The New Yorker‘s 7 Greatest Covers of the Century

Over 10,000 different magazines will be published this year in the U.S. Of those, approximately 8,372 will have Lady Gaga and/or Barack Obama on the cover.

Despite having an almost unlimited number of options to choose from, magazine publishers tend to recycle the same visual cliches for their cover art. Beautiful celebrities and not-so-pretty politicians stare out at us from every newsstand and supermarket checkout lines. But the New Yorker has managed—at a rate of 47 times per year for an astounding 87 years—to produce witty, fresh, and sometimes beautiful covers.

Take for example, this latest cover which perfectly captures the political microzeitgeist from the GOP convention to the first presidential debate.

Here are six more of the greatest covers the magazine has published during the twenty-first century:

6. November 2000

A clever snapshot of marital arguments.

5. July 2007

Modesty in America.

4. February 2010

The story of Obama’s first year in office, told in four panels.

3. March 2000

What spring fever feels like.

2. March 2010

Few magazine covers have ever matched the quiet beauty of this visual gem.

1. September 2001

Subtle, simple, profound. The best cover of the decade.