The superimposition of the main character and dominating focus on the magazine cover, with the title ‘Empire’ shows the well-established magazine. The audience cannot see the ‘P’ but will know it is meant to be there.

The title has been modified to a ‘fire-y’ typography, this is to match the theme of the character and the style. The flame titles connote hell, to be in sync with the film title ‘Hellboy’.

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The exclamatory ‘First Look’ has been placed on the front cover to show its exclusive, and to make the audience chose this over other competitors, if they know they will receive something here they cannot read elsewhere.

The extra feature on the front magazine ’40 movies that will get you sex’ is another common convention, but is helping to attract the specific audience. It has specifically been put there in order to attract the reader and make them want to read on.

The idiom ‘You and whose army’ is used to support the film, and has been modified to ‘You and what golden army?’ to give away some kind of narrative hint. It also links in to the theme…

The theme consists of black, gold and red. These colours together connote hell and death. This is also to contribute to the style of the film ‘HellBoy’ which is the main focus for this magazine issue.

Rosary beads are on the characters wrist, which is visible from the magazine cover. They have used a medium shot in order to include this and to show some of the characters body. These beads could help contribute to the possible narrative, contrasting religion with hell.