This week’s installment of Saturday Starrs is a 1977 Today Show piece on the new and booming skatepark industry. The report was filed by Irving R. Levine, and is about as dry sounding as it gets. It’s funny to hear about the owners of Skatopia expecting to take in twice the cost of building the park ($300k) in the first year. It mentions the first skatepark in the world being built in Florida, but it doesn’t say what the name is. The guy who built it Charles Cromie, says a skatepark operator can expect to recoup a $175K investment and own the land in 18 months. Levine said 50 skateparks were built in the first year, and at the time there were 100 more planned or in construction. What he doesn’t mention is that 125 will be gone in two years. It’s full of excellent terminology like “radical” and “water surfing.” For now it’s an industry going full speed ahead, and not at all worried that it might be headed (wait for it..) for a financial tumble. Good stuff.

F-Word! This took me even longer to do. I was even looking at some of his body positions in previous comics instead of scribbling from scratch. And, yes, I copied and pasted his head on the voodoo doll directly from another comic. And no, don’t worry. I promise I am not going to make this a regular feature. Sure is fun though.

No, this is not just an excuse to see how many classic post punk album covers I can (in this case, poorly) Photoshop that yellow skateboard into. There’s a community meeting for Miami Beach residents about renovating and enhancing some public facilities. One thing on the agenda is a “new cultural multi-purpose skate plaza.” No thanks, I prefer my skate plazas to be culture-free. Based on the wording, it’s not evident that they know what they are talking about. Miami skaters should go to the meeting on Tuesday, July 22nd at 6pm in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden “Butterfly Room” on 2000 Convention Center drive. Flyer after the jump. – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

Ladies, get your skateboard thong from the London France Underpants Company, who have been “Sewing panties for the Las Vegas Showgirls for YEARS! And…Now sewing panties for The Bunnies at The World’s Only Playboy Club!” This sort of thing would be a huge hit at Union Jack’s. And no, I don’t have a picture of anyone modeling them. You make think these are ridiculous, but rumor has it that other skate thongs exist.

This is exactly the kind of thing that I don’t want diluted by the mere presence of a bunch of skateboard comics. It’s a Beetlejuice Magic Slate with a picture of Beeltejuice on a skateboard. What, no coffin shape? Looks like he’s riding switch. It can be yours for a mere $58 ?!?! You can see the whole thing after the jump, but it’s actually smaller than the shot above.

Somehow I missed this one, so I’m posting these out of order. This is actually the mispelled issue that was the precursor to “The Correctly Spelled Issue.” So maybe I should call it “Preperation S.” Excerpted from issue 2 “Interview: My DAD”: AAA – When did you first not skate? D- I’d say about June of 1977 AAA – Who didn’t get you into it? D- A friend from work. He didn’t have a board and I didn’t try it. AAA – What was the first board you didn’t own? D- I think it was a ProFormer with Trackers and Road Riders That sums up the sense of humor. Brilliantly juvenile. Also, this is the “Color issue.” The cover has about a quarter inch of blue ball point pen scribbled on it. From the collection of Sonny Robertson, check out Preparation S #2.

Pointless Pics. This is Gabe Stoltz transferring from roof to roof. Does that count as street skating? I just noticed he’s got two different pant legs. Click to enlarge.

See, I can do this just as well, if not better. Mark who? But seriously folks… It’s been a long run, and I’m sad to see the H.O.M.O.S. go. This stupid comic took me half a day to make.

A picture is worth a thousand blah blah blah…

Here’s a few belated pics of the opening of the new skatepark in San Francisco taken by Hidehiko Fujiwara.