newyorker:

A first: The idea for this week’s cover, “Loading…”, came from one of our readers, Brett Culbert, a thirty-year-old landscape historian. Culbert’s original image, a blurred Eustace with a loading icon in place of the butterfly, is one of the twelve Eustace Tilley Contest winners for 2012. His idea was modified into the final cover design. Although the winning entries have been showcased in the magazine before, this marks the first time that a reader’s submission inspired the cover.

The other 2012 contest winners include Cristian Gomez, an art director who put Eustace in a window in the Chrysler building. Next, we have five-time finalist Gary Amaro; his entry this year riffs on Picasso. David Urban imagines a Eustace with white earbud headphones. A California-based graphic designer, Ray Dougela, has Eustace coping with the economic situation. Kevin Scalzo reinvents Nancy and Sluggo. Alma Mitchell was born in Miles City, Montana and is ninety-nine years old. Here is her Eustace. View a slideshow of all of the 2012 winners.