the magazine always refers to its owner as the mythical proprietor "Lord Gnome", a satirical dig at autocratic press barons. Logo The magazine's masthead features a cartoon logo of an armoured knight, Gnitty, with a bent sword, parodying the "Crusader" logo of the Daily Express. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gnitty was pictured wearing a mask. The logo for the magazine's news page is a naked Mr Punch caressing his erect and oversized penis, while riding a donkey and hugging a female admirer. It is a detail from a frieze by "Dickie" Doyle that once formed the masthead of Punch magazine, which the editors of Private Eye had come to loathe for its perceived descent into complacency. The image, hidden away in the detail of the frieze, had appeared on the cover of Punch for nearly a century and was noticed by Malcolm Muggeridge during a guest-editing spot on Private Eye. The "Rabelaisian gnome", as the character was called, was enlarged by Gerald Scarfe, and put on the front cover of issue 69 in 1964 at full size. He was then formally adopted as a mascot on the inside pages, as a symbol of the old, radical incarnation of Punch magazine that the Eye admired. The masthead text was designed by Matthew Carter, who would later design the popular web fonts Verdana and Georgia, and the Windows 95 interface font Tahoma. He wrote that, "Nick Luard [then co-owner] wanted to change Private Eye into a glossy magazine and asked me to design it. I realised that this was a hopeless idea once I had met Christopher Booker, Richard Ingrams and Willie Rushton." See also The Spectator Humour magazines List of satirical magazines List of satirical news websites References Further reading Carpenter, Humphrey. (2003) A great, silly grin: The British satire boom of the 1960s (Da Capo Press, 2003). Lockyer, Sharon. (2006) "A two-pronged? Exploring Private Eye's satirical humour and investigative reporting." Journalism Studies'' 7.5 (2006): 765-781. External links 1961 establishments in the United Kingdom Biweekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Political magazines published in the United Kingdom Satirical magazines published in the United Kingdom Criticism of journalism Magazines established in 1961 Magazines published in London