Rolling Vapors

Can you dig it???

2011-09-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

Natas animates classic skateboards from Blue Collar Distro on Vimeo.

Sun Goddess

2011-08-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

MMM YEAH!!!

What a tasty!

Jimbo Phillips nicely redid Jim Phillips' Sun God graphic as a female and it's lookin' GOOD!

Here's my Jason Jessee Sun God mini deck from my own personal collection:

Black & White

2011-07-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Can't go wrong with some virgil finlay art...

hmmm... top one reminds me of that old jeff grosso demon graphic. or other way around???

ask jim phillips.

or ask VCJ. look at the tony hawk bird claw graphic background and then this piece.

art by theodor kittelson.

even the skeleton in this one is similar to the kittelson forest road pic above...

original artwork for the grosso toybox - jim phillips

last but not least some misfits by pushead.

Dough Boy and Other Delights

2011-04-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

The 'Feel-Good' art of Lance Mountain.... Well, at least, it makes ME feel good whenever I see a dough-boy piece somewhere! Best Sad Plants in the biz, too. He did art for Variflex, Powell-Peralta, Firm, Flip, Nike, and more, but he's always seemed to stay refreshingly under the radar. Check the inter-webs for his very own site. It's cool. I promise.

Chris Miller - G&S Era

2011-04-22T19:36:00.000-07:00

Chris Miller was another G&S rider that did his own artwork, like Neil Blender. The 'Faces' and 'Lizard' are classic. Miller's skating is even better. Even today.

Had to include the 'Foot'!

Screaming at you soon in THX...

2011-04-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

Dungeon Master

2011-03-30T13:08:00.000-07:00

John Lucero: OG Vert shredder, Street Style innovator, artist, brand owner, and goofball. I am a Lucero fan. There is the classic X1, X2, and Jester graphics he drew, but there were some that I hadn't really realised were his designs. Bob Schmelzer? Mike Smith? Monty Nolder? We'll be getting into that...

These are three sketches from the Disposable book by Sean Cliver. The obvious one is the Jeff Grosso blocks graphic from 1986. The one I didn't realize was his art was the Sims Kevin Staab graphic. I dunno how I could have missed that since the style is so noticeable. The there's the Sitting Jester graphic that looks very much to be the reference for the X12. I'm not sure if there was a release of this art as a graphic, though. Definitely could pass. If you know anything about Lucero's history in the skate scene, you'll remember that he rode for G&S, Zorlac, Tracker, Variflex, Independent, Santa Cruz, Madrid, and Schmitt Stix before venturing into the company owner business. Yep. Total sponsor hopper. He was able to draw his own graphics for his popular Madrid model, the Jester Pop-Up, which was later called the X-Teamrider after he left for Schmitt Stix. Before that was his Variflex graphic which was drawn by XnO which was a full on bondage scene that got returned by a lot of the shops at the time. The story behind that was that he hand-drew and painted a skull with cross bones and bat-wings graphic that didn't get too much feedback at the trade show. Skulls hadn't quite hit yet as cool board art. The next year everyone was all over the Alva John Gibson Pushead graphics. Lucero tried to contact Pushead about doing a graphic for him, but as Pushead was too busy, he referred his buddy XnO from Tennessee to hook him up and the bondage graphic was born.

The Jester was one of Madrid's top selling boards around '85 - and when Lucero moved over to Schmitt Stix and released the X1, the Eyes Behind the Iron Bars graphic, it was proof that skaters were into his artwork. He had the biggest selling board out of the SS camp, even though he wasn't their 'top' pro. The graphic idea came from a sticker inside a Trix cereal box. It was almost identical, except for where 'Lucero' was, the sticker said 'Dungeon'. That graphic was generating him $15,000 a month at times. The Jester would return on the X2, by busting out from behind the iron bars of the X1. It was a great way to expand on a theme, and Vision (parent company of Schmitt Stix) was raking in the dough. As he was riding bigger boards than what the company was selling, and requesting to put out the bigger shapes along with more graphics he was developing (the red cross), he got shut down by Brad Dorfman and Paul Schmitt. That marked the end of his time at Schmitt Stix and the beginning of Lucero Ltd.

The Jeff Grosso Ragdoll and Blocks board is also highly sought after by collectors. Mine was a light blue but I can't quite recall if it was a stain or a dip. Sure wish I still had it, even though I skated the shit out of it!

Lucero Ltd. was at first a single proprietorship thing, but soon came to be a partnership with Steve Rocco and his SMA Rocco Division, which wasn't supposedly legit as SMA was Skip Engblom's Santa Monica Airlines brand in which Rocco claimed he got the OK to use the name to sell his own boards. Lucero and Rocco had formed their own distribution called Prime Time Distribution. The boards weren't exactly top quality, and so Lucero bailed and sold his shares in the company to Rodney Mullen. And from there he went with Santa Cruz to produce Lucero Ltd. Rocco continued to sell the Lucero Red Cross decks without Lucero's permission, which is how the 'Kill Rocco' Red Cross boards came about. Spray painted, even... The Santa Cruz thing didn't last long either, as they (Santa Cruz) were running into their own problems with the attitude shift in the industry from vert to street. And so he leaves the NHS camp and goes it alone again, only this time dropping the Lucero brand name and going with the name of the beer choice at the time, Black Label.

Lucero supplied the graphics for other skaters, too, like Kevin Staab (Sims), Mike Smith (Madrid), Riky Barnes (Lucero Ltd. & Black Label), and others through the Black Label camp such as Ben Schroeder, Omar Hassan, John Cardiel, Wade Speyer, Duane Peters, Steve Olson, Mike Vallely, and Matt Hensley.

Be sure to check out the Lucero graphics in the galleries section over at Disposable... There's some goodies in there!

There is a great John Lucero interview by Steve Olson in Juice Magazine, in Issue 58. You can read a portion of it online on the Juice website...

You might want to check out the mini Lucero interview from a 2009 post on Memory Screened which originally ran in Skateboarder Magazine...

There are a few images here from Vert Is Dead, notably, the two Lucero posts from 2009. #1. #2.

John Lucero got the Chrome Ball Incident treatment as well in this post from August of 2010. The interview Chops posted is rad.

I hope that guy from Wheelbite doesn't get all bent outta shape that I re-posted a couple Schmitts from his collection.... but then again, he hasn't updated since 2009.

Oh, and by the way, if you're still here on the inter-webs, you should probably check out the Marc McKee/Sean Cliver interview on Memory Screened....

Ok, enough with the long-assed post... I gotta go order that Alva Leopard deck for my gal's cruiser set-up.

Vide Licet

2011-03-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

From the pages of Viz which is a UK based comic magazine, came this unusual strip of a goofy-footed topless skateboarding heroine nun. Kinda cheesy, but kinda awesome. This is one of the one-off cartoons that came out sometime during Viz' 25+ years as a popular English cartoon-based humor rag. Viz had long running strips that included Johnny Fartpants, Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats, and Buster Gonad and his Unfeasibly Large Testicles, among others. There never was a Topless Skateboard Nun skateboard graphic as far as I know, but it would be pretty rad if there were. The artists for this particular piece are Chris Donald (creator of Viz), Simon Thorp, and Graham Dury; at least that's what I gather from the initials at the bottom of the strip and a little searching around on the inter-webs...

This was also seen on Skate and Annoy via Gentlemanly Conduct.

Crookston Gangsta

2011-03-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Cover shot for Seen Unknown - Todd Bratrud

I haven't seen too much press out there yet about the second Seen Unknown book by Winston Tseng that features hecka-tight skateboard and graphic artist Todd Bratrud... The first one features Marc McKee so this will most likely be a killer follow-up to that. All I know is that the Amazon release date keeps getting pushed back.

Todd is a Crookston, MN native that hit big as the art director for Consolidated Skateboards who has since moved on to putting out images through other skateboard brands and The Skateboard Mag, Thrasher, Volcom, Nike, Familia Skateshop, and currently The High 5 and Teenage Runaway Urethane, his own signature skateboard brands. He also puts out limited prints through Burlesque Designs. I consider Todd to be way up there when it comes to legendary skateboard artist, and its not just me that thinks he can make skulls and chicks look cool. A genuinely good dude that most certainly deserves his accolades. See more at Digital Dump and the twitter. Enjoy the images.

VCJ?

2011-03-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

An original rare Powell-Peralta VCJ poster

Everybody that skated back in the 80's remembers the classic Powell-Peralta graphics drawn by Vernon Courtlandt Johnson, such as the Ray 'Bones' Skull & Sword, Ripper, Hawk, McGill, Welinder, Caballero, Guerrero, Mountain, Vallely and so on. As the 80's were coming to a close and the industry began to change, the 'skate-consumers' were looking for new shapes, graphics, and image. VCJ's reign as Powell-Peralta graphic artist was ending and it was time to pave the way for the new up-and-coming artists such as Sean Cliver and John Keester. As time went on, there was rumored to be some kind of falling out between VCJ and Geroge Powell, and so VCJ left and went on his way.

VCJ returns to Powell-Peralta

It's now 20 years later VCJ has returned to the Powell-Peralta camp upon the reformation of the company. I had the question in mind wondering what he was doing after he left and before he returned... I knew that he was doing some artwork for Pocket Pistols along with Jim Phillips and Matt French, but after doing a bit of research I found a few graphics I hadn't seen before, including a couple collabs and some stuff (the Hippo) for a Japanese collaboration (Neighborhood x Challenger). Here's some sweet VCJ graphics to whet your whistle upon the release of the new Powell-Peralta graphics - hopefully they'll be bangin'... Enjoy!

Collaboration VCJ & Matt French

Pocket Pistols - Joker's Pool - VCJ

Remy Stratton Fish Tux - VCJ

Joker's Pool T-Shirt - VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Porker - VCJ

Inked black & white Neighborhood x Challenger Hippo graphic (Japan) - VCJ

Colored version of the Neighborhood x Challenger (JP) Hippo graphic - VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Jason Mitchell - graphic collab by Matt French & VCJ

Laser wood-cut deck collab - Matt French & VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Lyle's Burger Bowl deck

Pocket Pistols collab - Jim Phillips & VCJ

Neighborhood x Challenger (Japan) deck - artwork by VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Indian longboard - VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Bible Bowl -VCJ

Pocket Pistols - Lee Ralph - VCJ

Pcket Pistols T-Shirt - graphics by VCJ

Thanks to the following for archivals: We Bring Justice, Skate and Annoy, Disposable, Skip Distribution, Retro Skate Stickers, Old Skate Stickers, Art of Skateboarding, and Vapors Magazine.

Seen Unknown

2011-03-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

The first in the Seen Unknown series by Mark Batty Publisher comes out next weekend, featuring Marc McKee. (unless you are one of those lucky bastards that got an advance copy...) Its not a great big full on hardcover, but from some of the previews I've seen it's packed with 96 pages of Marc's most sarcastic and controversial skateboard art that came out of World Industries umbrella during the 1990's. McKee helped Steve Rocco (then owner of World Industries) change the idea of what skateboard graphics could really be, instead of the typical VCJ skulls and Phillips surf inspired art from the 1980's. The cover features the 'accidental gun death' graphic that was on a Guy Mariano board from 1992. You might also remember some of his funny and thought provoking work such as the Powell Peralta skull spoofs, the Mike Vallely barnyard board, Jason Lee's american icons, Natas' 101 devil worshipper, Jovontae Turner's 'napping negro' or the 'fucked up blind kids' series. Definitely worth it if you are a skater from that era or just interested in some killer skate art. It is editied by Winston Tseng, who is the art director of Enjoi skateboards.

Gotta give the shout out to Skateboard Graphics for the archive!

The Sic Nature of Andy Howell

2011-03-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

Andy Howell is originally from the East Coast Virginia Beach/Mount Trashmore and later Atlanta scene. Its kinda funny that a guy who is known for helping set the tone for the coming street skating revolution in the '90's was also a pretty good vert skater and not from the skateboard mecca of California. As a professional skateboarder, artist, entrepreneur, skate and clothing brand owner, and rapper, he is one of those unique and talented individuals that was able to cross the boundaries of commericial and fine art, business and underground aspects of skate culture, and be amazingly successful at it. Here is his story.

*As a teenager he made his own skate 'zines called Sic Nature.

*Tony Hawk's first 'fan' letter came from Andy Howell before Tony went on to become the successful phenomenon he is known of as today.

*Attended art school in Atlanta, Georgia.
*He entered himself as an unsponsored pro at Savannah Slamma in Atlanta, Georgia and got picked up by Schmitt Stix.

*Drew his own board graphics for his first Schmitt Stix model that came out in 1989.

*Started New Deal with Paul Schmitt and Steve Douglas in 1990 to break away from Vision.

*Also started (Underworld) Element Skateboards, Giant Distribution, (Zero) Sophisto Clothing, and 411 Video Magazine.

New Deal was pretty much a huge break from the '80's style of skulls and graphic design with its crayon-looking logo and graffiti slash hip-hop influenced artwork and urban aesthetic. Andy was the creative director and Paul 'Professor' Schmitt was at the forefront of new concaves and board shapes (he even had his own secret wood shop to develop board technology).

Vert was seriously in decline and the 80's were officially over. The rock-star and punk vibes were played out and with that the baggy pants, small wheels and longer noses on boards were the new 'in' thing. It was more accessible to the average skater who didn't have ramps but did have the never ending streets laid out before them as their new working domain. Street skating took a nod from the freestyle guys as far as the evolution of tricks were concerned. But instead of just skating in one stationary spot, the new generation was applying itself to more aspects of the urban environment including stairs, rails, and ledges.

All of this was being documented in the low budget DIY style and came out in the form of the New Deal Promo Video, Useless Wooden Toys, 1281, etc. This is also around the time that 411 video magazine started coming out, and it came directly out of the New Deal camp as well, with Andy at the creative helm. He designed everything from the logos and visual cues to the segues and music choices. A true innovator. You might even remember his Big Deals, which were the first huge fitted baggy pants marketed to board-shops under the New Deal brand.

Andy was quite prolific at this time as far as board graphic output was concerned. Shapes were heading toward the standard popsicle shape and there were beginning to be more pros than you could shake a stick at. This was mostly due to brands like New Deal and World Industries bringing vast amounts of new faces into the talent pool. New Deal did in fact have quite a few riders during its life in the 90's. There were some great names on the roster, including Armando Barajas, Ron Knigge, Thomas Taylor, Justin Girard, Tim Brauch, John Montesi, Chris Hall, Andrew Morrison, Danny Sargeant, Rick Ibaseta, Neal Hendrix, and Ed Templeton, and others, as seen in 1990's Useless Wooden Toys video. As the 90's picked up steam, the team picked up more riders, as well. 1281 from 1991 brought with it Fred Olande, Rene Matthysson, Jeremie Daclin, and Mike Vallely. By 1993's Whatever, they had Rob Carlyon and Jordan Richter, and with Children of the Sun in 1995 we were seeing Dave Duren, Matt Milligan, and Ben Pappas. 1996 was pretty much the end of it, but they got J.B. Gillet and even Bucky Lasek on board.

Underworld Element (before it became Element) was a way for Andy to creatively branch off from New Deal as it was beginning to become watered down for public consumption. The themes of Underworld centered around the raw urban culture of hip-hop, skateboarding, and graffiti. Underworld was a collabaration between Howell and Johnny Shillereff, who would later take control of the company and continue on as Element, as it is known today. While Andy was on board, though, his artisitc touches can be seen in the graphic design and in the first couple videos, Skypager, and Fine Artists, Vol. 1. U.E. had great riders, too, like Harold Hunter, Julien Stranger, Jeff Pang, Pepe Martinez, Rick Ibaseta, Billy Pepper, Andy Stone, Danny Minnick, Erik Pupecki, and Stevie Williams.

Sophisto, or originally known as Zero Sophisto, was Andy Howell's initial clothing brand. More talented riders were coming under the wing of Andy's ever-expanding line of brands, and this time was no exception, with the likes of Josh Kalis, Jamie Thomas, Vinne Ponte, Shiloh Greathouse, and Karma Tscocheff repping. They had a few magazine ads and some commercials in 411. He would later go on to expand into the clothing markets with R.E.N. (Racial Equality Now), Girly Things, and MTN snowboard gear. It was also in this time period that he founded Freedom Video, that did full editing and motion graphics development for video projects. It was cutting edge, as the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television would use it for classroom study.

The end of the 90's was where Andy Howell took off with much success in the ad agency world. In 1999 he co-found and creatively directed Imagewerks, which launched ad campaigns and promotions for Time-Warner's Transworld Media Group, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, K2 Snowboards, and the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series of video games. In 2004 he started EggProjects, which worked in brand creation, distribution, and consulting. Its brands were Better Chemistry, Un1versal Mind, Militree, and others. He released a hardcover book in 2005 called Art, Skateboarding, & Life, which was the initial inspiration behind this post. And then in 2007 he launched Artsprojekt, which is his current outlet as artist management, representation, and commerce company. He still draws, paints, and shows his art in galleries, as well.

If you want more information, you can check out his bio at Artsprojekt, see his 2008 Juxtapoz interview, and his wiki stub at Giant.org.

Don't androids sometimes go around with false memories?

2011-03-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

Maybe there was once a human that looked like you, and somewhere along the line you killed him and took his place.

Could This Be Real Street Style?

2011-03-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

You've probably already noticed how the Chrome Ball Incident blog name is a direct nod to Neil Blender. The same goes with a film by the name of MachoTailDrop. From "Trip Out, Trip Out" to "We are gearing up for getting down" and "Gurls, Gurls!" the man is highly entertaining, quotable and definitely has some unique maneuvers when it comes to sessioning on the shred-sled. He is probably best known for his Coffee Break graphic that surfaced sometime in 1986. Here are a few quotes from some other well respected and notable figures from within the skate community, including Neil himself.

"Neil Blender was the first pro to really start doing his own graphics. He drew them, they were whatever he wanted, and they obviously reflected his personality. If it weren't for Neil, I don't think graphics designed by the riders would have been as prominent as they became in skateboarding. He was my biggest influence in doing my own graphics and in even thinking it was possible at all. I also believe he opened the door for people like Natas Kaupas, Mark Gonzales, and Ed Templeton to do what they did." - Chris Miller

"I'll take it to the grave, I consider Neil Blender to be the first great skate artist. He single-handedly changed the face of G&S when his first pro board came out. It had a single line drawing of his with like three or four guys falling off a ramp that was collapsing. The graphic was printed in white on a navy blue board, and it was just so simple and so cool." - John Lucero

"The first graphic - that's the hottest one, that one was hilarious. Steve Cathey was like, 'Hey, you guys need to come up with graphics because you're turning pro and getting models.' We were just like, 'What?' But he goes, 'If you guys do art or whatever, do your own, because no one does their own.' So we just drew our own, and that was the first thing I came up with, the little ramp guy thing. Really retarded." - Neil Blender

(quotes taken from Disposable: A History Of Skateboarding Art - by Sean Cliver)

So, yeah.... Neil is known as an innovator the the DIY graphics department. I'd agree, but at the same time I'd have to say that the name Wes Humpston comes into play as far as being the originator to doing your own board art goes, but we'll get into that at a later date. For now, its all about the Blender. Take Street Style in Tempe for example. How fucking great is that? Ahhh.... Yeah. And so is his shared part with Steve Claar in Speed Freaks. And his Macho.Tail.Drop shenanigans in G&S Footage.

I was lucky enough to get a set of the OJIII Green Heat wheels (pictured) off a friend that happened to be getting flowed and didn't realize until after I was riding them that they had the Blender touch. Sweet.

And so it goes... like his website ~~The Heated Wheel~~ and his homemade boards and paintings on ~~Ebay~~. Good luck trying to come up on any of his work for sale, though, since they go faster than a couple of jackrabbits in the carrot patch.

Quick shouts go to Badger for a few of the youtube clips, Skate and Annoy, Sean Cliver, Strange Notes, The Skateboard Mag, and Freakbeatfuzz for the archival help.

Episode 6

2011-03-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

Wrench Pilot, Episode 6.

These comics were written and drawn by Andy Jenkins under the guise of Mel Bend and appeared in Transworld Skateboarding Magazine between 1989-1991. This comic was pretty much the first thing I looked forward to when cracking open the newest issue to see where Lettus Bee and his Milk Truck would take us next. This comic was enough of an influence on me that I used the art in the first frame of this episode for an iron on transfer for a graphic arts class I had in high school around the time. We had to cut out the rubyliths and everything from start to finish so it was a educational and rewarding experience. I know I could have just drawn my own doodles but Wrench Pilot just seemed to embody my thoughts about skateboarding and life at that time so I just had to use it! I did take Jenkin's art one step further by adding four colors to his original black and white art. I don't think it was so much as a rip off for me to use that clacking crail slide as it was that I was just plain inspired. Too bad I don't have any more of these iron ons. If I remember correctly I made around 20 to 30 of these at the time. I did get an 'A' in class for this as well. So.... Thank you to Andy Jenkins for helping to make my school days a hell of a lot more interesting! Oh, and further on in the series, we come to find out that Lettus' hat (made by 'Joel') had some special power to read the subconscious mind and pull out his imagination into 'reality'. This episode was the context for the initial triggering of his malfunctioning hat. You'll have to refer to Episode 11 for the full story.

Having Fun Is Not A Crime / Eight Dayz

2011-03-01T00:17:00.000-08:00

This section from the Santa Cruz video Streets On Fire just seems like it was so much fun! You have Jeff Hedges traveling over to Europe to hang and skate with Claus Grabke at tons of sick spots and ramps... The sights, the art, and even the tunes in their part rules. That fakie tail stall 360 body varial isn't something you see everyday and neither is the double varial handplant. The best part is that these guys are still skating today!

Exploding Pencil

2011-02-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Definitely a Jim Phillips fan... He's created some of the better known long standing iconic skateboard art, and has been in the game a long time, too. The Independent logo, Screaming Hand, and just tons of graphics for the Santa Cruz camp has pretty much put him at the top of the list for all time greatest skateboard graphics artist. With some nudges from Matt French his newest artwork has been showing up on Pocket Pistols Skates. He's the man, and he's got a couple books out if you're looking to see and learn more about the incredible works he's done.

Time Machine

2011-02-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

In the 1980's skateboard graphics lasted a lot longer than the quarterly cycles that permeate today's market. Maybe that's what made them so much more timeless... The only things that seemed to change back then were a slight alteration in the shape, or maybe the concave would get updated. In some instances the graphic would get slightly expanded or contracted in order to cover the board more effectively. Featured here are three different artists on three different brands. Rodney Mullen's 1985 freestyle model on Powell-Peralta done by Vernon Courtlandt Johnson (VCJ), Jeff Grosso and his 1986 Schmitt Stix rig with the John Lucero treatment. (I had one in a blue stain!), and the 1988 Santa Cruz Claus Grabke done by none other than Jim Phillips. (I really wanted this deck but when I finally saved up enough money to get it, it was gone so I settled for a Lucero Street Thing, which was still a good shape!)

Credit should be given where credit is due.... Sean Cliver - Disposable

Definitely a huge resource!

Dioretix: The Science of Matter over Mind by A. Rum Bobb

2011-02-19T15:50:00.000-08:00