Dragmag issue 1 _ Prachi Khandekar

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dragmag

dragmag

“THE LONDON

Nobody (a n d every b o dy)

KNOWS” issue one

PORNO

• SUMMER 2011 •

JOHN WATERS VS. PAM HOGG

IN T E RIO R S

DESPERATE LIVI N G

L AMEBOOK

A N I N T E R VI E W

•

HOW TO SHOOT FOR

! r u o m Gla •

“A THRILLING SHOWDOWN OF STYLE!”

dragmag EDITOR AND PUBLISHER - Oskar Oprey

THANKS TO - Duggie Fields, Fergal Stapleton, Ryan

ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN - Henry Westcott

Davies, Paul Grist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Adult

FASHION DIRECTOR - Kieran Partise

Channel, Simon Lindsay Honey, Viz Magazine, Goncalo

CONTACT US at dragmag.net

Velosa at House of Liza, Matthew Duffy, Elenore Desnos,

FASHION EDITORS - John William and Pam Hogg

the D1 team, Theresa Davies, Ella Coppock, Charles

PHOTOGRAPHERS - Lester Lyons-Hookham,

Isherwood, Adam Burrell, Kaori Mitsuyasu, Leah Mabe,

Anthony Luvera, David Richardson, Paul Knight,

Meme Kosaka, Yoshitaka Miyazaki, Atsushi Hayashi,

Jeff Hahn and Shot by Shooter

Luke Foy and Gillian Horsup

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS - Prachi Khandekar,

SPECIAL THANKS to Scott Morrison and the team

Scott Caruth, Graeme Kennedy, Travis Jeppesen,

at Diesel

Jo Shaw, Anthony Luvera and GMBTU Drummer

dragmag is published with support from Diesel

ILLUSTRATION Elliot Baggott and Martin Eden COVER ART Justin Hall

Additional artwork supplied by ‘Creative world of...’

PRINTED BY Scanplus Print Group

Paul Knight

Travis Jeppesen

Jeff Hahn

Paul Knight is a photographer and artist living in

Travis Jeppesen is the most famous American writer alive.

Jeff Hahn is a Swiss/Chinese photographer/artist

London. He typically works with couples, relationships

His books include Dicklung & Others, Wolf at the Door,

currently living in London. He has been depressed

and sex, both his own and other peoples, literally and

and Poems I Wrote While Watching TV. Travis Jeppesen

recently due to the realisation of the fact that he will

conceptually. He is always happy to discuss his various

is 15-years-old. Since 2006, he has lived in Berlin. In

probably never receive magical powers.

projects, whether you just want to hear more or to inquire

September 2011, he will move to London, where he

jeff-hahn.com

about getting involved. paulknight.com.au

hopes to go on the dole. disorientations.com

Martin Eden

Prachi Khandekar

Justin Hall

Martin has collaborated on tons of different indie comics

Prachi Khandekar is a writer. Although her schedule is

Justin Hall is an award-winning cartoonist living in

projects and also produced the award-nominated

sprinkled with far too many deadlines, she can always

the great city of San Francisco. He makes comics

supersoap The O Men. Recently, he’s been working on

find time for some disturbing doodles. Analyzing YSL’s

about everything from Bolivian blood ceremonies to

Spandex, about an all-gay superteam. The comic was

impish personifications has helped her accept her own

schizophrenic Swiss women to super trannies to horny

nominated for an Eagle Award, and you can find it at

unsettling sketches. Still, to be safe, she will have them all

pirates. allthumbspress.com

spandexcomic.com

destroyed as part of her will.

David Richardson

John William

Jo Shaw

I often go on vigilante adventures to smelly dives at night.

John William is a stylist and the editor of Pigeons &

Jo Shaw epitomizes super cute radical Glasgow; a

Snatching the souls of characters too wasted or too busy

Peacocks magazine. Here are some of his favourite

veritable media figurehead with a multi-faceted theatre-

to know I’m there. Using my camera as another excuse to

things: Elizabeth Duke jewellery, siamese cats, yellow

maker art factory corporate twist. She likes cats,

go even further. Looking for whatever makes people tick

hair, Divine, teen witches, 90’s tumblrs, Versace jeans,

reclaimed spaces, “Asia Style”, hiking, performativity,

along but ultimately tumbling home, a bit smelly, alone.

Liberace, Liza, Dolly, blue eyeshadow, zig zag perms...

feminist theory, radical education and her friends,

A bit like batman on the lash.

anything a bit too camp really. pucemoment.com

cardigans, A.Dworkin and ‘smashing the system’.

anotherdavidrichardson.com

Mainly cats. Send your fan letters/hate mail to Scott Caruth

joannakateshaw@gmail.com

Twenty year old artist from Glasgow who spends most of his time wanking and crying over the communist manifesto.

† dragmag issue one †

MUFFLED DESIRES SEALED WITH A STITCH SHE POISES HER LITHE FIGURE

Meet Lulu; self-assured, charmingly perverse and an

were years of intense agony for him. As a drudge, his

IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR

out-and-out narcissist. Her mornings are devoured by the

opinions, like delicate fabrics, had to be neatly folded

AND SMILES. THE IMAGE OF

hours spent in front of that mirror. She dresses simply to

and stacked away in a dark closet. Soon, the repression

YOUTH IN THIS SILVER BACKED

defer the instant when she will undress again, always

pressed so hard that it had to be released; like a drawn

PLANE IS SO IRIDESCENT, SHE

under the content gaze of her reflection. She’s a rare

out sigh, his constrained subconscious flowed out with

IS MESMERIZED. SHE PATIENTLY

creature, but like many, her rituals reveal her philosophy.

the tri-coloured inks onto paper. The unsettling 10-year-

EXAMINES THE STRANDS

She can shed reality like a robe and slip effortlessly into

old girl came into being. She was charged with every

STRUNG AROUND HER FACE LIKE

a personal reverie. You might think it strange to have

forbidden impulse he could think up. Vanity, sadism,

A CURTAIN OF SILK. A SLIDE OF

such unfaltering love for oneself. Without a doubt, it’s

fetishism and hedonism; her life was laced with the

THE GAZE AND HER SWOOPING

quite bizarre. Maybe Lulu needs help. How does she

colours of all the dresses he painstakingly sewed.

CURVES HAVE ALREADY

carry on with life despite this consuming vanity?

INSPIRED A FAMILIAR GAME.

With each muffled desire sealed with a stitch, Lulu’s

ONCE AGAIN, SHE STUDIES HER

Don’t be alarmed. Lulu only lives her self-indulgent life on

personality sharpened a little more, until she became

BODY SCRUPULOUSLY TO TEST

paper, that too in a restricted colour palette of red, white

the most perverse little girl in the world. Knowing that

WHETHER FAMILIARITY HAS

and black. A whimsical tone infuses the events of her

she’s young and likely to be misunderstood, she’s up front

SUBVERTED ITS RAPTUROUS

life. It ensures that her conceit and love for excess can

about what it is that she likes. She likes making lewd

QUALITY. BUT HABIT NEVER

only coil back onto themselves; that her potent vanity will

gestures, she watches as they instantly transform into

DULLS HER FASCINATION; THE

never trickle into the world of reality. Don’t be alarmed

crinkles on the brows of on looking prudes. Her favorite

GAME IS PREDICTABLE. TODAY

indeed, the audacious personality of Lulu exists only

reading material is full of engaging imagery. She loves

TOO, THE RESULT IS THE SAME

amongst the pages of a comic book.

sharing this reading routine with her pet white rat, who

AS EVERY DAY BEFORE – SHE’S

usually scampers between her thighs before settling

STILL QUITE EXQUISITE. A

Little Lulu, star of the comic La Vilaine Lulu, took her first

VOYEUR OUT OF EARSHOT

breath in the mind of young Yves Saint Laurent while

WOULD CATCH HER MOUTHING

he was working for Dior. It’s widely held that these

down. Together, they read Playboy – every issue.

Lulu endorses full-blown hedonism and like Nabokov’s

THE WORDS “WHAT A DREAM!”

An essay by Prachi Khandekar

008

Lolita sports an insatiable appetite for tasty delicacies.

her fantasies to torture her peers while he simply endured

Although she succumbs to her own primal urges, it is

the mockery of his fellow classmates. Her opinions persist

unacceptable for others to indulge like her. Lulu believes

until they are heard, while he dutifully follows the orders

that there is no beauty without suffering. In her massage

given to an atelier assistant. Her prepubescent raciness

parlour, a brief business venture, she allocates her young

and narcissism could never have flourished in a timid

clients into groups. Bulbous bellied brats to the right and

boy from an esteemed pied-noir household. She was

petit sprigs to the left. She has a special treatment in

definitely not him. She was every impulse he had had

store for each. The twigs are force-fed like docile ducks

along the way, the manifestation of every rebellion that

prepping to turn into fatty delicacies. The bellied brats,

had failed to find culmination. She was not him, yet he

on the other hand, are pulverized by jumbo wrestlers,

was bursting with her.

emerging with soft and thin bodies. Soon enough, the parlour is filled with cries as Lulu grins at her helpless

On one fateful day as the assistants at Dior played dress

clients. The pages of this comic nestle many other

up after work, Saint Laurent saw her clearer than ever

devastating vignettes of infantile sadism.

before. As a joke, a colleague emerged donned in a red tutu, black top and a canotier hat. He was struck, this

On Easter, it results in the death of all her classmates.

was Lulu vivified. Soon, she had slipped onto the pages

Lulu, in giddy anticipation, starts her preparations by

of a notebook so he could get her out of his mind once

stealing eggs from a barn. She ruthlessly kicks mother

and for all. But her brazen spirit left behind footprints he

chickens out of the way and watches the eggs rot away

could never erase. On days when a needle piercing the

for a day. Each egg is then dressed with utmost care

most exquisite fabric reminded him of an inescapable

until it glows with a vile variety of festive love. On Easter

monotony, he thought of her and the way she might poise

morning, she enters town on a cart drawn by dogs with

her lithe figure in front of the mirror and smile.

her beautiful creations stacked precariously behind her.

Soon, she is surrounded by outstretched hands and drooling mouths. Ladies from the local charity beam as they watch thier happy children eat their rotten treats. But alas, within minutes these children are writhing in pain.

Only Lulu doesn’t seem to grasp the tragedy, she declares ‘It is I who has caused such happiness’ while her peers draw their last breaths. Even amongst their graves, she can’t help but dance with joy.

Saint Laurent layers his character with lavish dollops of dishonorable traits. His wit is then sprinkled on in the form of a covert graphic language. At first glance, the reader is beguiled; the illustrations resemble childish doodles. He takes every precaution to distance himself from Lulu, even stating in the foreword that his intention with the comic should not be confused with that of Flaubert, who proclaimed readily: Madame Bovary, c’est moi!

No, Lulu is not him. He is definitely not lulu. She acts out

009

† dragmag issue one †

a collage by the ‘creative world of...’ using original source material by Yves Saint Laurent

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