disposable: random essays on skateboard art

roots: the first vision mark gonzales graphic by andy takakjian

This past November I ran into Marty Jimenez at the preview opening of the Skateboard: Evolution & Art in California exhibition in Santa Monica, CA. Now unfortunately for Marty, he knows that every single time I run into him I'm going to ask if he's unearthed his board collection yet. It was, after all, one of the few I never managed to document despite badgering him to no end over the course of putting both Disposable books together. He has a reason—a very good one at that—for not letting me have a photographic crack at his archives, and even though I have no plans for any future books I'm still curious as to what he may have squirreled away during his time at the epicenter of Orange County skateboard production in the '80s.

God help me but shit like this keeps me up late at night.

Anyway, Marty apologized once again for not being able to spring his boards in a timely manner (in a referential way they really are the equivalent to James Cameron's ridiculously named "Unobtanium" from Avatar, tree of life and all), but then went on to say that he had recently stumbled upon something of interest in his art archives: a Xerox copy of what appeared to be the inspiration behind Mark Gonzales's original pro model graphic on Vision by Andy Takakjian. I said I was definitely interested in seeing this and, lo and behold, just the other day a shot of it finally appeared in my inbox from Marty.

Immediately after receiving the image I zipped it on over to Andy—whom I finally had the chance to meet for the first time several months ago when he showed up out of the blue at a book release party for The Disposable Skateboard Bible held at the HUF store in Los Angeles—to see if he could shed some historical light on its background.

"Wow, there's a relic from the ark of the unknown martyr!" he wrote back, "Yeah, that would be a phase of genesis, as I loosely recall that was a sort of prelim for a cheesy little self promotional postcard series I ran off back in 1985. I believe it was an amalgam of linoleum cut and Zip-A-Tone scraps. I didn't get any particular direction from Vision, so I used it to fill space on the Gonz deck in between the 'Vision' and 'Mark Gonzales' names. Of course it required some 'editing' to fill the deck space correctly.

"I had no idea anyone would like it in any way. I thought it would be a genuine reject and I would have to think up something else. In fact, I really just tossed it together to be something to show 'til I could think of something better. With the lack of direction given I reckoned I would be groping through quite a few generations 'til something clicked. Well, as they say, who knew?! It was a one hit wonder!"

 

alien workshop and the past and present ghosts of andy warhol

Back when I first started this online extension of the Disposable books one of my goals was to begin covering and promoting new skateboard graphics as well as wax off all nostalgic about the old. I sent out a "press release" (if you can even call it that ... it was more like an annoying mass email to a selection of contacts in my address book) to announce this altruistic intent of mine—okay, and to maybe net a few freebies along the way—but few responses came back aside from the usual English quip or two from Don Brown at Sole Technology. Well, a week later I did receive a free copy of the Bones Bridage Video Show Special Edition DVD, so this hasn't been a total wash ... but on the same hand it hasn't exactly flourished into anything beyond a glorified online toilet to flush my occasional burst of sentimental diarrhea. So it goes.

 

The other day, however, I finally received an honest to god press release. My first one! I'm not special, of course, I know. Lots of other Interweb sites received the very same email and have since plastered it days ahead of me, but it is nice to know I made it onto someone's mailing list—especially when it's that of Alien Workshop, a company whose aesthetic I've long admired and respected. Anyway, the release pertains to an upcoming series of decks showcasing ten iconic pop works of Andy Warhol that are strictly on the up-and-up. By this I mean Alien Workshop actually went ahead and worked directly with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. to license and produce the designs. That's right, they're not just ripped off in the favored skateboard tradition of yore. Then again, I'm not surprised, because I've always considered Alien Workshop to be the Minor Threat of skateboard companies when it comes to their graphic approach.

What's funny about that chosen Warhol quote—"Art is what you can get away with"—is that it can kind of be twisted to define the skate graphic mentality in the '90s, when a lot of companies got away with a lot of stuff they would never get away with today because the entire industry was very, very much under the radar then. Times have indeed changed, though, and I know of many companies that are no longer so devil-may-care when it comes to biting off more than they can feasibly chew in a copyright court of law.

graphic envy: the santa monica airlines natas kaupas panther

In 2002 I was contacted by Aaron Meza to whip out a space-filler article for Skateboarder about the Top 12 board graphics that I wish I'd created. Included on that list were the following: G&S Neil Blender Coffee Break, Zorlac John Gibson Cow Skull (the Pushead version), 101 Natas Kaupas Devil Worship, Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso Toy Box, Blind Guy Mariano Accidental Gun Death, Powell-Peralta Steve Caballero OG Dragon, Blind Jason Lee American Icons, Powell-Peralta Mike McGill Skull & Snake, 101 Gabriel Rodriguez Jesus H. Christ, Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp I, Blind Danny Way Nuke Baby, and the very first Santa Monica Airlines Natas Kaupas model.

My explanations for all were, in general, tongue-in-cheek with a liberal dose of sincerity and/or humility [see full article below], but my reasoning on the SMA Natas was this: "Who wouldn't want to stake their professional claim on having drawn the panther on Natas's first deck?"

Crude though it may be with its oddly misshapen triangle—and quite possibly "inspired" by a certain Frank Frazetta painting circa 1972 (hey, at least it was borrowed from the master and not any of the would-be fantasy hacks to oil paint in his unparalleled brushstrokes)—the graphic aptly summed up the raw nature of Natas's street-skating circa 1985 and kicked off one of the now most highly sought after series of boards (not to mention a theme which Natas continues to either reissue or variate upon with his Designarium brand). Many collectors have since tried to wrangle all of the assorted panther decks, admirably, but to date no one that I know of has acquired all in unskated condition ... and I honestly have my doubts that anyone ever will.

But if I had to take my pick of "the one" Natas board to own it would have to be his second model on Santa Monica Airlines before the brand merged with N.H.S. in 1987. What Kevin Ancell had started, artist Chris Buchinsky came in and put the finishing touches on in 1986 with a tropical landscape that fleshed out the graphic to its full board shape potential.

 

america undercover: the powell-peralta tony and phony hawk

In Tony Hawk's book Occupation: Skateboarder he mentions that when his very first pro model was released in 1982 it wasn't exactly a top seller. Hell, if anything, it was a bottom dweller. To add insult to injury the market for skateboards back then was nonexistent at best, so to not have a remotely popular model translated to mere pennies on the royalty dollar—more precisely, 85 cents, the whopping sum total of which Tony claimed to represent one of his earliest royalty check payments as a paid professional skateboarder.

 

An authentic batch of Powell-Peralta Tony Hawk models, including the first two-color screened version.

Crappy industry economics aside, a number of other factors contributed to this less than enthusiastic reception for his first pro model. For starters, Tony had yet to really make his mark on the contest scene (at least outside of his Del Mar playpen), and it was still a good year or two before Powell-Peralta would release the landmark Bones Brigade Video Show, which would truly expose Tony's early aerial antics to the world at large. Product-wise, the board was on the small side; a mini-model masquerading as a full-size to fit Tony's then stick figure build. The graphic was also a bit too on the nose—or beak, if you will, to be even more on the nose—and would it really have been so hard to center the damn thing so the brand name wasn't listing at such an obvious angle? (Still can't believe George let that slide to the noticeable degree it did...) So it wasn't long before the original fine feathered hawk illustration was replaced by V. Courtlandt Johnson's more iconic and popular "Screaming Chicken Skull" in 1983.

Two decades after his first model was released though, Tony Hawk was being hailed as nothing less than the "Michael Jordan of skateboarding" by the mainstream media and an unskated version of his "rookie" pro model was publicly sold on eBay at the eyebrow-arching price of $6,000.00 (the detailed back story of which can be found in The Disposable Skateboard Bible).

Naturally such a high profile and rare deck would eventually be bootlegged, and bootlegged it most certainly was, but not necessarily under the usual circumstances in which forgeries are generally created, e.g. fraudulent monetary gain. Admittedly, when I first found out about this and many other rare boards being reproduced I was a tad bothered by it all. I mean, it's fine when everyone involved with such underground operations keeps the boards within a knowledgeable inner circle and out of the hands of idiots, but eventually most everyone either tires of not having the "real deal" or simply needs to cash out for practical life matters. And in the latter instance it has been proven time and time again that these bootlegs are usually the first thing to be sold from anyone's collection. Thus these replicas pass from hand to hand until years later the history behind them is muddled at best and some bright-eyed dimwit earnestly believes they've just scored a relatively cheap, rare board. Or, worst case scenario, some shady-eyed shyster tries to pass them off as originals*. Whatever the matter, here's some descriptive insight into the story behind the 17 or so "Phony Hawk" boards now in existence.