September 3, 2009
Manzine II
The long-promised issue two of my favourite post-Arena men’s title Manzine is now out, featuring a gorilla mask on the front cover as a nod towards the Phil Collins appreciation inside. And if you’re lucky you’ll get one of the special issues with 3D rolling eyes, above.
Issue two starts off where the first left off; the cover printed on a tasteful pastel blue copier paper and promising, among others things, ‘A Psychogeographic Shopping Trip to Westfield’ and ‘How to Skin a Rabbit’.
The design continues it’s journey through seventies Letragraphic catalogues, while the content, which I criticised as unfocused in issue one, feels much sharper. Regular features such as Manzine Design Classics mix with some great pieces (the afore-mentioned Westfield review), obscure in-jokes and throw-away fake ads and cartoons, as writers such as Mark Hooper, Alex Bilmes and Richard Benson let their hair down away from the mainstream.
It would be easy to write off Manzine as an elaborate in-joke at the expense of the mainstream men’s magazines (for whom most of the contributors work) if it weren’t done with such style and wit.
A great example of design and content working together.
Comment on September 3, 2009 by André Felipe says:
Dear Jeremy, I guess your RSS feed is infected by some kind o virus. All your RSS feeds are displaying something like “BUY CHEAP ALPRAZOLAN ONLINE WITH NO PRESCRIPTION”. I guess you’d better check it out! Best wishes, AF
PS. your blog is still great, as always.
