Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni (R) with Mr. Cross-platform-integrated-customer-media-and-content

When he was young, Samir Husni discovered that he loved magazines so much, he started collecting the first issue of every new magazine he could find. Today, that passion has grown into a one-of-a-kind collection of magazine first issues that takes up space the size of a warehouse.

His passion for magazine launches, and magazines in general, inspired him to pursue a PhD in magazine-ology (although, technically, it was called journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia) and, ultimately, to become recognized as the leading expert on magazine launches. Today, he is noted for his annual Guide to Magazine Launches in the U.S. (there were 678 in 2012) and is director of the Magazine Innovation Institute at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, where he is professor and Hederman Lecturer.

Samir is also very funny, so we’re not surprised that somehow he and Hammock founder Rex Hammock discovered each other and have become friends over the years.

While Rex is known for embracing (or at least, experimenting with) any media platform he believes can help companies and other organizations build tight relationships with customers (or members, etc.), it’s no secret that Rex is a DNA-level magazine guy.

You know how some people can talk about sports and remember who pitched in the third game of some long-ago World Series? If you’re ever around Samir and Rex when they get together, they start having one of those kind of wonky conversations about magazines.

Once every couple of years, Samir invites Rex to come to Oxford to speak with students who are in his magazine development and magazine business courses. Earlier this week, Rex made one of those treks and we have the photos to prove it.

While the slide show embedded below will provide you with the photos, we suggest you click through to Flickr so you can read the captions that go with each photo. They include some quotes from what Rex told us about the trip.

(In addition to these photos, check out the Mr. Magazine website where Professor Husni has posted a couple of his “Mr. Magazine Minutes” in which Rex answers questions about the future of magazines and the way, at Hammock, we emphasize the there are two kinds of content that people use in their daily lives: Know & Flow content.)