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Color 9.3SE Collector's Issue Editor's Letter Buy This Issue Now

life

  1. ZOMBIETOWN

    This is a modern journey into the Twilght Zone. Zombietown is in Italy, but there’s nothing “ordinary” here... and that’s why...
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  2. FOUR CITIES FOR THE CITY:…

    Shops are the heartbeat of the skate community. They’re the place where every sub-sect of skater goes to get their gear, watch videos,...
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  3. Down, Not Out

    So much of what we see in the skateboarding media is success. Covers, enders, and the high def slow mo’ video of ‘touchdowns,’...
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  4. COLLECTORS: Barry Walsh, Allister…

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  5. KEEGAN SAUDER

    Music can either “soothe the savage beast” or inspire some to do unspeakable acts. For skaters, it fires our blood and gives us...
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  6. Erik Ellington

    When travelling to Canada, you’re bound to have some border-crossing issues, especially if you’re rolling with the Shake Junt and...
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  7. David Gravette

    Recently, while on a ten-day demo tour in Canada, we were at a bar in Ottawa talking to a tattoo artist friend of mine and David Gravette...
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  1. COMUNE x COLOR's 7 minutes…

    What are you hiding in your closet? Comune and Color invite you to send in images of your closet. Images will be shared and one lucky...
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  2. Selections: guest editor Roger…

    Roger has dozens of collections: baseplates, t-shirts, cassettes, decks, records—objects he’s written about in past issues of this...
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film

  1. Manwolfs Unleashed

    It all started in 1991 when the headpiece of the wolf came to light. That accompanied by a pair of short shorts with a testicle release...
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music

  1. JOHN WIESE'S FIRST 100…

    One of the first noise records I ever owned was a split seven-inch by John Wiese and Panicsville. The music was so strange and new...
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  2. CRYSTAL STILTS

    Crystal Stilts have been attracting plenty of attention as of late. Back in April, the band released its sophomore album, In Love with...
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  3. GUITAR WOLF

    My best friend growing up drove a hearse because he said it was easier for him to load his Marshall amp into the back since the hearse...
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fashion

  1. Bless This Mess

    PHOTOGRAPHY BENJAMIN MARVIN FASHION EDITOR MILA FRANOVIC ASSISTANT ALEX PERRIN For this story we wanted to show off the curious collections...
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art

  1. Charlie Roberts

    Charlie Roberts paints things. Real things. And lots of them. He crams together the millions of images that accumulate in our collective...
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  2. FOUND: Skateboarding's Middle…

    For skateboarders, the streets are a constant source of inspiration. The banks, gaps, ledges and rails of the world promise endless...
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  3. Scott August

    Scott August, a British Columbia native, makes art that investigates the relationship between man and nature. With a BFA in photography...
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  4. Unreal

    While the Vancouver Art Gallery’s forthcoming exhibition, The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art, enjoys the hype...
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skate

  1. BRADLEY SHEPPARD - Trick…

    Every photographer has one: their go-to guy, that person who you know you'll always walk away from that spot with a photo. For me Bradley...
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  2. Superbuds: Dan Redmond &…

    When I was asked to set up questions for this interview, I was stuck trying to find similarities between the two guys. I wasn’t sure...
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  3. The Beard and The Butter

    Despite its recent shot at hosting the World Cup and the attempts to sanitize its global image, South Africa remains a deeply divided...
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  4. C1rca Canada Dusted in…

    As with any tour story, it can prove difficult to really know just where to begin, what to include, and what to keep to ourselves....
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Editor's Letter

When I was growing up, every Sunday my grandfather would visit, bringing me the comics from the weekend newspapers. Although they were meant to be disposable, throwing them out seemed odd since they were gifts. After only a few years, I had accumulated a huge collection of weekend comics. One Sunday, the comics were a noticeably different shape—they were more ‘book’ in format and featured new strips. Suddenly the old comics I had kept were even more collectable, since they were no longer available. My dad, who I discovered was a ferocious collector, suggested we put them in the attic where they wouldn’t get wrecked, and in doing that, I suddenly realized where all my old toys, and pop culture stuff slowly had disappeared to. I understood right away that seeing similar unusual objects grouped together was interesting to me.

I had an obsession with Halloween, so anything to do with skeletons, pumpkins and demons was already on my radar. Soon I was even collecting box tops to send away for all three of the Frankenberry, Booberry and Count Chocula records. At first I was collecting anything relating to spooky stuff: firecrackers, records,

books, toys, etc. but I began to run out of space to store and display quickly. My bedroom soon became wallpapered in posters with anything relating to horror films, as well as punk, metal, and skateboarding (every parents dream).

I started to skateboard in 1982. The way skateboarding felt became everything to me, but I also loved the actual deck—the colours, graphics how they were a symbol that identified a particular skater and brand was incredibly cool to me and I began collecting them while most threw them away. I was also developing an interest in photography and this led me to wander farm fields, vacant houses, and abandoned spaces searching for lost items to photograph and be inspired by with my growing camera collection. The mood of my own photographs led me to Edward Gorey’s illustrations and leaded me to author John Bellairs (for which Edward Gorey supplied countless spooky illustrations). With the accessibility of Ebay I have attempted to collect all of Bellairs books, but I’m still always searching for the books of my youth. That’s what to me collecting is all about, the search.

Roger Allen, guest editor