Masthead: ‘Empire’ is a British film magazine published monthly and is considered a more mainstream magazine. As part of their ‘house style’ their masthead is almost always red in a bold font, making it easy for readers to spot on a shelf amongst other magazines.
Horror Magazine Analysis
Tagline: reads ‘The Dark Knight World Exclusive’ this is a USP for Empire as no other magazine is publishing this feature with The Joker and this also implies they have a better story than any other magazine.
Main Cover line: Anchors the character that is featured on the cover, reading ‘Meet the Joker’ implies that the feature article will be about the Joker character instead of Heath Ledger the actor who plays him. It is also in a fun a characteristic font to link to the Joker’s personality.
Colour Scheme: The main colours on this cover are purple and green with accents of white for contrast. These relate to the content of the Main Image and connotations of the Joker (green connotes evil) as he is a villain. However to keep in with their house style, Empire has still kept their Masthead red.
Main Image: The image featured Heath Ledger the actor which plays the Joker in full character, placed in the centre of the over making direct mode of address with the audience to encourage them to look at the magazine. The image also has a vignette to draw our attention towards the centre and The Joker’s head is partly covering the Masthead bringing all the attention to the image.
Cover lines: Gives the reader more insight into what else is featured in this month’s issue including reviews of the most recent films etc. Empire has decided to place them slightly over the image but of course not covering Heath Ledger’s face.