The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good.
There's been some rewiring redesigning around the art department at Wired, and it looks good! The switch to a more traditional size seems to be all the rave among my favorite magazines. Spin did it a while back, and now Wired has too!

But let's go back to what's really good about this new issue of Wired -- it's cover. Created by the talented folks at I Love Dust, the cover is split down the middle (including the banner) with the left side revealing a colorful rendering of Keanu Reeves face and the right side showing an actual photograph. Simple yet effective. Couldn't be more perfect. On the other hand...

The Bad.
The first A Scanner Darkly themed cover popped up on newsstands in January. Admittedly, my annoyance with most things Winona Ryder may be creating some bias here, I just wasn't impressed when RES magazine featured her illustrated portrait from the film on their cover. People would freak if a magazine threw a generic movie-released still on their cover and called it a day. While admittedly more interesting than your average press still, in reality this portrait is basically an artfully chosen movie still from A Scanner Darkly. At least the positioning (off-center) gives the cover some interest, although I have a feeling that placement was done more to accommodate the cover story heds than for artistic reasons. But maybe I'm assuming too negatively.

At least there really haven't been any ugly A Scanner Darkly covers. Yet.

(link to RES magazine and art for Wired's new cover via PhilipKDickFans.com)