Interview

Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom are the creators of Fantastic Man, one of the most remarkable magazines of this era. It is an avant-garde throwback—a remarkably formal and philosophical men’s fashion magazine that positions itself above the commercial fray with a singular tone and elegant design. Before launching this title in 2005, these two gentlemen published a very funny little magazine called Butt, which was printed on pink paper and brought a refreshingly candid and humorous perspective to gay magazines. Butt was sort of the very best out-of-the-closet magazine in the world. Fantastic Man is sort of the very best back-in-the-closet magazine in the world. And Gert and Jop are the best of both worlds. I interviewed them in Paris, where they were launching the Fantastic Man fragrance, over lunch at the Meurice Hotel, and at just the right moment, Mr. Jefferson Hack, publisher and editor of Dazed & Confused, Another Magazine, and Another Man, happened by.

GLENN O’BRIEN: Fantastic Man has such a distinctive style. How did it come about?

JOP VAN BENNEKOM: I think we’re very much defined by what we don’t like. There wasn’t a magazine out there—a men’s magazine—that felt contemporary and for us. We couldn’t identify with all the models being used in magazines, all the 12-year-olds . . . We thought, Let’s redefine a men’s magazine and make a contemporary magazine for us 30-plus guys who don’t want to wear sportswear anymore but also maybe don’t wanna wear suits yet—something in between. It’s also a magazine that’s kind of exclusive and chic again. It doesn’t talk to you as a consumer but as a reader. Also, we were making Butt magazine for four years and we were really ready to expand the adventure . . .

GERT JONKERS: And almost do the opposite. It was like we were about dressing up—not interested in nudity, not interested in flesh, but interested in clothes.

VAN BENNEKOM: Not that we got sick of nudity in Butt magazine, but, you know, they’re two sides of the same coin in a way.

JONKERS: We don’t need Fantastic Man as an outlet to do sexy things—we do that in another title already—so we have the whole magazine to be almost formal and dressed up and call people “mister” and not ask indecent questions, yet try to ask interesting questions.

VAN BENNEKOM: I think sex and fashion divorced a long time ago, and, especially for men, it’s not a good combination. Sexualizing male models . . . That’s not working for me.

JONKERS: We’re both convinced that men’s fashion is about character and that sense of personal power, and not so much about sexual deliverance.

VAN BENNEKOM: Also, it has to be an adventure because what did we know about menswear? It was nice to kind of grow up making the magazine and learning at the same time. The tone and the whole conceptualization of Fantastic Man was there in the first issue, because we had been thinking about it so much.

O’BRIEN: Was Fantastic Man the first title you thought of?

VAN BENNEKOM: No. [pauses] There was something in the beginning, something campy, but Fantastic Man sounds so ridiculous you can’t get it out of your head.

O’BRIEN: I always wonder about titles. Like with bands—what name did they reject before they became famous? Like The Who were The High Numbers, which is pretty good.

JONKERS: Not bad. But The Quarrymen . . .

O’BRIEN: Terrible.

JONKERS: What’s very special about Fantastic Man is that once it becomes an entity, there’s no question about it anymore. Whenever I hear The Police, I don’t think of [makes siren sound] ne-nu-ne-nu-ne-nu, the police . . . I think of the band.

O’BRIEN: I always hated the band because I did think of ne-nu-ne-nu. I didn’t like them.

JONKERS: Me neither.

VAN BENNEKOM: It is a bad name.

JONKERS: Sting is a bad name, too.

VAN BENNEKOM: Horrendous.

JONKERS: It’s not as bad as The Edge.

VAN BENNEKOM: Bono is terrible, too. Boner? Bono? With Fantastic Man, I thought it was a good title because when we ask people to be featured, it’s a great compliment. It celebrates people. We are very particular about the people we want to feature. We want to feature people we think are interesting ourselves. It’s not like, “Oh, let’s do Bono because the readers might want to read about him.” We would only want to do Bono if we felt that Bono was a fantastic man. I think people are expecting Fantastic Man to make a selection in our choice of subjects that is unexpected.

O’BRIEN: Do you have a big selection process?

VAN BENNEKOM: Oh, god, yesterday we spent the whole day talking about a new issue with the rest of the team here in Paris. How many people did we talk about—20?

JONKERS: There are names that make you immediately say, “Yeah,” and then a couple that make you think . . . Mmm . . . We’re stuck in Amsterdam, so it’s not always easy to contact people.

VAN BENNEKOM: It’s not like all the press people are calling us saying, “Oh, we got George Clooney for you, please!”