I recently received the latest edition of Livor Mortis Zine, a DIY publication from London. Subtitled Urban Harvest PT. I, the cover features an image of what appears to be three agricultural workers preparing to harvest their crop… Yet, the red sky above and shadowy gloom hiding their features suggest that perhaps this trio are involved in something a bit more sinister than a wheatfield in Suffolk.  

In fact, the cover is in reference to the artwork of the film Children of the Corn III. The idea behind the zine was to move away from single-image pages and instead fit as many flicks in as possible. The content’s made up of black and white photos montaged together, featuring graff from east London, Bristol, New York and elsewhere. Some of it’s pretty artwork, but there’s lots of cool tagged-up walls, stickers, and rubbish-strewn streets too. Paintings of cartoon characters sit alongside shots of ravers at a squat party. Look closely, and the streets reflect the culture of the times. 

On one page, Marilyn Manson is featured on a poster alongside Pope Benedict. When he first became head of the Catholic church, I remember Ratzinger was dubbed the ‘Nazi Pope’ by British tabloids. The contrast between the pair, one performitively evil, the other performitvely good, stands as a suitably confused metaphor for the sinister politics of power that has been exposed to us with all the recent email releases… almost like the conspiracy theorists weren’t so deluded after all.

Look closely, and the streets reflect the culture of the times. 

The publication is sprinkled with a mixture of genres from ‘streets are talking truth’ to street art irony. There’s some good old honest throwups mixed with traditional political commentary; ‘fuck this or that politician’. Elsewhere, ‘Hail Seitan’ feels designed to wind up any boomer reading it as much as it departs from the punk who’s still putting up NOFX!  

Since we last reviewed them, Livor Mortis Zine has been busy collaborating on creating comics, contributing to films, including the ‘Auditopia: A Few Bad Apples’ doc, and absolutely pouring out zines; over 50 since the last count! An Urban Harvest PT. II is already planned, and other zines are in the pipeline including some urbex and cemetery-themed stuff, a collaboration with an anonymous train writer, and a possible sequel to Berliner Mortis Zine.