Best of Skate Fate

Holy Cow (skates) It’s the legendary GSD and his seminal zine Skate Fate. I’ll bet he hates being called legendary.GSD is celebrating the 30 (!) year anniversary of Skate Fate by releasing a 320 page best of volume, which you can pick up for a reasonable price at Blurb, except the shipping (fixed pirce from Blurb) is pretty steep. Anyone want to go in on a joint order? Press release and sample pages after the jump.

Unleashed upon the skateboarding world from 1981 to 1991, Skate Fate was the first and longest-running homemade, photocopied skate zine. Published by GSD and jam-packed with hilarious interviews, corrosive articles, breath-snatching photography, vibrant artwork, twisted cartoons, clever ads (both real and fake) and the latest news, quotes and slang, it was all spontaneously laid out with ultra-vivid graphic design then urgently slammed into the mailboxes of fellow enthused skaters and zine makers all over the United States.

Just in time for the 30th anniversary, GSD unveils The Best of Skate Fate, a mega-thick, 320-page, stark black-and-white book bursting with the most crucial content culled from the pages of nearly all 76 issues of this legendary zine. It’s delivered to you fresh from the pre-computer era, when pens, pencils, paper, glue, tape, triangles and T-squares were the tools of the trade. Scanned directly from the original master layouts, it all looks better than ever!

Exclusive full-length interviews delve into the minds of skateboarding icons Neil Blender, Steve Caballero, Steve Claar, Bill Danforth, Claus Grabke, Jeff Grosso, Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Marty Jimenez, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Corey O’Brien and Gavin O’Brien, Chris Miller, Stacy Peralta, Rob Roskopp, Billy Ruff, Skate Rat, John Smythe (Craig Stecyk), Kevin Staab and Tod Swank.

Articles like “Xerox Scuzz” and “A Sketchy History of Skate Fate” explore the 1980s skate zine phenomenon in detail, while Neil Blender’s cartoons featuring Mark Coonson and friends will leave you paralyzed by laugh attacks. Galleries of Skate Fate covers, logos, hand-drawn ads, a Skate Fate collector’s guide and so much more wrap it all up. Now is the perfect time to crack open The Best of Skate Fate–a vital, surreal window into the most creative era skateboarding has ever known.

Note: This is a softcover edition. A hardcover version is coming soon! The pages of this book are printed on non-glossy, cream colored (off white) paper.

Buy it at Blurb.

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Discussion

7 thoughts on “Best of Skate Fate

  1. Stoked on this!

  2. Only 7.50 to ship to Canada!
    Stoked!

  3. How much? I’ll go in on a group order if its reasonable…

    1. I think the book is a 16.95, and shipping is another 7 and change, which is pretty steep, and I think a fixed cost charged by Blurb. I know from what MC gets for his books and having investigated the process myself, this type of printing is not a cheap as you’d like. I doubt GSD clears more than $5 off this.

      SO… shiipping is $7.99, if we went in together we’d each end up spending about $21. You up for it?

      1. Welsh Pete on August 5, 2011 - Reply

        Ahhh, that is a little more than I want to pay…

  4. boneless jones on August 7, 2011 - Reply

    thnx for this info!

    that thing is beefy @ 320pgs,
    17bux is CHEEP!!!!!!!

    damn, this is cool,
    gotta order it up when i get my next unemployment check, hellish heshfest, oh yes. . .

  5. Just received my copy via Fed Ex. Was ordered exactly 7 days ago, 5 days later it was shipped because from what I understand unless you order 300 or more the books are printed to order. So to make a long story even longer, my copy made it from the West Coast to the mid-Atlantic region in 3 days. Beat that U.P.S.! Can’t wait to dig in and start reading!

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