#0025 Zines & Fanzines

The collector: Pere Saguer, Graphic Designer, Girona and Barcelona, Spain.

The collection: Zines and Fanzines.

The story behind the collection...

My fanzine collection began when I started exchanging comics with my school mates.  I never imagined that I would have this collection.  I just kept them because I had exchanged them with my friends.  Then when I moved to Barcelona to study I discovered more about fanzines and the DIY movement.

I've been collecting fanzines since 2005, and today I have more than 800 zines (and other kinds of small limited editions). My collection is not only fanzines. Sometimes it's difficult to define what is or isn't a fanzine, so I acquire them according to my own personal aesthetic.  The content is split 50-50 between illustration and photozines.  I have to confess that the way I focus my collection is something pending that I'm currently trying to solve.

I still remember the day I got "96844kg" by Jordi Erola (a Catalan artist) in a small shop in Barcelona (now closed).  I'd really like to get hold of an Ed Ruscha zine. I had the opportunity to see some of them in the Archive of the Modern Art Museum of Barcelona (MACBA), of course, my pocket still can't afford it.

I also have a collection of very old key chains but I'm no longer adding to the collection.  Other collections include empty sugar packets, plane and train tickets, a sticker book (mostly focused on street art) and champagne bottlecaps.

Sometimes I discover a fanzine I mark down as interesting and then when I have the money to buy it it's sold out. A recommendation to Obsessionistas: if you see something interesting, buy it!

I recommend all to take a collection in his life, collecting is a way to preserve our history.

Images © Pere Saguer and used with his kind permission.