Serini, recommended an artist who could airbrush and alter the face of the picture, while lead singer Mark Mothersbaugh offered a picture he'd procured from a local newspaper that morphed the faces of U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. These ideas were later morphed with the original "Chi Chi" Rodriguez image to create the cover art of the album. The band did eventually get Rodriguez's permission to use the original photograph. Since the "morphed" album sleeves were already in production by that time, Serini claimed it would cost the band $2,500 to halt production and reinstate the image intended originally by the band, which forced the band to keep the morphed version. According to Casale, "we were able to come out with something that by the corporate interference and misunderstanding of the business side of Warner Bros. Records, actually unwittingly produced something far more Devo than the original [image]." The original cover illustration, with Rodriguez's face intact, turned up on the picture sleeve for the band's third single, "Be Stiff". The European version has completely different artwork and, like the American version's inner sleeve, had photographs taken from the music video for "Jocko Homo". The front cover of the European version depicts a man (Mark Mothersbaugh) wearing goggles, bow tie, and rubber gloves, while the back cover features heads (Gerald Casale, Jim Mothersbaugh, and Bob Mothersbaugh) with sunglasses under nylon stockings. Release Devo received offers to release Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! from Warner Bros., Island, Virgin and David Bowie's production company, Bewlay Brothers. Virgin obtained the rights to release the album in the United Kingdom, while Warner Bros. held the rights for North America. The album was originally planned for a spring 1978 release, but had to be delayed due to legal disputes between Warner and Virgin. It was eventually released by Warner in the United States on August 28, 1978, and by Virgin in the United Kingdom on September 1, 1978. Virgin also released a picture disc version of the album, illustrated with a still from the band's 1976 short film The Truth About De-Evolution. In North America, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! peaked at No. 78 on the Billboard charts, while in the United Kingdom it entered the charts on September 16, 1978, and remained there for seven weeks, peaking at No.