TMR-000548Magazine object
The Face Vol. 2 No. 15
December 1989 · Special 90s: The Futures Issue · Jean-Baptiste Mondino · Signal to Noise conclusion / China / Clubland after acid house
December 1989★ Gold Star object
December 1989 'Futures Issue' of The Face, created at the threshold of the 1990s. Its contents survey anticipated social, technological and environmental futures, include a substantial post-acid-house Clubland report and contemporary reporting on the Chinese student rebellion, and carry the concluding instalment of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's original Signal to Noise serialisation.
Read the catalogue note →- Publication
- The Face
- Condition
- Very Good− appearance from supplied photographs.
- Completeness
- Main magazine appears intact from the supplied front-cover, contents and rear-cover views, but has not been page-by-page collated. No separately issued free gift or supplement has been established from the evidence reviewed.
- Date
- December 1989
Object record
Catalogue note
December 1989 'Futures Issue' of The Face, created at the threshold of the 1990s. Its contents survey anticipated social, technological and environmental futures, include a substantial post-acid-house Clubland report and contemporary reporting on the Chinese student rebellion, and carry the concluding instalment of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's original Signal to Noise serialisation. The cover image is by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
Why this object matters
The Signal to Noise conclusion, post-acid-house report and contemporary future/China framing make a substantive end-of-decade document. Retain Gold at 9.2, assessing the original period perspective rather than whether its predictions proved correct.
Evidence limits: Main magazine appears intact from the supplied front-cover, contents and rear-cover views, but has not been page-by-page collated. No separately issued free gift or supplement has been established from the evidence reviewed.
Score and assessment method
Archive Importance: 9.2 / 10 · Gold Star.
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
22 selected entries checked against the photographed contents and credits. This is a partial index; page numbers are printed references, not a physical collation.
View the source photograph ↗ · Reviewed 2026-09-20
Selected headings and printed page references checked against the photographed contents page. Starting pages do not establish complete article spans. Interior collation and unseen credits have not been verified.
19 ways to spend the 90s
High anxiety
Doomsday domicile
Toxic cops
Thank God it’s yogurt
Eco-terrorism
50 things to worry about!
The We Generation
Science fiction science fact
At the deep end
Cootie’s world
The dwindling wilderness
China: The fax of life
Watch this space
Loving the alien
The machinery of dreams
Hottest place on Earth
Day of the dolphins
An A-Z of New Age
Signal to Noise: Conclusion
The printed heading identifies the conclusion and gives the span 122–129. It does not print a part number.
Intro: The future
Research around this object
- Signal to Noise: from Prelude to Conclusion — A seven-issue reading sequence through The Face, June–December 1989, with printed page references and evidence limits.
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