A Morbid Fascination

Livor Mortis is a tidy two-tone zine from the UK. The content is based around themes of decay from rundown cityscapes, derelict buildings, to graveyards. Obviously graffiti is a feature and issues 5 and 6 in particular include it almost as a representation of decline. I say almost because on the one hand a tagged up shattered pane of glass positioned alongside dark eery corridors leading to nowhere tips into some sub-genre of graff-horror. But elsewhere murals painted onto the crumbling plaster of tenement blocks signify a more vibrant deterioration of urban areas. A painting of a cat pouring out graffiti from the trumpet it’s playing or an Anarchist hitting back at the cops beating him are signs of life. And there’s humourus additions too with ET’s head on a giraffes body, two human-spiders shagging, or a throw-up across some Granny wallpaper.

The most recent issue is actually a collab. with Germany’s Berliner Mauern. The zines hooked up together online and they hope to work on some more publications together in the near future. The two fit together quite well to produce a black & white zine of various graffiti and some of the less legit street-art to be found. There’s more conventional graffiti pictured here, a stencil or two, and a nod to gentrification.

I asked the editor what’s up next for Livor Mortis which turns out to be another recent collaborative project called Doornography and was told to expect more issues of urban decay and graveyards. Finally there’s also some special editions being produced for “inmates at Corcoran State Prison in California and connecting with series killers such as Ed Kemper. No idea what is coming from that but I love psychology and crime so why not?!”

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