Skate-toon
Spectacular!
It was raining and the Upland Christmas
Classic has been postponed one day, so in-
stead, inside the Pipeline Pro Shop, the
first "End of the Year THRASHER Skate-
Toon Spectacular" took place with contes-
tants from around and all over the place.
Some of the hippest skate artists from
around the known skate plains were
"heave-ho-ing" the illustration equipment in
an attempt to outdraw the next guy. What
matters most here is unrestrained origi-
nality.
As the ink slaughter ensued, the varied
techniques and styles improved. At one
point, everybody was "cross hatching" and
using smoother and longer strokes. Neil
Blender, on one illustration, incorporated a
red felt-tipped pen for an added effect on a
mohawk and some "kat-doo." Chris Miller
countered with some effective, simple out-
lining techniques. Steve Caballero got off
to somewhat of a slow, stick drawing start.
But by the end of the contest, he was
churning out gnarly and radical illustra-
tions.
What was probably the most lurchily rad-
ical display of pen-pushing wizardry was a
toon which came from the fingertips of Gary
Guesnon. It depicts a hairy-legged skater
in a fully committed back-side air.
Neil Blender came back with his interpre-
tation of a bearded skater, curb grinding
and gesturing with a sign of defiance. He
followed it up with another rendering (in
which he used three frames), of a bearded
skater doing a lap-over, only this time the i
skater wore a pony tail and was thinking of
a lady playing a flute. The next frame was a
boy, a cigarette dangled from his mouth. An
expression of "What do I have to do with
this comic?" on his animated, bespectacled
face. The last frame was an excellent im-
pression of Steve Caballero, frontside
nose-grabbing it comfortably over a
shadowed coping.
Steve Caballero
Chris Miller scores some bonus points
for being esoteric. Some of his renderings
involved bowls being shredded, floating in
space, perfect reproductions of the combi-
pool, and partially destroyed bowls being
sessioned.
As the days doodles drew to a close, the
entries were submitted for judgment. After
hours of deliberation in a densely smoke-
filled room, behind closed doors, the win-
ners were decided. Actually it was a full-
blown tie. In the amateur skateboarder
realm, it was between Chris Miller and Gary
Guesnon, and on the pro skateboarder
side, it's a draw between Steve Caballero
and Neil Blender. They all will receive
THRASHER T-shirts.
It becomes hard to distinguish who is the
most rad, the images on the paper reflect a
"bio-purpose from devious minds through
crazed and determined eyes. One look at
the fingers gnarled and scarred by years of
grip-tape abuse, the question arises "Are
these guys artists?" In more than one way,
yes.
M
-M.F.
Chris Miller
METIND
Neil Blender
O PARK
metteler
CLEESH
www
Gary Guesnon
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