Cover Wars: Whose Artfag Kung-Fu Is Stronger?

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Today we are handing out nothing but lollipops and sunshine, because EVERYBODY wins this week! To wit, simultaneously strong cover art and, rarer still, strong-ass cover stories from both CP and PW this week. And in a curious coincidence, both tackle the drug issue from intriguing angles. CP’s Jeff Deeney reminds us that a fool and his coke whore are soon parted, especially when you rack up $16,000 on your credit card. (Here’s an idea: how about you find a girlfriend and buy a case of Red Bull instead, hmmm?) Yeah, the story states the obvious, but readers LOVE following people down the spider hole of their semi-private hells — especially when it involves sex and drugs and rich white privilege getting stupid. CP’s handsome cover shot quotes Modigliani’s reclining nudes, updated with three fat rails, warm flesh tones and the miracle of digital airbrushing that can make nipples vanish into thin air. PW rocks an eye-searing high-contrast cyan-and-magenta painting to tease this week’s cover story on the strange bedfellows made by the War On Drugs. In his own inimitable style — long-haul stakeout reporting, tack-sharp writing that connects the dots on a constellation of telling details — PW’s Steve Volk unfolds a fairly miraculous story of a hardened drug cop and the hardcore drug dealer he busted making peace and finding redemption and possibly probation. Kudos to Volk for making the reader re-think the dubious premises and bad intelligence that took the country to war with getting high. WINNER: Everybody

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