SPIKE MAGAZINE

A comic book that tells the story of dog-headed gay male escorts living in a London world of sex, drug dealers and porn stars isn’t going to be the easiest sell to a casual reader. Certainly The Lengths won’t be for everyone, but Hardiman has taken

Vanessa Libertad Garcia interviews actor, author and pioneer of Australian gay culture about his novel The Set In 1969, the Australian public would know Roger Ward’s face from TV shows like Skippy. Less than a year later, he would gain tabloid infamy

Luke Velazquez on the singular experience of the queer punk scene, reflected in the work of sculptor Fernando Carpaneda In our society, people are expected to behave in a certain way. To grow up, go to school, work a soulless dead end job, squirt out

Real-life drug-busting narc Sonny Grosso was the inspiration for The French Connection, advised Coppola on The Godfather and cruised gay bars with Pacino. Story by Tina Bexson A dozen or so shiny, black suits and their flashy women were enjoying the

A report on the changing nature of sexuality in India by Maria Tonini The status of sexual minorities in today’s India is in a state of transition after homosexual sex was decriminalised in 2009. While the legal judgment can be framed as a move towards

Los Angeles author and filmmaker Vanessa Libertad Garcia writes about the subcultural life that informs her writing The Voting Booth After Dark: Despicable, Embarrassing, Repulsive delves into the unique subculture of a specific, and frequently overlooked,

Dan Coxon Since he burst onto the literary scene in 2000 with Anthropology, a collection of surprisingly poignant super-short stories, Dan Rhodes has made something of a reputation for himself. A self-confessed ‘miserable git’, in 2001

“…Saunders manages to amuse, entertain, and shake out thought on a great variety of subjects, and does so in a subtle, sideways style which could so easily be annoying but isn’t…” Ben Granger The Brief and Frightening

Cautious consumers shouldn’t expect Dungeon Family-era Cee-Lo here (as if that ship hadn’t sailed a while ago), or any largely comparable effort for that matter; this team-up with Brian Burton’s Danger Mouse character may indeed not be liked

Chris Hall Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album – Matthew Robertson See all books about Factory Records at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com In the late 70s, the mysterious, topographical radio waves of Joy Division’s Unknown

Emma Garman One night, twenty-four-year old recent Minnesota transplant Diablo Cody was walking home from her dull ad agency job when the words “Amateur Night” on a topless bar’s marquee beckoned irresistibly. Even though Cody had

Ben Granger collides with Julie Burchill over several bottles of wine to seek out the dreadful truth on chavs, Stalin, Ariel Sharon and Morrissey   “Never meet your heroes; they always disappoint” runs the old saying. Invited from

Peter Robertson The Story Of The Night – Colm Tóibín See all books by Colm Tóibín at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Short-listed once again for the Booker Prize, this year for The Master, about the life of closet-gay novelist Henry James,

Ben Granger A Confederacy Of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole See all books by John Kennedy Toole at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com As the ghosts of Ian Curtis and Kurt Cobain will attest, nothing sells like the untimely suicide of a young

Mark Richardson on the gender wars in modern Gothic fiction In recent times it has become commonplace for writers and critics alike to link contemporary gothic narratives with modern day anxieties. Two recent Gothic novels have successfully

Ben Granger And so to the comeback of the year. Seven years without a contract, self-exiled to LA, the avatar of the awkward fled his homeland after a bitter divorce with the UK music press, a separation all the more sour because the ardour was once

Ben Granger Saint Morrissey – Mark Simpson See all books by Mark Simpson at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com This book is not for people who’ve never, even briefly, fallen under Morrissey’s spell. Don’t bother; it’ll only

Edmund Hardy Pass Thru Fire: Collected Lyrics – Lou Reed See all books by Lou Reed at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Lou Reed is the craggy man in black leather, a permanent member of rock’s avant-garde without trying. Popular

Chris Hall serves up a slice of Will Self with the publication of his second collection of journalism, Feeding Frenzy Chris Hall: First off, congratulations on the birth of your new son, Luther. Will Self: Yeah, little baby Luther. He

Robin Askew Artist Unknown – Richard Witts See all books by Richard Witts at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com "The Arts Council has piddled about in the cultural life of Great Britain for half a century." From this opening sentence,

Stephen Mitchelmore Ravelstein – Saul Bellow See all books by Saul Bellow at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com "I stood back from myself and looked into Amy’s face. No one else on all this earth had such features. This was the most

Brian Dillon on the lifechanging journalism of Lester Bangs and Paul Morley Lou Reed’s magnificent “Rock’n'Roll” recounts the peculiar tale of a five-year-old girl living in a blank suburb where there’s

Jayne Margetts Scar Culture – Toni Davidson See all books by Toni Davidson at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Canongate’s Rebel Inc imprint has become the torchbearer for the Dysfunctional Generation. If grim reality,

Zoe Strachan drags Irvine Welsh’s and Alan Warner’s writing from out of the closet… Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines,

Robert Clarke hears why Will Self has become an uncertain satirist No other author in recent years has divided the critics with such relish as Will Self. With, three novellas and two novels to his credit, and now a third collection of short stories,