Laugh Comics Volume 2, #6 was published in 1988. There’s no skateeboaridn on the cover, unless you count the teaser: “The mighty Archie Art Players star in the suspense thriller ‘Skateboard Scandal’.” And what is that scandal? Someone is sabotaging all the skateboards in Britain in a James Bond parody starring Archie as James Bland and Betty as Miss Henny Penny. Veronica is the Bond-girl (Bland Girl) Lord Cedric’s daughter Pamela. There’s also an ad for Archie posters (he’s on a skateboard in one of them) and an Olympic Sales Club ad where you can earn a Variflex skateboard.

I just added two Chicago based zines to the 80’s zine gallery, which I may have to rename because after scanning it I realized that Brian Sluggo’s 312 zine might actual be from 1990. The other is Chi-Town Shred #7, which marks the 4th issue of Chi-Town Shred that I’ve uploaded so far, with a couple more to come later.

I added adverts from Skate Action Magazine to the Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. Skate Action was a UK based magazine that first came out in late 1988 and ran for a couple years. In issue #13 the title on the cover was changed to “SK8 Action,” but the inside pages still said “Skate Action.” I have issue #1, #5 and #14 in my collection, thanks to Steve from Jersey (UK). My copy of #1 is missing the cover spread and another 4 page spread. These 3 issues all have 56 pages. The contents are mostly color but there is a substantial amount go black and white pages in there. It’s heavily focused on the UK scene. The issues I have a heavy Deathbox presence, the Deathbox that later morphed into Flip, not Tod Swank’s early 2000’s company. This brings the grand total of adverts in the gallery to over 1300!

I added Bodyslam #5 (1987) and the May/June 1988 issue of Focus to the 80’s Skate Zine Gallery. Bodyslam was published by our friend Mark Conahan. You can actually buy a perfect bound compendium of the original 5 Bodyslam issues. I’ve got one, so should you. These two zines offer completely different approaches. Bodyslam is photocopied pure personal expression, while Focus is printed and aspires to be a “real” magazine. There are 63 zines in the gallery now. I was panicking earlier this year because I thought I had lost my box of zines, but I just found them. These are from the collection of Will Heesp.

I added advertisements from the first two issues of Homeboy Magazine, (AKA Club Homeboy). Homeboy was first published towards the end of 1987 and lasted a grand total of 7 issues before morphing into Dirt magazine. It was oversized and had a glossy cover with mostly color newsprint inside. The photography and layout of the mag was pretty good right out of the gate, but it had one major flaw in the eyes of most skateboarders, it covered BMX as well as skateboarding. I only added the 32 skateboard related (or non-BMX) adverts in these two issues. Skateboarding graced the covers but the advertising skewed heavily towards BMX by about 4-1. Spike Jonze was on the editorial staff, as was Andy Jenkins and Mark “Lew” Lewman. A pretty decent magazine with a good vibe, but so much BMX… Check out Homeboy magazine ads in the Vintage Skate Mag ad gallery.

I just added two issues of Skate Life generously donated from reader Will Heesp, some 5 years ago. Better late than never. Funnily enough, I skated with Mark Conahan last night and he told me that he once sold Will a Datsun pickup in the 80’s whose ignition was in such bad shape that it had a screwdriver instead of a key. In other plate-of-shrimp news, one of the tales featured in an issue of Skate Life mentions that Dave Tobin lost a $100 bill and the keys to the van on a road trip to the Chicago Blowout. I was at that NSA contest, but wouldn’t meet Dave (or Mark) until I moved to Portland circa Y2K. Skate Life was based out of Newburryport, MA, and has the distinction of being one of the rare zines that doesn’t seem to include any issue number or title, so it’s hard to tell what order they came out. Check out Skate Life in the 80’s Zine gallery.

I had a brief not-very-real skateshop that I ran out of my bedroom in the late 80’s. I sent out a bunch of requests for wholesale catalogs and tried to open some accounts. I put together an order based on requests from locals and what I could get ahold of, I ordered some staples like mounting hardware and a roll of grip tape, etc… One of things I got was a Nash catalog. Why get a Nash catalog when the product was so poor? For shits and giggles! It’s one of the few things I kept during the great purge of 1999. Yes, I deeply regret throwing out the rest of it. Joe Cool and Mad could have been their own separate posts, but some of the products appeared on the same page, so click through if you want to see more of Snoopy and Alfred E. Neuman.

I love a good, weird and crappy skateboard, especially when it’s from a foreign country. To look at these you would think they came from the Eastern Bloc. But no, they came from an Italy and a man named Icaro Olivieri. He was apparently quite an innovator in hockey, and a manufacturer of all kinds of sporting goods under the brand name of GIOCA, which translates to “Play.” I stumbled across one of these while looking for Tres Assi boards. It looks like Gioca might have made real skateboards at some point, but I couldn’t find any picutres outside of the advert in the bottom right corner.

GSD has released the Best of Skate Fate Too, available in hardcover and softcover. I already have the first volume and I’ll be stoked to have the second one on the way. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into… you know.. all this vintage skateboard culture.

Valterra may have been a second rate skateboard company but they did make some memorable boards. Someone in the art department had a pretty good sense of humor. The Total Blast deck from 1989 really pops in some of these color ways. This is simultaneously pretty bad and also pretty good, depending on your mood.