The Face No. 53
The Cool Ruler — Can Prince Take Michael Jackson's Crown?
September 1984 issue of The Face, No. 53, featuring Prince on the cover under 'The Cool Ruler — Can Prince Take Michael Jackson's Crown?' during the breakthrough Purple Rain period.
Read the catalogue note →- Publication
- The Face
- Condition
- Good
- Completeness
- Complete — all pages present.
- Date
- September 1984
Catalogue note
September 1984 issue of The Face, No. 53, featuring Prince on the cover under 'The Cool Ruler — Can Prince Take Michael Jackson's Crown?' during the breakthrough Purple Rain period. The contents page records features on Divine, Jackie Collins, Prince, Beirut, the Gang of Three, Nile Rodgers, the 1984 US elections and Violent Femmes, alongside the 'Another Country' style feature. Nick Logan is credited as publisher/editor, Paul Rambali as assistant editor and Neville Brody as designer. The surviving rear cover is a period Hyper Hyper advertisement, preserving the magazine's fashion-retail context as well as its editorial culture.
Why this object matters
The Purple Rain-era Prince issue and its Divine/Nile Rodgers/political coverage document a concentrated 1984 cultural moment. Retain outstanding importance for this original editorial combination rather than assuming a scarce or debut Prince cover.
Evidence limits: No new physical inspection or collation was performed. Copy-specific conclusions remain limited to the retained catalogue and accession evidence.
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 8.8 / 10.
This is a curatorial judgement, not a measurement accurate to one tenth or a market valuation. Read the explanation and its evidence limits together.
How Archive Importance is assessed →Inside this issue
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