CHAP Issue 1

Description

When the first edition of The Chap appeared in bookshops and comic shops across the land, hand delivered by Messrs Temple & Darkwood, they had no idea that the publication – resembling more of a samizdat pamphlet or volume of dada poetry – would go on to remain in print for another 25 years. So uncertain were they of its even reaching a second issue that they didn’t seek any advertising, and simply left the rear cover and inside covers completely blank. The other pages were filled with what would define the Chap’s manifesto: The Semiotics of Smoking, Dressing for Tennis, a time-travelling biography of fin de siecle aesthete Comte Robert de Montesquiou (complete with misspelled title on the front cover), a celebration of the Discreet Pleasures of the Enema, Sister Millicent Fond’s Gentlemanly Ailments, The Singular Adventures of Cecil de Cashmere. This being the very first issue, the Letters page was composed of genuine letters found in vintage men’s magazines from the 1940s. This is a brand-new, unread copy from the Chap’s own archive.