Editor Charlie Deitch's favorite Pittsburgh City Paper covers of 2015

When City Paper art director Lisa Cunningham decided to choose her top five favorite covers of 2015, editor Charlie Deitch decided to make a list as well.  Here are Deitch's choices and his reasons behind why he loved them so much:


1. The New American Flag (July 1): There were several issues going on nationally that elicited a great deal of emotion from people all over the country and Pittsburgh was no exception. The U.S. Supreme Court had just brought marriage equality to the entire nation and at the same time, there was a huge backlash over the removal of the Confederate flag from state-house grounds throughout the South. At the same time that many were elated over finally receiving marriage equality, many were angry over a flag that symbolized hate and racism. My initial reaction was a cover depicting the destruction of the Confederate flag, but it didn't really describe all of the emotion of the week. We gave illustrator David Pohl the leeway to develop a few concepts and this wonderful image was the clear choice.


2. Music Issue (April 22): It was a great concept by Lisa Cunningham that was executed to perfection by photographers Heather Mull, John Colombo, Renee Rosensteel and Sarah Wilson. Thanks to some wheeling and dealing by production director Kevin Shepherd, we were able to produce all four covers for our production run. And while everyone had a favorite, mine was the Patti Smith Horses album by Wilson. It was the only female recording artist in the group, and Wilson's reproduction was spot on. The fact that my goddaughter was the cover model didn't hurt my opinion of this great cover.

3. Wedding Issue (Feb. 11): A lot of people were surprised when City Paper decided to produce a wedding guide in 2015. We knew that if we were going to do it, however, the guide, including the cover, had to keep with CP's sensibilities. I don't remember whose idea this concept was, but it was perfect: the same model portraying the bride and groom. Photographer John Colombo enlisted the fantastic drag performer Lola LeCroix, a.k.a. Kevin Nelson, to be our bride and groom. The bride was beautiful and elegant, the groom was handsome and trendy, and the cover was as stunning as we hoped it would be.

4. Pittsburgh's Black Friday Sale (Nov. 25): Art director Lisa Cunningham came up with the concept of an advertisement as the cover for our pre-Thanksgiving issue and I wrote the copy. It captures the spirit of a Black Friday advertisement and we were able to use a little satire to produce a cover that worked on a couple different levels.

5. Wizard World Comicon (Sept. 9): I'm a pop-culture and comic-book nerd from way back in the day, so when the opportunity came to put a Pittsburgh spin on the heroes of my youth, I couldn't resist. We were already profiling local comics artist DJ Coffman for the piece and he agreed to do the cover. I love the details of this cover, down to the cracking of the sidewalk under Hulk.