Well knickers well and truly twisted over issue numbers. Here are two letters. Oops!
If the date in your article in Volume 21 Issue 2 regarding the first issue of the Village Voice is correct and not a typo, then Mr. Walker’s first issue of the magazine would have been a year old in March 1996, five years old in March 2000, fifteen years old in March 2010 and consequently it will be nineteen years old in March 2014.
Something has certainly gone awry with the issue numbers that I cannot explain, however if the first issue (Volume 1 Issue 1) was published in March 1995 then the age of the publication is only 19 come March 2014 not 20. The publication will have been going for 20 years in March 2015. One must take into account that we are designated one year old at our first birthday because we start at zero the day we are born. The day the village voice was born it was designated as Volume 1 not zero, so after a year it would be volume 2. We should be (February 2014 issue) on Volume 19 and as it is monthly, issue 12. This does not explain why the Volume number changed from 20 to 21 in January when the anniversary for the Volume should be in March. I will continue to research this as I’m sure there is a simple explanation.
Hope this helps to get closer to answering this mystery.
Derek Sargeant