in a field wiping per- spiration off his brow with a red ban- danna handkerchief, of a farm hand in his stocking feet playing a fiddle, of a farm hand all dressed up, and with a bunch of flowers, going to see his girl, and of a farm hand cranking a small, well-known motor car (with red face). What in the name of relevancy anyway, have such covers to do with the reminiscences of Princess Flufile- dubski who knew royalty by the nicknames for eighty-three years, or with the autobiography of some gink who pulled the strings on all the United States Presidents from Clev land to Coolidge, or with articles « the Economic Situation in Vulgaris, or with short stories of negro char- acterization, or interminable about crafty Chinese rum smugglers I think ham and eggs or escalloped oysters would give a much bett clue to the contents of the magazin and after all, every one knows that the first function of a magazine cove should be to give a clear idea as to just what that particular number o the magazine contains. seria Great Moments in a Man’s Life HEN he earns his first dollar When he inherits his first hun dred. When he amas When he marries his es his first thousand first’ million ‘AIR PROSPECT: Has this ca all the modern improvements? SaLEsMAN: Everything, madan but a beautiful owner. 'HE laying of a brick is now al most as important an event a the laying of a cornerstone. Sculptor’s Son: MOTHER, DADDY WANTS TO KNOW IF HE CAN BORROW SOME 0! YOUR BEAUTY MUD. HE'S ALL OUT OF MODELING CLAY. comicbooks.com