“Just for Kids” is a skateboarding storyline in Teenage Hotrodders, Volume 1, #14, published September of 1965. All the drag racers, sprint car drivers and motor sports enthusiasts have cool helmets that look appropriate for the era, or an A-Ha music video. There’s plenty of talk of “Nationals” and championship qualifiers. it seems to be aimed at boys old enough to drive though, because it contains an entire page of sage, but vague driving advice in space usually reserved for talk about characters and upcoming issues. The lettering is strange too. It almost appears like a monospaced handwritten computer font, but obviously isn’t. Still, it’s so badly spaced and placed in some of the sapeech bubbles that it looks mechanical. Just for Kids features a characters actually named Motors Mchorn and Shifty Gears, ao maybe Teenage Hotrodders is aimed at kids who are old enough to drive, but aren’t quite that bright, or maybe it was distributed by the Charlton Comics Group in states where the driving age is 14. Then again, there are other ads for being the life of the party, selling greeting cards for extra cash, and learning to play guitar the Chet Atkins way.

The Police Academy movie series started in 1984 and the last one came out in 1994, which puts this 1990 Police Academy comic book out around the time of Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, which came out in 1989. That’s right, they cranked out the first 6 movies in 6 years! Turns out they are reviving it once gain, with a new sequel scheduled to come out in 2014. If you expect the quality of this Marvel Comics title to show the same commitment to the craft that the movies do, you be entirely right. It’s pretty bad. In fact, the frame above is about the only thing interesting in the whole story, which only takes up part of Police Academy Volume 1, Number 6, published in February of 1990. I don’t think Lance Mountain is in this one.

It’s the Cracked Guide to Skateboarding, published in the September, 1976 issue of Cracked Magazine. As a kid, not knowing the history of which came first, I still somehow managed to grok Cracked as a somewhat inferior imitator of Mad Magazine. That didn’t stop me from pouring over each issue I came in contact with. I’ve always associated Mad and Cracked with trailer homes at the lake where my cousin kept his stash hidden from plain sight in his closet. His mother would literally sneer when she’d see us reading them, and she often disapproved vocally of “that trash,” which lent them a small fraction of an illicit quality usually reserved for Playboy and the likes. Sure, there were the frequent Bill Ward illustrations featuring out of place dangerously endowed females, but for the most part it was just adolescent gags and smart-assed comments. Issue 135 of Cracked tackles skateboarding in typical Cracked fashion.

I made some 7 color, screen printed reproductions of an advert for Nash skateboards Park Rider model. These ads appeared in comic books around 1978. I thought I had posted my copy here, but I must have been thinking of this old Bullwinkle ad instead. The idea of printing these has been in the back of my mind for a long time. I went as far as working on the separation file before sitting on it for a year. Earlier this week I got it in my head that I should try to crank these out in time for the Above Coping art show benefit at Commonwealth Skateboarding in Portland tonight. On Tuesday I called RC Screen Shop, luckily they had four screens stretched that the original buyer never picked up. They were large enough that I could burn two colors side by side on one screen, so I decided to go for it. After a few sweaty late evenings (cutting it down to the wire) I have a finished print run. If you buy one at Commonwealth, all the proceeds will go directly to Above Coping. Original advert and more after the jump.

The age old story of an insanely wealthy boy and his dog’s misadventures on a time traveling skateboard. How a comic book character as weak as Richie Rich got a spinoff title is a mystery. Richie must have been pretty popular. The number 2 issue of Richie Rich & the Dollar Dog, (February of 1978) has a story titled “Skateboard Dog.” With the bar already raised so high by the title, you’d think the story would fail to measure up, and you’d be correct. I think every issue of Richie Rich and his affiliated crew is worthy of the title “Number 2.” You can check out this sad tail [sic] after the jump. Some of the pages proved difficult to lay flat, but I didn’t take apart the issue for scanning in fear of destroying it’s obvious (huge) money making potential. I think I paid $3.50 for this 15 year old comic. In 15 more years I may double my investment! Eat that, Richie Rich.

It’s 1978 and the Rocket Racer is back in Volume 1 #182 of The Amazing Spiderman. I haven’t seen the first appearance of the Rocket Racer, but the storyline mimics the ’90s animated Spiderman series, except the Rocket Racer in the cartoon is a teenager, while the original Rocket Racer is drawn more like a full grown man. The Rocket Racer has a skateboard that allows him to defy gravity. Not only does it stick to walls, but it magically adheres the riders feet to the board while riding vertical surfaces. Rocket uses his skateboard to perpetrate crimes to pay his mother’s or gandmother’s medical bills. It’s the age old story of a good hearted person forced into a life of crime. The pages with skateboarding in them are available after the jump, as well as the entire episode from the 1994 animated series.

I’ll join you too… The official title of this publication is “Archie’s Girls Betty & Veronica.” Archie’s been skating since the 60’s. His previous appearances here have only cover-only affairs, but this issue (#250 October, 1976) actually has a skateboarding story inside. Archie gets away with murder as far as the ladies go. I don’t know if Betty and Veronica have ever wised up, but you’d think they would have ditched him. Veronica always seemed more appealing to me when I could stomach to read Archie, but in this comic I’m squarely on Betty’s side. Turns out Betty is a good skater. She’s so good that she’s giving pointers to the guys in the gang, who are doting on her purely because of her skills and not because of her feminine wiles. Big surprise, Veronica is jealous of the attention. I wonder if this the origin of the term “Skate Betty?” Sit back and enjoy the “Wheel Zeal” and let me know if you what the heck the”Shu-Fly” variation of the Christie is. UPDATE: The Wheel Zeal title gets used again in a 1999 Betty & Veronica skateboarding story.

This is Richie Rich #163 published in February of 1978 by Harvey Publications. As a child, I never understood the appeal of Richie Rich. Why would anyone want to read about a kid who was absurdly rich unless he was also Batman? In 1978, Richie is on the forefront of the novelty skateboard trend with this dollar sign shaped deck. He’s got bling too – that looks like some sort of gem covered mounting hardware. “With a model like this, I’ll never be skate-bored!” Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk…

Catawiki has a collection of covers from the Jinty comic book that contain the Concrete Surfer stories. Jinty ran from the mid 70’s to early 80’s. It was written fro girls, and most of the issues had a Sci-fi or supernatural theme. Somehow, skateboarding fits in that theme too. Several Jintys with skateboard covers after the jump. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

It’s September of 1967. You’re a horny adolescent boy and the Playtex Bra adverts aren’t due out in the paper for a couple of days. What are you going to do? Why, buy a copy of Henry’s Mod Teen Adventures of course! It’s jam packed with lots of quickly drawn buxom girls in short skirts bending over, falling down, and getting tangled up at the slightest provocation. SAT question and answer: Henry’s Mod is to the Rolling Stones as Archie is to the Beatles. The insides are not nearly as sophisticated as the cover. Interesting that “MOD” looks an awful lot like “MAD” as far as typography. There’s a guy on a sailboard on the cover, but that’s the only skateboard you’ll see in this mod, mod world. I unknowingly bought this from Scott Starr. The first thing I did after receiving it was accidentally get the scotch tape from the protective bag stuck on the comic while taking it out. Full goobered up cover after the jump.