Number FIVE

Oh what's that? Could it be a new zine maybe? The long-awaited issue 5? With hand-letterpressed covers and 40 pages of scintillating content?

YES. That is what it is. OMG.

EnthuZINEasm: Part IV

Well kidlings, it's that time again! Yes, the time for your lives to be brightened by the appearance of a new and exciting installment of your favourite zine, Enthusiasm.

We have some excellent things to offer you in Enthusiasm Issue #4. Including, but not limited to: lesbian subtext, webcomics, sandwiches, children's tv, movies star making out, cats and dogs living together, and interesting maps. (Not the bit about cats and dogs living together. That would be CRAZY.)

Here's Tim's intro to put this zine into a suitably grandiose context:

(Click for full view.)

So if you would like a copy, just drop a little comment in the box down there, or else contact me or my fellow zinester Tim via email, facebook, text, phonecall, carrier pigeon or semaphore. You won't regret it.

Cover Me

Terry Moore, Strangers in Paradise #65

My first ever issue of Strangers in Paradise. The cover caught my eye and compelled me to buy it instantly. I don't think the pin-up girl is a major character, and if it is who I think it's supposed to be she doesn't even look like this on the inside, but the image is so striking and happily reminiscent of OTT romance comics, not to mention as well-drawn as the rest of Moore's stuff, that it remains my favourite cover of all 90 issues.


Loads of people have been linking lately to this here list of the 100 Best Comic Book Covers, at 1979 Semi-Finalist. (Which is a neato blog in itself from a girl who really knows her stuff about comics.) It's a pretty good list, and I found myself admiring nearly every one of her choices.

I'm not huge on comics, to be honest. I think I peaked during my art school days, through my association with Lauren, Amy and Orville's comic book shop in Leeds. (His name is not really Orville.) These days I just keep up with a few currently-running comics titles, together with a steady stream of graphic novels.

But I did make an effort to round up some of my fave covers, or those I could recall liking off the top of my head. Hope you like.

Terry Moore, Strangers in Paradise #29

Terry Moore, Strangers in Paradise #53

Terry Moore, Strangers in Paradise #55

Three more Strangers in Paradise covers that I think work well. Overall I find Moore's covers to be a bit clumsy and melodramatic, and the melodramatic, lyrics-quoting side of SIP is really not my bag. I prefer the quippy, people just hanging out character-study scenes.

Jim Rugg, Street Angel #1

Jim Rugg, Street Angel #4

I've mentioned my undying love for Jim Rugg and Street Angel before, and I still totally mean it. All six of the covers for this short run are genius. They each employ this block pink background, which becomes pretty ironic once you know the character (she's not just some little girl, and she ain't no angel) and each is innovative, intriguing, and adapts the typography to the design.

Cover by Frank Miller, The Escapists #1

Cover by James Jean, The Escapists #2

This mini series spin-off from The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon had some kickass covers, each by a different artist. Great story, too, but I only got the first four issues out of six. Boo.

Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets #30

Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets #24

I should write some more about my love for Jaime Hernandez, because boy do I love his stuff. Not Gilbert Hernandez, his drawings give me the heebie-jeebies, but I do admit Gilbert makes good covers also. A couple of classic Jaime images, I especially love that monochrome punk scene above. That's Hopey in the background there playing the bass, quite badly by all accounts.

Cover by Jo Chen, Buffy Season 8 #10

Cover by Jo Chen, Buffy Season 8 #11

Cover by Jo Chen, Buffy Season 8 #14

Yeah, so I've been reading Buffy comics, and I don't care if you think I'm a nerd. Buffy season 8 comics, which are supposed to follow on from where the tv show ended, have some really great covers (and some sucky variant covers). The likenesses to the tv actors, SMG and all, are impressive, but they're also great designs. I like that they're painterly, rather than more traditional comics styles like the insides. (The art within these comics often sucks, by the way. You can't tell the characters apart. But the writing is usually good, it's the same folks who wrote the show, King Joss included.)

Cover by Kano, Hero #1

Finally, an issue of Hero, which I never heard much about but I picked up a couple of issues and the covers were great. The end.

Coming Soon...

What's this? Could it be the cover for the next issue of our thrilling zine Enthusiasm, which you should all be familiar with by now? Yes, I think it is!

We're almost there with Issue Four, and it's going to be full of all sorts of interesting things to read and look at.

Who's excited? I know I'm excited. You in the back, I can tell you're excited.

(Apologies for the crap picture. It'll look better photocopied, stuck on the front of the zine and in your hands.)

13-year-old Assassin on a Skateboard

Speaking of Jim Rugg, I thought I would post the original covers of his Street Angel comics. They really caught my eye when I first saw them a few years back, and I thoroughly enjoyed the violent yet hilarious contents, (occasionally also touching) about a young street urchin with deathly martial arts and skateboarding skills fighting off legions of ninjas.

Street Angel #1

Street Angel #2

Street Angel #3

Street Angel #4

Street Angel #5

Printed by Slave Labour Graphics, 2004.

Cover Versions

Found this neat blog called Covered. Artists and illustrators rework their favourite comic covers in their own styles. Looks like a lot of fun to do. Some go for a straightforwardish copy, clearly admiring the style of the original, and some have a distinctly non-comic style to make things interesting.

Tales to Demolish, original version

New version by the frickin' genius Jim Rugg, creator of Street Angel, one of my favourite comics of all time. I would recommend seeing more of his stuff here.

The Amazing Spiderman 345, 1991, original cover

New version, Joe Lambert

Green Arrow 2, original version, 1983

Cover version, Dash Shaw

So yeah, here's that link again... Link!

EnthuZINEasm: Part II

Hey kids, guess what madly exciting thing has just arrived upon the zine scene? That's right, it is ISSUE TWO of our wonderful publication ENTHUSIASM.

Topics covered in Issue 2 include: the proper music to listen to in the autumn, the fun of sending letters, the fact that reading is sexy, GK Chesterton and Frank Herbert, whether lesbianism may be a suitable lifestyle choice for you and your friends, and the Isle of Man.

View above a crappy photograph of the front cover because I do not have a scanner, and below is the back cover, with a sea monster and our new email address. They both look way better in real life.


Please email or comment if you want a copy, because our only desire is to spread the love. The next issue is due out at Xmas, so contributions are very welcome, provided you are literate, enthusiastic and not an idiot. Which I am sure you are not.

Check out the beauty of issue one here.

Vintage Classics

A few of my favourite new Vintage Classics, yet another of the 'classic' reprints publishers are competing over right now. This range strikes out more often than not, in my opinion, offering cover designs far too slight and bland for their impressive titles (the Gormenghast cover, for example, is rather flowery). These are the best, IMO, done with a wit and sensitivity to content that most of the others lack.

Strategy-wise, by only using the surname of most of these authors they're clearly trying to shove them all into the canon, since only the famous authors are referred to by one name only. This works for Austen and Dickens but I'm not entirely sure it works for Yates and Perec. It's also obnoxious, implying that these books are part of the secret club of really very important literature. Might be true, but there's no need to be pretentious about it. Furthermore these editions are clearly an attempt to modernise the Vintage back catalogue, avoiding any imagery that could be remotely old-fashioned, or even look like anything from the past, and clearly making an effort to lend the more 'difficult' classics accessibility. Many of them use the most famous scene of the book as a shorthand reminder of its cultural presence.

I only own one of these, Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, and that had a decent heft to it, nice cover feel, but the spine was a little inflexible and the end papers were poorly designed, with little twiddly designs strewn about.

Shrew, Vixen, Virago, Dragon, Scold, Spitfire, Fury

(From Roget's Thesaurus)

Jacqueline Susan - Valley of the Dolls Cover design by Barbara Hulanicki (founder of Biba), introduction by Julie Burchill

Angela Carter - The Magic Toyshop Cover design by Jacqueline Groag, introduced by Carmen Callil

Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God Cover design by Louis Mailou Jones, introduced by Zadie Smith

Barbara Pym - Excellent Women Cover design by Orla Kiely, introduced by Alexander McCall Smith

E. M. Delafield - Diary of a Provincial Lady Cover desin by Cath Kidston, introduced by Jilly Cooper

Elizabeth Taylor - A Game of Hide and Seek Cover designed by Celia Birtwell, introduced by Eliabeth Jane Howard

Muriel Spark - A Far Cry From Kensington Cover design by Lucienne Day, introduced by Ali Smith

Helene Hanff - 84 Charing Cross Road

Am I missing something with all these reissued classics series appearing at the moment? Vintage, Penguin, now Virago, they're all throwing out new designs, forgotten classics, advertising and pieces in the press; what's with the trend? Virago do at least have an excuse for these 8 reissues: the 30th anniversary of Virago Modern Classics. Each book has a cover based on a pattern by a top textile designer, something to do with the status of textile design as a field that women have particularly excelled in.

I'm not entirely sure how attractive I find most of these volumes, or how keen I am on the choices of author and book they have made. Mostly they look a little dull and dated, but I do have to admit that in real life the volumes are rather nicer than you'd think from the pictures. They're a good size and weight, they handle well, the publishers have wisely foregone a dustjacket, the covers are a pleasant texture, the colours vibrant. Far more user-friendly than your average hardback. (I find hardbacks unpleasant to handle while reading, which is why I invariably go for paperbacks.) Having said that, the only cover I really like the look of is the one for Valley of the Dolls, which I am not rushing out to read. The only books that seem interesting contents-wise are Their Eyes Were Watching God and 84 Charing Cross Road, both of which I have read, and loved, before. (I have to admit to the crazy book-lover urge to buy again already owned and beloved books, but even for these two titles I managed to refrain.)

I saw a lecture the other week as part of the UEA Literary Festival series: it featured one of my very favourite authors, Ali Smith, and three women from Virago, including founder Carmen Callil. They had a chat about their own favourite authors, female and male, and publishing today, and how Virago has practically created a female literary canon out of the void. Very inspiring. It made me want to go into publishing.