“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.

SFGate has posted some pictures in a feature called Four decades of skateboarding in San Francisco. It’s part of their Let’s Go to the Morgue! series where they dig up old photographs from the San Francisco Chronicle. Better versions of the picture, along with a little commentary are on the SFGate blog. The earliest photo dates back to 1964, and the last one is from 1994.

Although it may look like Kentucky, Ken Henning, took these pictures at the zoo (Tiergarten) in Nuremberg, Germany in 1968. Pictured are American GIs from California enjoying a downhill session. Ken says this was the first time he ever saw anyone on a skateboard. The guys in these photos eventually shipped out to Vietnam, and Ken doesn’t know what became of them. Additional photo after the jump. – Thanks to David Brosch for the photos.

It’s October, and Halloween approaches! Here’s Eddie Munster on a skateboard, in model form. I haven’t been able to find any information about this set. The seller claims it was built and professionally assembled and painted by an “award winning make up artist and painter.” There’s no information about the manufacturer or date, or whether it was actually a mass produced item or a custom one-off. Ironically, the biggest hit for “Eddie Munster on skateboard” turns up this t-shirt post on S&A. It’s been on eBay for a while. Priced at about $600, it’ll probably be there for a while longer, mystery award winning makeup artist be damned! Slightly alternate view after the jump.

This 1966 film is available for viewing online, legally at the National Film Board of Canada. Actually, they are showing the 1969 version, which is the English language version instead of the original French version. You can even buy a DVD copy if you want. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely watch this gem. – Thanks to Japakiva for the tip.

Some examples of water-release decals from the 60’s during the crossover of the hot-rod skateboarding fads. For sale now by Socal Speed Shop. I threw the weird surfer dude in there to make the cover image 4 panels. Something about those old head culture illustrators, they loved drawing normal guys whose eyes were bugging out in somewhat normal situations.

This is an advertisement for Jantzen swimwear published int the June, 1966 issue of the Life Magazine. It gives Further credence to the idea that skateboarding was not dead by the end of 1965. Granted, the submission deadline could have been a couple months in advance. Also of note, this advert features 3 future Hall of Fame professional athletes in 3 different disciplines. It has NFL football player Frank Gifford, NBA basketball player Jerry West and NHL hockey player Bobby Hull, all admiring the Jantzen “Chemstrand Sharkskin” fabric wrapped around a skateboard and surfboard.

We’ve seen Eddie Munster on a skatebaord before, and now we can add Grandpa and Herman Munster to the list of super cool tough guys. This painting of Grandpa and Herman riding skateboards was found uncredited on Stumpahnds. I couldn’t find the original source, so if you know where it came from, please leave a comment. UPDATE: It’s a coloring book.

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.

Issue 181 of Sad Sack dates back to September of 1966. It may look like a second rate rip off of Beetle Bailey, but Sad Sack debuted as a comic strip in 1942, while Beetle Bailey started in 1950. It has a 40’s aesthetic though. You know it’s bad if the props have to be labeled, as in the case with the skateboard. It says “loved by Millions” on the cover of this Harvey Comics publication, but the contents are pretty horrible inside. At least Beetle Bailey was sometimes actually funny. Full cover after the jump, and no skateboarding in the contents. I bought this on Ebay from a real skateboard historian, Scott Starr. I didn’t realize he was the seller until after I bought it.