In the spring of 2012, Françoise Mouly, the art editor of The New Yorker, opened Blown Covers, a blog promoting her book of the same title. The book's subject is covers that did not make it  to publication for a variety of reasons. The most popular aspect of the blog project was the opportunity for just plain folks to create New Yorker covers based on a weekly prompt. I, along with hundreds of other illustrators, participated. In fact, the number of submissions overwhelmed the art directors. The project collapsed under its own weight in the fall of that year, not long after Halloween. I entered frequently, often making the short list and once being selected as the best idea of the week.