An older woman doing a one-armed handstand on a jungle gym gives this New Scientist cover story about frailty a burst of optimistic joy.

A sunset settles over a playground. Kids hang from the bars, vibing. Above them, an older woman balances inverted on one arm, limbs flung wide. New Scientist’s March 2026 cover story argues that our assumptions about aging and physical decline are upside down. Pete Ryan’s illustration put that thesis on top of a jungle gym and made us laugh.

Yakunova packs a city’s worth of social activities into one image for 5280’s guide to Denver’s best gathering spots

How do you illustrate a list? 5280’s feature on Denver’s 36 best “third places” poses the problem at scale. Tania Yakunova’s answer is in the structure of the composition. She builds a grid, then lifts one woman out of it entirely, positioning her as a guide threading us from vignette to vignette.

For a film review about transferring consciousness into robot animals, Heo ditches Pixar’s CG polish and draws every creature like it might vibrate off the page

Heo’s composition splits along a fallen log that works as a species boundary. A pink wire loops out of a beaver’s consciousness-transfer helmet and spirals across the entire image before disappearing into a hollow log, where a wide-eyed girl peers out. It’s the technology that drives “Hoppers” rendered as a visual device holding together an image that wants to fly apart.

What to do when your glasses need glasses

AI goggles sit on top of the figure’s own glasses, not replacing them but depending on them. It’s a visual equation where the high-tech instrument is useless without the low-tech one beneath it.