We had the pleasure of presenting the publications Glorious 1.8 and In Funk We Trust in Rome last week, in the presence of the many people who attended the opening of the exhibition dedicated to 40 years of Graffiti writing in Italian publishing, so now we want to do the same on the pages of our blog.
Glorious is pure, all-round graffiti writing. Since its first issue it has published pictures from Italy and from cities all over the world of panels, tags, throwups, bombing, and halls of fame. Every issue focuses on new editorial projects and collaborations between WTP and many great photographers. Among the most sought-after products of its kind, Glorious has evolved into a free-press publication to which we have reserved a “heavy” grammage (high-quality paper and photos) in order to give more relevance to the exclusive material animating its special features.
This last issue wants to stress the importance of the fanzine and magazine tradition for the existence, diffusion, and survival of trainbombing, which has represented the very soul of graffiti writing ever since its origin. Glorious is a Whole Train Press booklet that you can get for free either by purchasing any title in our catalog, or by picking one up yourself at the best graff-shops. Consider it as a “daily yard paper.” The fanzine tradition flourished well before the internet, and between the 80’s and 90’s it allowed documents that were accessible to very few people to be shared and disseminated globally, thanks to a network involving all the main U.S. and European cities. With the advent of the world wide web this tradition has adapted, and through the selection of, and the attention to its contents it has found a successful strategy to survive and maintain a central role in the scene.
Just like the recent World Cup of Soccer, Glorious 1.8 also returns after four years, and to celebrate this we have a double-gift for you: a fantastic FaKso poster, and to shake things up, we have included In Funk We Trust, entirely curated by Imos. Suffice it to say that the list of great names inside is long, a 48-page unicum. Besides featuring spotlights on Nore and Alex FaKso (once again present after his cover on the first issue of Glorious), and on Jonathan Levin’s work on the stratifications of the Rome subway, we also felt obliged to promote Egowar, thus reaffirming all of this content in a celebratory fanzine format. For this collaboration, WTP offers the GLORIOUS-EGOWAR combo in a special limited edition to give recognition to one of the most radical magazines dedicated to the writing movement worldwide. Check it out online on our website. You also get a free copy of EGOWAR with the complete GLORIOUS KINGS OF GREEN work. For WTP it represents an important and honest commitment towards this project.
Since 2009, Egowar has been documenting the subway graffiti phenomenon present all around the world and in every city that is traversed by a subway. Inside the magazine’s 18 issues you’ll find exclusive photos from all over the world, from America to Asia, passing through Russia, Japan, Malaysia, India, and China. Obviously, lots of space is given to European cities where subway graffiti writing is currently widespread and alive, such as Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Naples, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, or Athens, just to name some of the most popular destinations, where trains are hit daily and it is easy to witness metros running painted.
This is all documented online at http://www.egowarmagazine.com, where you can see previews of the various issues and photo-articles of subway graffiti from all around the world, including over 1600 photos.
We are glad to distribute this work, as we identify with the same “train” attitude that has been the backbone of this movement since the beginning. Graffiti (zines) will never die!
