Here’s a couple pages from Lane Smith’s 1993 book The Happy Hocky Family. I guess the alliteration in Happy Hocky is more catchy than the Sardonic Hocky Family. – Thanks to MC for the tip.

This is the second and last installment of Fun to Draw Skateboard Action book. Along with the familiar misnomers and weird physics, the second half of the book features a couple of filler pages with some “totally rad” action and an exercise to match the safety equipment with the part of the body that it goes on.

“Skateboard Action” was a popular title for kids books in the 80’s, as this is not the only book to use it. Skateboard Action from the Fun to Draw series was published in 1989 by Hamburger Press. The illustrations are by Ed Francis, so the blame for mislabeling has to go with the author Debra Rowley. It’s got 36 pages jam packed with goofy little fox on a skateboard cartoons and the typical 4 step drawing instructions you find in these things. The illustrator has the human figure basics down but occasionally has difficulty placing the figure in relation to ramps and coping. It’s as if someone went through a skateboard magazine and cut out the skateboarder from each photograph and the illustrator used them as a reference without knowing how they related to the real world. The illustrator’s take on aftermarket 80’s skate graphics and fashion is spot on and worth a chuckle. Part one of the installment after the jump.

As I was adding a cool Dan Wilkes and GSD advert to the archives I remembered that Tracker Trucks has a book coming out chronicling their 40 years of history. You might have watched Jim Gray’s humorous and in-your-face video about it on Facebook. Early reviews are good, but some readers claim that the pages don’t turn. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

It’s Super Frog, or possibly Amazing or Awesome Frog, riding a skateboard in the pages of the Extreme Animals coloring book found in the bargain section of Target. Quite frankly, I expected a whole lot more skateboarding in this book, but there was only this one image. Still, a frog with a gorilla grip, that’s impressive.

A Secret History of the Ollie by Craig Snyder is here, and it’s a whopper. It’s two inches thick and 912 pages! It’s going to take a long time to sift through this for a proper review, but in the meantime you can get yours at OllieBook.com.

Ellray Jakes and the Beanstalk was written by Sally Warner and illustrated by Brian Biggs. There’s one skateboard illustration on the cover, plus two on the inside. When my second grader finishes reading it, I’ll have him write a review. Can Ellray master the moves in time to win his friend back?EllRay Jakes may be the shortest kid in his class, and he may get into trouble from time to time, but he can always count on his best friends Kevin and Corey. But lately, Kevin has been skateboarding with the meanest boy in class. Could EllRay be losing one of his friends?Not giving up without a fight, EllRay asks his older neighbor to show him a few jaw-dropping skateboard moves—like ollies and kickflips. EllRay must learn as many tricks as he can before the secret boys-only third grade skate-off. But will it be enough?

Vancouver BC resident Natalie Porter is a self described Librarian by day and greasy motorbike wrench-monkey by night. She self-published a book titled The History of Women in Skateboarding, which is available in electronic format from Amazon. There are only 56 pages in the Kindle edition, which seems kind of short, but then again it only costs $6. If you have an iPad or Android there is a free Kindle app. I haven’t read it yet, but I imagine I will. At $6 I feel it’s my (pretend) journalist / historian’s duty. Anyone else? Betsy?

You’re looking at the cover of Skateboard Champion, #112 in Edward Packards Choose Your Own Adventure series. And most skateboarder do, choose their own adventures. The kid on the cover chose spandex shorts; a complete set of plastics – noes bone, rails, lapper; tie dye graphics; and counterfeit Nike shoes. The wistful expression on his face? I think the girl in the baseball jersey on the deck just broke up with him. It’s quite a backyard vert ramp though. It looks very 80’s but the book was actually published in 1991, which also looked very 80’s for a while. [Photo: Gamebooks.org]

Disposable, the definitive book on the skateboard graphics is about to be released 10 years after it’s original print date. There is no difference in this edition from the previous edition, but this also marks the first time the book has been in print for 4 years. How do you celebrate this? Well you could buy the book (everyone should have it), or you can buy the Disposable Nike Dunk Disposable shoe. If pre-Hosoimas commercialism has got you down, you can read this Chris Nieratko interview with Sean Cliver on Vice. I’d send you over to Cliver’s blog, but it looks like he hasn’t updated it in a couple of years. He’s active on Twitter though.