An indispensable volume that shows how graffiti made the jump from the wall to the printed page
In the 1990s, after a generation’s masterpieces were scrubbed from NYC subway trains, graffiti practitioners and enthusiasts came together to preserve their craft in an explosion of independent media. Fueled by a flick trade that documented the burners, throw ups, and tags of every major metro area, these spirited publications helped spread one of the twentieth century’s most vital art forms around the world.
In addition to hundreds of reproductions from more than three dozen iconic graffiti zines, Subscription to Mischief includes ephemera and correspondence from the archive of Skills creator Greg Lamarche (Sp.One), along with an introduction from Lamarche, a primer in writing styles by graffiti ambassador David Villorente (Chino BYI), and a foreword by filmmaker and chronicler of the movement Sacha Jenkins.
About the Curators
Greg Lamarche (Sp.One) was born and raised in New York, began writing graffiti on the streets and subways in 1981, and published Skills, a seminal graffiti magazine, in the early 1990s. Lamarche has worked as a fine artist and an illustrator since 2000 and has been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Print, and Juxtapoz. His work is also featured in several books, including Graffiti New York (2009) and The History of American Graffiti (2011). Lamarche also created the cover graphics for World Piecebook (2011).
David Villorente (Chino BYI) is one of the foremost practitioners and ambassadors of graffiti culture in the world. His reign as the eleven-year editor of the “Graf Flix” feature in The Source magazine helped cement his position as an important arbiter within the global graffiti community. Villorente has coauthored numerous books on graffiti culture, including Mascots & Mugs (2007), Piecebook (2008), Piecebook Reloaded (2009), World Piecebook (2011), and The ABCs of Style (2018). Villorente was also the cocurator of the critically acclaimed 2013 exhibit Write of Passage at the Red Bull Studios New York, and in 2019 he cocurated the groundbreaking Beyond the Streets exhibition.
Kate Long Stellar is the collections director at Letterform Archive, where she leads the collections department, helped launch the organization’s Online Archive, and serves on the curatorial team. She earned her masters in library and information science from Drexel University and has cocurated six exhibitions from the Archive’s collection. She has a special interest in graffiti letterforms and stewarded the creation of Letterform Archive’s graffiti publications collection, which consists of 700 objects. Stellar’s design writing has appeared in Adobe Create Magazine and BLAG (Better Letters Magazine).
Kel Troughton is a type designer, lettering artist, graffiti writer, and educator living in Oakland, California. As a curatorial consultant at Letterform Archive from 2021 to 2024, he advised on collection acquisitions, hosted public events, and led education initiatives on graffiti-writing history. He runs an experimental type foundry called Overlap Type and documents graffiti and other letter-based work.
| Publisher | Letterform Archive |
| Publication date | December 8, 2026 |
| ISBN | 979-8-9916212-9-8 |
| Size | 7½ × 9⅝ inches |
| Printing | 4 colors throughout |
| Pages | 320 |
| Format | Hardcover |
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