Ektopia

Mynameis? has felt like a long time coming but it’s finally arrived. It’s being advertised by it’s publishers (graffiti book monster Graphotism) as a quarterly book about “Urban Influenced Visual Dynamics” and by the look of the line up in the debut edition it looks to be every bit as dynamic as it promices. I’ve not got a copy yet and not completely sure about who and where will stock it but for the time being it looks like there’s a subscription link so that’s a good enough place to start I guess. I’ll post more info when I find it.

Eric Tabuchi’s Alphabet Truck project. Self explanatory apart from the fact that it’s been printed in book form in an edition of 500 copies. [via]

A quirky notebook that will provide landscape, portraite or any format between the two. [via]

DGV have just released the world’s smallest book (2.4mm x 2.9m) that’s been printed and made with orthodox printing and binding techniques. It;s been printed in an edition of 300 and is £70. Nice little alphabet illustrations too don’t you think? [via]

Joe Ledbetter has a new book coming out oon dedicated to his working methods. It’s called Joe Ledbetter’s Sketchbook and looks absolutely amazing. [via]

Joseph Rivera has finnaly written a book about his life in NYC’s Vandal Squad called Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Police Department, 1984-2004 (published by Powerhouse).

Founded in 1980, the Vandal Squad’s mission was to protect the subway system from hardcore criminal acts of destruction like kicking out windows and throwing seats out of train cars. It was only with the Clean Car Program of 1984 that graffiti became the primary focus of this specialized Unit. On a mission to catch those who gained fame under tag names, the Vandal Squad had to identify and locate these individuals cloaked in anonymity (and often so transient they were referred as “ghosts”) using every means available, including the NYPD computer database, search warrants, subpoenas, and even vandals themselves.

ESPVisuals as also posted a short excerpt that really whets the appetite. Definitely one to pre-order I reckon.

Mum, Dad, I’m Into Steampunk is a charming short monologue by Marko Kaye.
[via]

[...] Don’t get me wrong; I still live in your world. In this very house even. But now I exist between two eras: an Edwardian past and a quixotic future where dirigibles can travel through space and time. [...]

Issue 49 of Graphotism has hit the streets. This time around there are specials about Ogre and Mr Wany but a specially special quarter-mag special (that’s quite a few specials I know, but this is quite special!) dedicated to Revok. As always, there’s not an ounce of filler graff content on show in this issue and enough interviews, book reviews and general graffiti goodness to keep yours eyes busy till the big issue 50 comes out in a few months time.

Mr Mr45rpm recently put together a great line-up for a new zine. Font Freak dropped through the letterbox of Ektopic Towers the other day in a little sealed bag with some stickers and a few postcards. Nylon, Airforce, Janoe, Ponk, Gumbo, Sewell, Flor, Raek, Paris, Eko, Richt, CT, Babou, Kyte, Oath, 1981, Scheme Ekon, Sums, Kaione, 1659, 45rpm & obese; put these all together in one place and it’s easy to imagine that the results are amazing. Content wise, it’s primarily blackbook stuff and it’s all great. The styles included vary greatly from very loose organicness (is that a word?!) from Nylon (who also had a short interview) to very intricate graphic 3D fontiness (how about that one?!) from Scheme and everything between. Another highlight for me is the collection of graff photography. It hadn’t occurred to me that gritty graff shots, and their accompanying urban decay settings, would look so special on Xeroxed pages.

To be honest, in the past I’ve not really been a zine kind of guy but you can consider me a convert after checking Font Freak out. It’s also an inspiring little book too. I guess that’s part of the point really, it’s accessible in so many ways. It’s also made me realise that a publication like this has a value equal to that of professionally published books. Content is king and the content in Font Freak is as good as any other graff book that I have in my collection; it just has a different style and it just so happens that I love that style.

Anyways, take a look at some of the pages here and a few more here. 58 black and white pages of graff-goodness for £5…bargain. Roll on Issue 2.

A couple of weeks ago Mark Murphy introduced Ray Caesar’s Art Collection and it looks amazing. Now he’s doing the same thing for Jeff Soto’s Storm Clouds. I have his first book, Potato Stamp Dreams ad it’s incredible and the new one looks like it’s going to be just as special. “Storm Clouds features a hard bound, archival edition, that matches the size and format of the sold out, “Potato Stamp Dreams,” with a few design style changes and printing techniques over 154 pages. The standard edition features speciality printing on the cover and the limited edition will feature a custom printed box, signed book, with 4 archival prints and special touches.”It’ll be available via Mark Murphy soon.