Barry Blitt wins best cover award from American Society of Magazine Editors

A New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt, a well-known Canadian cartoonist and illustrator who got his start in Toronto and moved to New York in 1989, has won the "cover of the year (best overall)" award from the American Society of Magazine Editors. The cover was a devastating illustration of the denial and paralysis of the Bush administration in the face of Hurricane Katrina. Bush and his cabinet are seen seated around a table as muddy water laps around them.

A story about the finalists and winners can be found at the ASME website. High resolution images of the finalists and winners in each category can be found here.

Among the other cover winners, announced at the American Magazine Conference, were (thanks to MediaPost for the summaries) :

• News: a New Yorker cover, by Mark Ulriksen, showing Dick Cheney and George Bush in a parody of Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," with Cheney holding a smoking shotgun (a reference to his shooting accident the week before).

• Best concept: for another Bush-bashing cover--the July 17, 2006 issue of Time, which combined a headline reading "the end of cowboy diplomacy" with a picture of two small cowboy boots peeking out from under a giant cowboy hat emblazoned with the presidential seal.

• Best celebrity cover: a two-way tie between a Harper's Bazaar cover with Julianne Moore and a cover from Vibe showing Busta Rhymes grimacing indignantly with a piece of duct tape covering his mouth--a reference to the rapper's alleged refusal to provide information to police about the murder of his bodyguard.

• Best fashion cover: Departures, which published a style issue in September 2005 showing a female spa-goer covered in immaculate white makeup and swaddled in white towels. Her eyes are closed and the only dab of color in the entire shot comes from her bright red lips, recalling the stylized makeup of actors in Japanese kabuki theater.

• Best service cover: TimeOut New York for its Jan. 5, 2006 issue, showing a dinner table covered with the messy remains of a large, extravagant meal. The headline reads: "Need a Gym?"