Coverjunkie asked George Lois about the favorite covers he designed himself:

- #1 Esquire, Muhammad Ali, 1968:
"In 1967, Muhammad Ali, the world’s heavyweight champion, converted to Islam and refused induction into the Army.
He was widely condemned as a traitor. When Cassius Clay became a Muslim, he had also become a martyr. In 1968, while he was waiting for his appeal to reach the Supreme Court, I had him pose as St. Sebastian, modeled after the 15th-century painting by Botticini that hangs in the Metropolitan. When the issue hit the newsstands, all hell broke loose. The image is so
powerful that some people of a certain age remember where they were when they saw it for the first time.”

For (the few) people out there don't know him, he designed classics for esquire in the 60's that are also shown in the MoMA New York;
He stripped the cover down to a graphically concise yet conceptually potent image. He was probably the most provocative in the history of the magazine industry...
see more here

Complete interview appear in The Coverjunkie Magazine,
I talked with him along with aces like Arem Duplessis, Richard Turley, Rodrigo Sanchez, Matt Willey, Robert Newman & Francesco Franchi