The Chap’s latest issue, hot off the presses, signals a victorious return to the format that proved to be not only the most economically viable to produce, but the most popular with readers, from country squires to Spitfire pilots. The new edition, just like those of yore, fits snugly into the poacher’s pocket of a hacking jacket, the panniers of a vintage bicycle and the outside pocket of a Second World War fighter pilot’s overalls.
All four existing A4 editions of The Chap, while naturally becoming collector’s editions overnight, will now be consigned to distant memory as a failed experiment, much like Esperanto, allowing schoolchildren to choose their own meals and the metric system.
But the gentlemen’s journal has retained some of the features of the abortive format, such as full colour throughout, 68 pages and a spectacular design. Our art director, Mikaela Dixon, has managed to squeeze as many words into the B5 edition as there were in the A4 editions. Maintaining as many instances of the words “wizard”, “wheeze”, “monocle”, “pipe” and “trousers” in a more modestly-sized publication proved one of her greatest design challenges to date.
Content-wise, the usual smorgasboord applies of suburban explorers, Victorian perverts, military millinery, gentleman rappers, oil pioneers and ludicrously dressed sportsmen and women, as well as the final word on the spooky similarities between Michael “Wacko” Jackson and Jimmy “Whack-O” Edwards, as revealed by MIchael “Atters” Attree, who also graces the front cover.
August 13, 2009