After 18-years as a print-based litzine, Edmonton’s long-running Urban Graffiti has officially transitioned onto the worldwide web. Still the same boundary-breaking zine that focuses on “hard-edged urban living, alternative lifestyles, [and] deviant culture” (Urban Graffiti Mandate), UG editor Mark McCawley claims that the new format will allow the increased frequency of online publication for Urban Graffiti contributors (the printed version was only published a total of 11 times once a full issue of content was gathered). It will also allow a wider scope of content, including reviews, commentaries, and essays concerning transgressive behavior, lifestyle, and culture, plus a better analysis of these topics through the use of visual art, photography, comic art, video art, music and audio.
Another advantage for the zine in this new format is, according to McCawley, its “immediacy to the public and its ability to promote transgressive writing, art, and music to a vastly larger and more sophisticated audience.” It can reach its intended readers – those that step “beyond the limits” and “deviate beyond those norms and taboos set by civilized culture” – whether they are next door, across the country, or across the border. It will also act as a free space where the need to “unconsciously self-censor work” will be eliminated.
McCawley knows a bit about censorship. Urban Graffiti was originally started because several zines and books that he had ordered from “outside Canada had been seized by customs agents, deemed offensive, and were arbitrarily destroyed.” Now that Urban Graffiti is online, he plans to take advantage of the borderless world of cyberspace by pushing the boundaries of acceptability while reaching an audience that is, now, potentially unlimited. Some, no doubt, will miss the old UG’s zine-y aesthetic. But McCawley won’t be among them. He says that as far as he’s concerned Urban Graffiti was always destined to be an online zine. From day one, he made sure to retain the rights to all accepted submissions so that they could be reprinted in electronic form at a later date. As of right now, one of UG’s past issues is available on the website.
If you are interested in being a part of UG’s online endeavour, consider submitting your deliciously deviant writing or artwork to gse.mccawley @gmail.com. But before you do, look at Volume 11 of Urban Graffiti on the website (it is posted under the Categories, Magazines tab) to get a sense of the litzine.
The new Urban Graffiti was unveiled on May 15, 2011 with its first post: Chapter 31 of Bart Plantenga’s Novel, Beer Mystic: Novel of Inebriation & Light. You can follow the Beer Mystic’s story around the world by reading various excerpt chapters on a wide range of online host magazines. See the links listed below for more details!
Check out http://urbgraffiti.wordpress.com/about/ AND http://greensleeveeditions.blogspot.com/2011/05/urban-graffiti-call-for-submissions.html AND http://urbgraffiti.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/beer-mystic-a-novel-of-inebriation-light-by-bart-plantenga-2/ (for details on Beer Mystic)