Lance Mountain #2.

Lance penned a few comics for Powell Peralta's Intelligence Report team 'zine and catalog.

After doing the website for over four years, I'm a little surprised that this is only the second time Lance has been on here.

There will be a rare Saturday incident on Vert Is Dead tomorrow. You can't take a brief two week survey of skateboard comics without including this one.

Powell Peralta Bones Brigade Intelligence Report - Fall 1990 Volume 3 Number 6

Kevin Wilkins.

Ortho Stevens was by Kevin Wilkins and appeared in a 1996 Tum Yeto catalog that featured cartoons by Ed Templeton, Gustavo Vargas, Tod Swank and Cleon Peterson. It's interesting to note that in many skate comics the story involves the character being caught in some undesirable place or going through a series of mundane activities before going skateboarding in the last panel.

Kevin used to be a writer and staffer at Transworld until the Skateboard Mag started in 2004. He does all those things at the Mag to this day.

When I got on the mailing list for Tum Yeto, they would send me the catalogs to my real name. At some point in the late 1990s, the catalogs started being addressed to Busta Rhymes. Thanks, guys. It made me laugh every time I got the mail.

Ben Hall & Brian Lindgren.

Thrasher started a feature on skateboard comics in 2000. The column ran for a few years before being ended due to a lack of quality submissions. One of the highlights from that run was Ben Hall's Sk8 Coach. The Coach's job was to whip various pros back into skateboard shape after their attention started to shift elsewhere. This was even turned into an animation for the first King Of The Road video.

Thrasher - June 2004 Volume 24 Number 6

Steaming The Glue.

This is some bizarre Poweredge weirdness by Little Ricky mocking Gleaming The Cube.

Of particular note is the "Elvis had a stinky butt" t-shirt the one character is wearing. Assuming you are of the right age, you probably remember the shirt from small black and white ads for assorted punk band t-shirts that ran in Thrasher. Alongside recognizable names such as Black Flag, Sonic Youth and Bauhaus, was this mysterious shirt putting down Elvis. It made you laugh and left you confused at the same time. What was the shirt for? Was it for a band? What did it mean? Would my mom get mad if I ordered one? The only question with a definite answer was the last one, thus the shirt remains a mystery to me. I bet a bunch of college kids did wear them.

Poweredge - July 1989 Volume 2 Number 6

Sean Cliver #3.

Everything sucks.

I always thought this was drawn by Lance Mountain, but when I scanned it in something didn't seem quite right about the art. I noticed that Sean signed his name on the car door. This probably would have been some of the last stuff Sean did for Powell before changing jobs to work at World Industries and its related companies.

I know some of the scans I'm using from this week and last have been on the internet already. I wanted to present a solid collection of skateboard comics from over the years in one handy package.

Transworld - January 1992 Volume 10 Number 1

Neil Blender #10.

Blender is basically the champ of skateboard comics. In addition to bizarre tales such as this one, which was perfect for the early days of the Alien Workshop, he was also using comics to invent tricks like the Fall Guy and map out doubles routines on the half pipe.

Transworld - October 1991 Volume 9 Number 10

Ed Templeton #15.

Foundation made a catalog in 1996 with comics by Ed Templeton, Gustavo Vargas, Tod Swank and Cleon Peterson. This is Ed's installment of Transistor Sect. A drop bear attacks and gets its ear chopped off.

Where did Transistor Sect #1 appear? I looked around a little and couldn't find it.

Maybe the funniest part in the catalog is the teaser for Toy Machine's Welcome To Hell video which is as follows:

Better than all the Foundation videos put together bungholes!

Nevada.

Nevada was a comic by Gustavo Vargas that ran in Slap from 1994 to 1998. Vargas also contributed some Nevada art to 'zines as well. I got a request for some of his work, which is what ultimately led to the skateboard comic feature. I thought the internet would produce some results as to what Vargas was up to these days, but I couldn't find anything. This surprised me a little as I figured some of the episodes of Nevada would have been scanned by somebody else, but apparently they haven't. Now I'm curious as to what the story is behind all of this. Anybody know?

Phil Shao.
12/28/1973 - 8/22/1998.

Slap - June 1997 Volume 6 Number 6

The Adventures Of Ollie Airwalk.

Who knew the little Airwalk logo guy had a life of his own?

Check out the cartoon versions of Billy Ruff, Lance Mountain and Steve Claar.

The art and story are by Mique.

Transworld - October 1988 Volume 6 Number 5

Wrench Pilot.

Vert Is Dead is going to spend the next two weeks looking at skateboard comics. It was only going to be a week at first, but after a little thought I came up with a list of eight or nine comics and figured to stretch it to two weeks. We love them cartoons.

First up is Andy Jenkin's Wrench Pilot. This was started on the pages of his Bend 'zine and then moved to Transworld for the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wrench Pilot chronicled the adventures of Lettus Bee, who sometimes would wind up in rather surreal situations. He was always representing Foundation and Gullwing. Even though Wrench Pilot came to an end, Lettus is still out there shredding away and sometimes pops up on board graphics or in features about skateboard comics.

Transworld - September 1991 Volume 9 Number 9

Dennis Busenitz #2.

"You think it's hard to get rights for Biggie?"

Get ready to laugh on Monday. Or something like that.

Thrasher - November 2004 Volume 24 Number 11

Peter Ramondetta.

One of the Oklahomies.

Peter was born in Kansas and moved to Oklahoma at a young age. He grew up in Tulsa, got hooked up with the Deluxe crew and has been rolling with them ever since. He's also been with Circa the whole time, too.

The photographer was Gabe Morford.

Thrasher - August 2004 Volume 24 Number 8

Gary Collins.

Gary is from Cincinnati. He rode for a hometown company called Culture and was on flow from Deluxe for a bit. He was also on Consolidated. He is doing Instrument Skateboards and Galaxy Skateshop out of Cincy these days.

Gary was recently injured and acquired some hefty medical bills. His friend Andrew is selling some photo prints to help with the expenses. I put the link in the comments.

"Peter's coming up next."

Andrew Hutchison took the photo.

Thrasher - August 2004 Volume 24 Number 8

Geoff Rowley #2.

The old pole jam.

Thrasher - September 2004 Volume 24 Number 9

Jason Lee #3.

Tincan folklore.

Jason and Chris Pastras got the band back together in 2003 after a couple of years off. Stereo was originally started with backing from Deluxe in the early 1990s, but they took it solo the second time around. They even got Carl Shipman and Matt Rodriguez back on the team for the Stereo Classics division and added Chris Miller. Benny Fairfax, Ben Gore, Kyle Leeper, Raymond Molinar, Clint Peterson and Jack Sabback are the current pro team.

Transworld - April 2004 Volume 22 Number 4

Al Partanen #4.

After Dogtown's successful run in the 1980s, the company came back a few times. There was a version with Eric Dressen and Jason "Wee Man" Acuna at the end of the 1990s. There was also a brief time when Dogtown was distributed by Dwindle in the 2000s. Al would have been riding for them after Illenium ended and before Creature rose from the dead. This is one of those scans where I don't remember the person riding for said company, but I'm a fan of Al so it gets digitized.

One more week of 2004 and then it will be two weeks of skateboard comics to end August. I'm tentatively thinking about switching things up in September a little from how I normally do stuff. I've got a couple ideas written down that sound good and I'm sure they will go over well with everybody.

Thrasher - October 2004 Volume 24 Number 10

Sam Hitz #2.

Shed.

This Deathbox, not to be confused with the original version of Flip, was done by Tod Swank out of his Tum Yeto empire. The company was started sometime after the Dogtown and Z-Boys documentary was released. Most of the team was guys from back in the day and most of the boards had actual shapes. There were also a few younger pool shredders included on the team. Deathbox was only around for two or three years. Sam would be back where he belonged on Creature afterward.

There's going to be a new Creature video out in December.

And in other news, Austyn Gillette's backside nollie to fakie 50-50 to switch backside 180 out is pretty damn cool.

Thrasher - December 2004 Volume 24 Number 12

Ed Templeton #14.

It's good to see Ed skating a lot more lately since he just turned 40.

Michael Burnett was the photographer.

Transworld - November 2004 Volume 22 Number 11

Raymond Molinar.

Polaroid.

Raymond rode for the now departed Popwar. He was on Habitat for a while after that and now rides for Stereo. He also rides Converse. Raymond is into Polaroid photography and has a website devoted to his work.

Thrasher - November 2004 Volume 24 Number 11

Kenny Anderson.

Smooth.

Kenny rode for Planet Earth for most of the 1990s until the company stopped making boards in the early 2000s. He found a spot at Chocolate and has been there ever since. In terms of footwear, he was part of Converse's first intentional foray into skateboard shoes. When they had some financial problems, Kenny rocked Adio for a few years before rejoining the revamped Converse skate program. He is known for riding boards until they are totally worn out instead of setting up a new deck as often as some pros do.

His brother Kyle was also sponsored and had a part in the A-1 Meats video, Dancing in the Dirt.

Transworld - August 2004 Volume 22 Number 8

Aaron Suski #3.

Frontside air attack.

Sean Cronan took the picture.

Transworld - December 2004 Volume 22 Number 12

Grant Taylor.

Full grown man.

Grant was Thrasher's Skater of the Year last year. He's one of those all around rippers that can blast a big air on a ramp or grind a massive handrail. His father is Thomas Taylor, who used to ride for Schmitt Stix, ran a company called Torque and is the owner of long standing skateshop Stratosphere in Atlanta.

The photo is credited to Knell.

Transworld - October 2004 Volume 22 Number 10

Kristian Svitak.

Ohio.

Kristian is from Ohio. He rode for Invisible way back when and turned pro for Black Label. John Lucero even made a variation of the company's logo, changing it to Black Ohio for all the skaters from the Buckeye State that had supported the Label. Kristian currently runs 1031.

Transworld - July 2004 Volume 22 Number 7