May 19, 2011 by Matt DeAngelis VC Johnson is the genius behind the graphics that propelled Powell·Peralta into the stratosphere. His iconic images have inspired countless others to not only draw, but in some cases, to begin skating in the first place. An enigmatic figure, he disappeared off of the radar for almost 20 years until starting to work with Pocket Pistols a few years ago, and now back in his rightful place, Powell·Peralta. MD: So how did skateboard graphics fit into a journey of self exploration? VCJ: They answered to the needs of the soul that chose the body. The soul that inherited, that grabbed the baton in my early 30s had a very different mandate and how it affected the life is fascinating. I can see this in other souls who’ve come to profound turning points in their lives and I’ve shared notes with those souls who have experienced a transformation at the core of being. I come back to the company interested in a different o...
The History of BMX Side Hacks is Founded on Rick's Bike Shop Riders, John Palfreyman and Doug Takahashi. In the early 1970\'s when organized BMX competition was still new and evolving, Motorcycle Motocross was a powerful influence in shaping how this new bicycle focused sport would develop. A great many of BMX\'s earliest riders were already racing motorcycles or in the case of the youngest pedal crossers, they came from families where parents or older siblings were racing motorcycles. It is no surprise then that in this earliest period of BMX, Sidehack racing was a natural progression for those kids that were already racing the modified Stingrays in ways that emulated their heroes from Motocross racing. Sometime around 1972, two young men that were already racing bicycles in the first wave of BMX in Southern California took the initiative and developed a BMX bicycle with a sidehack car with the intention to race it. This was John Palfreyman and Doug Takah...
Virgil Warden Finlay was born and raised in Rochester, New York ; his father, woodworker Warden Hugh Finlay, died at age 40 in the midst of the Great Depression , leaving his family (widow Ruth and two children, Jean and Virgil) in straitened circumstances. By his high school years, Virgil Finlay exercised his passions for art and poetry, and discovered his lifelong subject matter through the pulp magazines of the era--science fiction, via Amazing Stories (1927), and fantasy and horror, via Weird Tales (1928), beginning to exhibit at the age of 16. By age 21 he was confident enough in his art to send six pieces, unsolicited, to editor Farnsworth Wright at Weird Tales . Once Wright determined that such detailed work would transfer successfully to relatively rough paper the magazine used (they were called "pulps" for a reason), he began buying Finlay's work. Finlay's illustrations debuted in the December 1935 issue of...