OMNI Magazine was a science and science fiction magazine, which was published continuously for two decades between 1978 and 1998. The brainchild of Kathy Keeton, wife to Penthouse publisher, Bob Guccione, OMNI pioneered a new generation of magazine aimed at a fiercely intelligent audience, who, despite no professional scientific training, took specific interest in the sciences and technologies evolving around them.

OMNI was broadly renowned for it’s groundbreaking science journalism and impeccable fictional narratives: these pages were home to original works by cult giants such as Orson Scott Card and William S. Burroughs. Even in 1996, when the print edition became unsustainable, OMNI appeared invincible, transforming into OMNI Internet Webzine, one of the first major webzines to use live feeds and interactive content to further entice and strengthen their audience.

Journalistic coverage and marketing strategies aside, however, OMNI might’ve been most well known for it’s astonishing selection of covers. Despite the pressure of monthly release, OMNI managed to produce an unrelenting stream of faultless covers featuring everything and anything: from images of Mars produced by a Japanese space illustrator, to a contemporary, inked version of Leonardo da Vinci and even a poster for a pharmaceutical company emblazoned with a fetus, which is altogether reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

After the webzine was finally laid to rest in 1998, remnants of OMNI were salvaged, to be channeled into graphic novels or television shows, but the publication had essentially reached its end. Regardless, OMNI is still remembered, not only by its oldest patrons, but by a collective of new readers too. Faded back issues are scattered across cyberspace, ready to be snapped up by contemporary readers who will handle their broken spines with care.