Tag Archives: graffiti zine

Think Global Graff Local

I recently picked up two nice local UK zines one covering the cities of Bristol and Leicester. The former is the fourth edition of a West Country gem that I’ve read before but unfortunately have missed a coupla issues of. Covering a range of street damage this zine does everything it needs to really; lots of tags, throwups, vans, rollers, dubs, pieces and a few sketches for good measure. The city is pretty battered and the untitled zine gives a nice feel for what it’s like walking around checking out the Bristol based crews and tourists stopping by to leave their mark. 

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Between Gaúcho’s and Cats

This is the eponymously titled Depor Este zine which is a collaboration between two artists from Germany and Brazil. It’s a nicely produced little publication showcasing some funky styles. A few themes crop up such as ancient Egyptian motifs, cats, and high art juxtaposed with derelict graffiti covered walls. The photography throws out some cool scenes such as two gaúchos checking out graffiti or a cat perched on a piece beside an image of paw prints set in concrete.

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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.

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Berlin Walls

The Berliner Mauern zine, the title of which is taken from the graffiti/street-art blog, is now on its third edition. This issue, which came with some extra prints and stickers, is a basic black and white photography zine. The content is a mixture of tags, stencils, paste-ups and street-photography. As I was flicking through the zine I thought about what brings all this content together. Aside from the aesthetic of the zine the focus is on the illegal side of things and, generally, the more awkward stuff.

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for the record zine

for the record is definitely one of the more unusual publications I’ve come across. The zine documents, what I suppose could be called, ‘conceptual graffiti’. Rather than just observing the urban environment the artist abcdef acts as a kind of militant-flâneur whose photographs make a record of unconventional, often low-key, spray paint interventions. Continue reading

99/40

99mm green cover

The last time I reviewed the 99mm zine I was surprised to find that the publication had been in production for twenty years! So it’s good to know that it’s still going strong as Ian Vanek has recently released, what he believes to be, the best 99mm yet! This time the zine’s contents aren’t published in the standard zine scheme of black & white but a cool jazzy green with a stitched spine. Apparently this is in commemoration of its 40th edition which harks back to the zine’s origins as a blue DIY magazine. Continue reading

From Bristol to Prague and Beyond

'Nothin but Tags', Unnamed, and Guide Zines

I have lately got a few zines which I thought I’d review together in one go. ‘Nothing but Tags’, Guide, and another magazine that has no title. In some ways the three are quite similar. They’re fairly low key, contain no descriptive text or introductions, are similar in size and format, and hover around the same price range. However all three also have a different and specific focus to each other.

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