The story behind the iconic print images that define a moment in history.

In late 1972, Mr Tony Hendra, the editor of satirical US magazine National Lampoon, raised a gun to the head of a dog and pulled the trigger. He was attempting to get a photograph that would capture the imagination of generations of comedy fans – trying, as he playfully described, to create a cover that had “legs”. Though no pets were harmed in the making of National Lampoon’s January 1973 “Death” issue (the revolver wasn’t loaded), the image endured as inspiration for legions of magazine editors to come.

One of these editors is Mr Ian Birch, a publishing doyen who helped to launch magazines such as Red, Closer and Grazia in the 1980s and 1990s, and whose name graced the masthead of Smash Hits and Sky in the industry’s halcyon days. For a new book called Uncovered, Mr Birch has compiled a shortlist of magazine covers that are not only iconic but, like National Lampoon’s moment of controversy in the early 1970s, speak powerfully of the times. “A great cover captures just such a moment and becomes a social document with a unique backstory,” says Birch. Indeed, the first entry in Uncovered is a magazine called The Ladder – the US’s first lesbian title, launched in the early 1950s, when McCarthyism was at its peak. It depicts an image of two figures looking up towards a ladder that extends into the clouds, which academic Mr Craig M Loftin has described as an image of “prideful stoicism that says, ‘I have a right to exist’”.

What’s truly unique about Uncovered is that, rather than journeying behind the scenes in the usual investigative manner, the author reached far into his black book for the stories behind the compositions, conducting more than 150 interviews with everyone from illustrators to stylists and celebrities. For magazine obsessives, Uncovered is just as covetable as many of the titles it spotlights. “I regularly scour street markets, thrift stores, Oxfam shops and eBay for rare items,” Mr Birch adds. “I also approached private collectors, who invariably have much better material than libraries or museums.”

Perhaps the book’s most memorable story is of a 1969 Esquire cover, in which graphic designer Mr George Lois dunked a miniaturised Mr Andy Warhol into a tin of Campbell’s tomato soup. “Lois created some of the most original, ideas-rich, uncompromising and incendiary covers in magazine history for his editor, Harold Hayes,” Mr Birch observes. “The December 1963 cover is extraordinary, too. It shows a glowering Sonny Liston (a then world-champion heavyweight boxer) in a Santa hat photographed by Carl Fischer. Coverlines weren’t necessary. Hayes later wrote about it: ‘In the national climate of 1963, thick with racial fear, Lois’ angry icon insisted on several things: the split in our culture was showing; the notion of racial equality was a bad joke; the felicitations of the season – good will to all men, et cetera – carried irony more than sentiment.’”

In a time when legacy magazines such as The Face and NME have shuttered – and with a sense of impending doom hanging over the industry left behind – then why is now is the time to shout about print? “Now that social media has replaced magazines as a primary engine of popular culture and debate, it seemed the ideal time to chronicle and celebrate some of the industry’s key moments,” Mr Birch says. “The passion to publish, create a community with whom you can have a dynamic conversation, confront taboos and injustices and provide a voice that is missing, is as strong as ever.”

Uncovered (Cassell) by Mr Ian Birch is out now

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