Journey Through The Graffiti Fanzines of Europe
Magazines and fanzines concerning graffiti and street art, have always had an undeniable fascination for me; I think it is the effect of the paper product, which, representing this world, becomes filled with colors, writings, collages and is certainly aesthetically very appealing. From very low-budget home-made ones to those that can be called real magazines, these products are often made purely as a matter of ego, to further spread one’s name, but that is, after all, the purpose of graffiti itself, isn’t it?
Sometimes unknowingly, however, through these pure objects of “worship” the history of a movement is written, especially if it is a movement that remains alive in time only through its documentation.
For example, not many know this, but it was thanks to the first graffiti magazines that a paint brand specifically designed for writers was born. We are talking about Spanish Montana Colors. As also mentioned in an article on the brand’s blog, BGOM (Barcelona Game Over Magazine) born in 1992 from an idea of Mookie and Kapi, was fundamental in the process of creating this brand. In fact, to finance the zine’s second issues, the two 22-year-old founders devised an innovative strategy: getting money from big brands and not just advertising local stores or friends’ projects that provided little support.
Through this, they managed to attract the attention of Jordi Rubio, who worked for Felton, the Barcelona-based spray paint brand. That surprising collaboration led to the birth of the Montana spray paint brand.
