Variant Covers

I derive a strange delight from seeing international editions of magazines on the shelves of newsagents (often the larger branches).

I'm intrigued to see the differences between the covers of the US and UK versions of, say, Esquire or GQ; whilst this may have its roots in my childhood discovery of imported american comics alongside copies of Whizzer and Chips and Krazy comic (and wonderment at the fact that the US comics were, despite being smaller, in full colo[u]r), it's also quite interesting to pre-spot cover features on films or bands which may well make their way across the Atlantic in a month or so's time. This used to be very apparent with the film magazine Premiere, where last month's cover-feature in the US often seemed to be this month's in the UK edition, though I'm not sure if that mag still exists in either form.

Anyway, as ever, a thousand words or so when the pictures say it all: the UK and US editions of the current edition of Wired, and I'm amused by the different approach to the same cover-featured article: the US version looks like something from a Haynes manual, and the UK edition looks more like a poster from the era of Communism or the like.

I have no real point to make here, in all honesty; I'm just sharing something which amuses me a bit.

Self-indulgent? Very probably, but I suspect I've posted worse.