My Secret Shame

Figuring that if I gave birth to a watermelon, I’d want to weigh it, I broke down and counted the images of the first and subsequent editions. I even made a handy chart for you, above.

Although Death, Phones, and Scissors were featured in the debut of Crap Hound, back in 1994, subsequent editions were far more than a reprint. More than 85% of the imagery in here is new, combined with the contents of the first issue and reformatted into completely different layouts. Only page seven remains unaltered, since I dig that crazy radial symmetry. Subject matter like tombstones, hearses, and war dead were absent from the first issue but now appear on several pages.

I constantly imagine myself as the end user of Crap Hound, and all the hours I’ve ever spent looking for the right image reference at just the right angle come back to me whenever I’m tempted to remove or withhold a picture. Nine times out of ten I include it, and I usually make room by dismantling and restructuring existing layouts. Many pages, especially those in the Death section, went through two or even three incarnations so I could accommodate additions or consolidate space elsewhere. This meant more time to discover new pictures, which led to further shuffling, and so on in a sordid little cycle that resulted in great density but greater delays.

If you’re among those who haven’t seen the first issue, you’re not missing much besides a remarkably cranky introduction. I still wince at the vast rivers of white space that flow through those dull layouts. It’s not my “finest work.”

In later editions, I was able to fill the pages according to priorities that have been refined and rearranged over the years. I’m very satisfied with the final results, both in the look of the pages, the wide range of images, and the issue’s potential as a visual resource for others.