Empire is a British film
magazine which is published in Britain, Australia, Turkey, Russia and
Portugal. It is published monthly by
Bauer Consumer Media, whose first issue came out in July 1989. Barry McIlheney
edited the first issue which was published by Emap, until Bauer purchased Emap
Consumer Media in early 2008. Empire is the bestselling British film magazine,
continuously beating rivals such as Total film which is published in Russia,
Turkey, Australia and Portugal. The annual Empire awards are a major star-studded
event which was sponsored by Sony Ericsson, and from 2009 Jameson, the Irish
Whisky brand. 
Empire is a populist film
magazine which aims to both entertain and inform their audience, which is quite
different to more ‘serious’ magazines like Sight & Sound. The readers of
the magazine are always involved with magazine competitions and they are also
given the opportunity to vote for the awards given in the issues and the annual
award ceremony. Readers are having 24/7
access the Empire magazines interactive website, where they can partake in
forum discussions which other fans. Empire’s audience are also encouraged to
voice their opinions and give feedback on the current magazine issues via their
website. 
The denotation of the
magazine is of a full length picture of a man with a disfigured ‘painted on’
face, sitting down on a prison cell bench. ‘Meet the Joker’ is the title on the
left hand side of the picture. The Joker is a character in film ‘The Dark Knight’,
played by the late Health Ledger and is directed, produced and co-written by
Christopher Nolan. The superhero film
was released in 2008 based on the DC Comics character, Batman. The character on
the front page of the magazine as both of his hands rested on his knees, his
head is slightly tilted downwards with a grim smirk on his face which is
painted very messily and his hair is blond and green. He wears purple socks and
shirt with a purple waistcoat, colourful socks and clown-like shoes. The lighting
surrounding him is low key, but he visibly seen on the centre of the
frame. There is a batman symbol above
his head at the top-centre of the magazine front cover. The batman symbol acts
as a light bulb as the white light shines on the Joker. Half of his face is
slightly darker as the light reflects on him to show his painted on face and
smirk. The colour scheme of the magazine
is purple, green and white, the colours of the Jokers colourful outfit and face
paint. The barcode is positioned on the bottom left side with the sub-headings
at the bottom right side of the cover. 
The ‘Joker’s’ colourful
outfits reflects the eccentricity off his personality. He is dressed as the
joker the game of cards, which connotes the constant games he plays with his
victims. His shoes are very similar to that of a clown which provokes fear, as
many people are said to have Coulrophobia, a fear of clowns. He is also quite
unusual and unique and his choice of diverse colours and clothing combinations
express his difference from the rest of society. The light only shines on half
of his face, which allows the audience to see his facial disfigurement, his
half shown face could also represent the character of ‘Two faced’ who had acid
thrown on the left side of his face. His
awfully dyed/sprayed hair also connotes his careless attitude and it shows that
he does not give much thought to what others think of him, foreshadowing his
immoral actions towards his society. He sits with his legs open, connoting
masculinity and power. His hands are firmly positioned on his knees, symbolising
the confidence over his actions. As he is seated in a prison cell, the audience
understand that he may danger to society, but the smirk on his face, again,
provokes fear among the audience as he looks quite content with his situation.
This causes the audience to become anxious as he seems to have an escape plan. The
prison bars also represent his dysfunctional upbringing and the loneliness he
felt as a young boy/man. Still trapped in his cage of lonesomeness, he decides
to rebel and gain pleasure through his sadistic, psychopathic sense of humour. His grievous smirk makes him look similar to a
trapped animal in a pen, enclosed from the world. Through this the audience
understand that his has caused him to go crazy. 
The front cover’s layout
is very similar to a newspaper article. The Joker’s name is spelt with newspaper
cut-outs which allow the Joker
to look dangerous, wanted and mysterious as he is a hot topic. The sub-heading
above the Empire title reads ‘THE DARK KNIGHT WORLD EXCLUSIVE!’ supports the newspaper-story
look of the front page as he is wanted internationally. The use of hyperbolic
punctuation,’!’, amplifies the urge for an ‘exclusive’ on the Joker. The white
font also allows the text to stand out among the many colours on the front
cover. The snake-like line of purple graffiti behind the Joker resembles his cunning
smirk as the main title resembles his eyes, creating the image of a face. A
quote from the Jokers nemesis, Batman, is shown as a warning the people of Gotham
about how ‘cold-blooded’ the Joker is. His biased point of view may influence others
to believe that the Joker is truly a ‘mass-murdering clown’, not a sane human
being. The font also emphasises the Batman’s quote as it is very rigid, disordered
and chilling. The white writing also represents the Jokers ‘cold-blooded’
personality. 
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