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?

This is a panel that originally appeared in the Adventure Time comic issue 15, released in April of 2013. I found it in volume 4 of the omnibus edition. To my knowledge, Skateboard Princess has only appeared in this single panel of the comic book series and has yet to make an appearance in the animated series. OK, so it’s really just Princess Bubblegum referring to herself in the 3rd person as Skateboard Princess, but the wiki treats her as a distinct character. The princesses in this story helped Finn and Jake recover from a spell cast by perennial jerk Magic Man. He’s simultaneously one of the most annoying and enjoyable characters in the Adventure Time world. Speaking of frustrating jerks, whoever made the decision to eliminate show-specific sections of the Cartoon Network website is clearly related to Magic Man. I wonder how Pendleton Ward feels about it.

Here’s a trio of advertisements featuring Tony Hawk that range in date from 1999 to 2005. All of them are for non-skateboarding products and were taken from assorted comic books. Take what you want, but eat what you take.

Tony Alva talks about what it means to be a renegade both in youth and as a middle aged adult. Part of their Renegades series, this is original content from Playboy Magazine, which seems to be trying to reinforce itself as lifestyle guide for aspiring, hip, professional men, just as it did in the 60’s. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t looked at a Playboy since, you know, shortly after the Internet was invented. – via Eric Smith on Facebook.

This commercial for the 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander GTV features two interesting things; A mother nagging her son to wear his helmet and a soundtrack by The Faction! I would have been more amazed by this had it not been for the fact that bands like the Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the Buzzcocks have already appeared (via soundtrack) in commercials. Actual skate rock for a skateboarding scene in a commercial? I guess that is unexpected. [Source: Ispot.tv – via Doc SkateRock]

I hope everyone gets the skateboard they asked for for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or whatever you celebrate. This is a still from a short sequence in a new animated Christmas special called Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.

Empty, anxiety, surprise, encouragement. All of these emotions can be found in these Eurosport station identity spots from 2011. You can watch just the skateboarding bit, but if you have a bit of time to kill you might enjoy some of the overly enthusiastic, awkward english voiceovers featured in the behind the scenes clip. It’s almost like watching an english language release of a Japanese cartoon, except filled with marketing talk. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Station ID for France 3, one of France’s state owned television channels. It actually dates back to 2013, and so French readers, I’m disappointed in you for not letting me know earlier. – Thanks to Nick Dawson for the tortue de la planche à roulettes.

Alf’s Super Hit Parade from 1990. The series ended in 1990, but someone in Germany still thought this was a good idea. Alf is rocking a state of the art boom box and a state of 1984 skateboard. Those pads have cats on them too, which would be like a non-vegetarian person skating with cows or chickens on their kneepads. Alf may not be as prolific as Bart Simpson, so it’s a good thing I’ve got a tag for Alf, because otherwise you’d have to sift through every post with “half pipe” in it if you were doing a search. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.

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?