Episode 6

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.