The front cover of any magazine is the most important piece of real estate it has. Get it right and people will buy it in droves. Get it wrong and you might as well nail it to the shelves because nobody is picking it up.
October 1998 and Guitar World delivered an object lesson in grabbing everyone’s attention amid a packed newsstand with this cover that you can find in full here.
Who wouldn’t be forced into a double take at the sight of Kiss’ Gene Simmons leering out from the cover? The number of times Kiss made it to the cover of GW, and sister magazine Guitar Player, over the years testifies to a strong strategy.
