It’s that time of year when Time Magazine announces the best magazine covers of the past 365 days. This year, the winners are as bright and as bold, as funny and as serious, and as illuminating as the past year’s history.

Taking first place is The New Yorker for its cover on Nov. 17, an illustration by Bob Staake, that ran immediately after the presidential election showing the moon meticulously hollowed out to form an O — both in the magazine's name — and in the president-elect's — perfectly illuminating the Lincoln Memorial.  This cover is great, Time Magazine says, because “It doesn't do a victory dance. Rather, it whispers to the reader (the tribe): ‘Everything's okay now — we have our country back.’ It's set at night, a time when creepy things happen, but also a time when people sleep, safe and sound.” New York magazine takes second place for its cover on March 24, one that generated quite a buzz throughout the magazine world when it first came out, after word broke that New York governor Eliot Spitzer was linked to a call girl. New York hired conceptual artist Barbara Kruger to create the piece, which shoots an arrow and hits its intended target where it counts.  The Rolling Stone cover from July 10 featuring president-elect Barack Obama takes third this year, breaking the traditional rule that the best cover photos must make eye contact with the reader. A clean cover, with virtually no type except for the Rolling Stone logo, shows a more personal side to the candidate. Time Magazine says, “The carefully selected image, likely an outtake, tells the reader he's not just The One, he's one of us as well. Obama is responding to something, so there's a conversation going on, and his unguarded demeanor invites us in for a closer look.”  Entertainment Weekly’s cover from Oct. 3, which earned the number four title, was in response to the controversial New Yorker cover that portrayed Michelle and Barack Obama as evil fist-knocking terrorists. In the midst of The New Yorker trying to explain its choice and the meaning of satire to its harsh critics, Entertainment Weekly chimes in with its own cover subjects, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, who not only mocked the original New Yorker cover, but perhaps created even more noise than its predecessor—only this time with the sound of laughter. 

Number five goes to The Economist for its smoking cover on Feb. 23 of Fidel Castro’s legacy. What is that legacy, you ask? A cigar. That’s right. In this intelligent and ironic cover, Castro’s legacy has been reduced to nothing more than a picture of an extinguished cigar, which suggests that the only worthwhile thing that emerged from his years of rule is the respectable Cuban cigar. Time Magazine says, “The particular cigar depicted, the Cohiba, was long a perk given to members of the Cuban Communist government and was eventually released for sale to the general public — although not, of course, in the U.S. The Cohiba became the symbol of high-end cigar consumption the world over. It's the only thing Cuba produced, besides music, that the rest of the world wanted or needed.”

You can check out the other winners here, including Interview, Portfolio, Los Angeles, The Virginia Quarterly Review and a mad Mad cover that will have you laughing, well, Madly.