06.01.10: I have the keys to the kingdom again! But having nothing interesting to add here. Most anything of passable interest I may be seeing can now be found on the (blech) "blog" mentioned below. Carry on.

11.20.09: Okay, so I did it. I went ahead and started a (blech) "blog." Now I understand what Natas meant when he didn't like the title "Big Brother" and wished he could use a soundbyte instead of having to say it himself. Seriously, it pains me. But what's done is done and here it is:

http://disposabletheblog.typepad.com/disposable_random_essays

This is where I'll be paying to continue my obsession with skateboard graphics and the history thereof. Funny, huh? Let's just say I'm not King Shit when it comes to golden business ideas. Anyway, check out these online appendices. One person even suggested printing them out and tucking them inside the books.

09.15.09: I've mentioned on occasion that I've more or less lost functional control of this site. And it's true. I can't update the galleries, the forum is mostly a spam magnet that deep-sixes my inbox with bogus registrations from pill-hawkers and smut-peddlers, and this news feed is circa 2004, as is my ability to do anything remotely fun with it. All that said ... I might be looking for a more functional online home for Disposable to keep things alive on a more frequent and fun basis. (I get the feeling I'm talking to myself while I type these things ... why do people do this? Weird.)

Anyway, a couple new bullet points for Disposable going-ons: 1) The Disposable Skateboard Bible is still in stock over at Gingko Press and appears to be selling fine (thanks to everyone that bought a copy); 2) Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art is no longer in stock over at Ginkgo Press, but they've since decided to not only do another small softcover printing (9th or 10th, I'm losing track) but a small run of HARDCOVER copies as well—that's right, HARDCOVER. The last hardcover edition was released in 2005, I think, from Blitz and Concrete Wave Editions, and was limited to 1000 copies. This latest 2009 edition will be Gingko's first crack at the hardback and limited to 250 copies, so if you're interested in obtaining a copy you'll have to act fast when it becomes available around November or December 2009 (if all goes well in printing and shipping land).

06.30.09: A couple of things... 1) The Disposable Skateboard Bible is now officially in the warehouse over at Gingko Press and shipping to retailers; 2) I've been neglecting this "news" section and posting most of my updates under the "Disposable" topic in the forum (see news post below); 3) I'll be doing my first "official" book signing on the evening of July 9th at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA, in conjunction with its "Full Deck" skateboard show; and 4) I'll soon have copies of the book in hand to autograph and sell. Check the forum for further details on all of the above!

06.04.09: Just a quick heads up to say that the "Disposable Skateboard Forum" is now fully operational and ready to crash. Well, hopefully not that, but it's going, going somewhere. Click on the "Forum" tab in the NAV and follow the signposts from there (special thanks to UKoldschool for his efforts in building this aspect of the site).

06.01.09: It is printed! Advance copies of The Disposable Skateboard Bible have already found their way stateside and have debuted at the recent Book Expo in New York City. In other news, my good friend and the book's designer, Eric Simpson, recently wrote this "behind the scenes" article about his experiences working on both Disposable books. Check the story out here:

http://ofad.org/projects/making-disposable-books

04.27.09: Yesterday I learned thatBernie Tostenson passed away earlier this month. This was strange and unsettling news as I still have an email from Bernie in my inbox. Weird how the Internet can become a haunted house of sorts. Anyway, Bernie was responsible for several innovative silk-screening techniques, most importantly the "tilt jig," as well as some of the most influential skateboard graphics in the early '80s, most strikingly the Sims Christian Hosoi Rising Sun. You will be missed Bernie, but your legacy lives on. R.I.P.

While exchanging emails for the new book, Bernie sent me this photo of him from the Brand-X days standing next to a trade show booth flat.

04.08.09: After months of being locked out of my own site, I've finally managed to get back into it—and just in time. This past weekend the files to The Disposable Skateboard Bible were shipped off to the printer, thus beginning the final proofing and printing process. If all goes well the book should be back in the states and ready to ship in July 2009, but for now here's the general marketing pitch in third person:

THE SECOND COMING
In this follow-up to Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art, Sean Cliver has assembled what is undoubtedly the most comprehensive visual overview of skateboards in print. In addition to board galleries showcasing everything from the steel- and clay-wheeled planks to the modern day 7-ply popsicles, The Disposable Skateboard Bible continues where the first book left off, featuring all-new anecdotes from the likes of V. Courtlandt Johnson, Mark Gonzales, CR Stecyk III, Rodney Mullen, Mark "Gator" Rogowski, George Powell, Mike Vallely, Tony Hawk, Art and Steve Godoy, Bruce Walker, Christian Cooper, Lance Mountain, Greg Evans, Steve Caballero, Chuck Hults, Claus Grabke, Rich Harbour, Cris Dawson, Skip Engblom, Russ Howell, Stacy Peralta, David Hackett, PD, Tony Magnusson, Don Brown, Francesco Albertini, David Bergthold, Jim Gray, Steve Steadham, Bernie Tostenson, and more, as well as an in-depth look at the nostalgic madness that is skateboard collecting. Hardcover; 368 full-color pages.

EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE IS OLD AND ONLY MAYBE SOMEWHAT INTERESTING

10.04.2007: I'll be the first to admit I've been nothing but a lazy bastard when it comes to updating this site. The gallery has become a neglected wasteland, the forum is an outright pipe dream, and the last time I hit the news was in May. Weak. Anyway, the new Gingko Press edition of Disposable hit the stores in July. You can pretty much find it anywhere in the world now, even in places like Chile, which is pretty cool to think. From what I've heard it's selling pretty good, too, like a brand new book, not a reissue, which confirms my suspicion that it never got a fair shake in distribution.

05.09.2007: Well, I've just received an advance copy of Disposable from my new publisher - Gingko Press - and I have to say I'm pretty damn happy with it. Especially with the newly packaged in DVD feature disc and 16 more pages of bonus material. Just kidding, although I'm certain a few might not find that funny in the least. Anyway, the book has been out of print now for almost a year (it sold out from Blitz in July/August of last year), and I've been sweating bullets trying to get it back in global circulation. But come July, the bulk shipment will be in and winging themselves back around the globe to a variety of new retail outlets. Since I've received a few random emails, PMs, and whatnot about this latest edition, I'll assemble a FAQ list here and try to cover the bases in one fell swoop:

So what exactly is this, a new edition or just another printing?
Well, to be precise, it's a bit of both really. The new publisher wanted to distinguish the book from its past incarnations (Concrete Wave Editions, thank you very much), so a few cosmetic and structural changes were made. Technically, this would still be the book's 5th printing in softcover, though.

Cosmetic? What's that mean, like lipstick and shit?
No, nothing so literal, just some color swaps to the book title on the cover, a black instead of white spine, and a revert to the original back cover as it first appeared way back in November 2004 with the full bleed battered Lucero X2 photo. The "hard sell" copy went into and onto the book's cover flaps, which serve to sturdy the whole thing up in general.

Seriously, cut to the chase: what'd you go changing around on the inside? In other words, how'd you go about fucking us over this time around. You know we've all been suckered down this path before...
I can only offer so many mea culpas, but what the heck, here's one more: mea culpa. Okay, now the truth is I didn't really change anything at all in the guts of the book, EXCEPT for the deletion of a certain collector's name from a certain $10,000.00 board that is no longer in his possession. And I may have corrected a few odd release dates here or there or an artist's name. But that's it. Well, almost. There's this "Easter Egg" on the inside back cover flap for anyone who wants to know "more about the author" or what his stupid face looks like with a cleanly manicured mustache (not to mention the topless factor). All in good mocking fun of the stuffy author shots.

While we're at it, how many copies have sold to date?
Lumping the soft and hardcovers together, I think it was in the neighborhood of 14,000-15,000 copies, give or take for promo and such. I'd wager that 75 percent of those were sold/distributed directly to the skateboard marketplace - in other words, it never really got beyond that market, aside from a few boutique stores here and there and Urban Outfitters. I gotta imagine there are several thousand guys that once skated in the 70s and 80s that might enjoy the book if they happened upon it somewhere else other than a skateshop (since they haven't been in one of those in two decades), hence my interest in working with a publisher geared to that kinda distribution.

What's this about you working on another book?
Yes, much to my wife's good humor, for the past 10 months I've been working on another follow-up book of sorts. This one will be more "collector" based, and my main intent is to showcase a big gallery of deck images from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and just a smattering of the 00s. I've pillaged/shot a number of heretofore unseen collections and archives, so I promise lots of nice new eye candy, but I'm also using this as an opportunity to tie up a few loose ends from the first book, with quotes and stories from artists that were either MIA or just didn't fit in. Incidentally, if anyone has something they think I might be interested in, please contact me for photo specs if you're not in the immediate SoCal area (I'm done in the NorCal region...no more roadtrips for me). I can't guarantee I'll use all or any of the shots, because I'm continually finding new stashes of material. In the end, photo quality and/or colors will win out.

3.10.2006: I should probably clarify something about the updates made to the fourth printing of the book. The revisions mainly consist of corrections to inaccurate artist credits in previous editions; a few updated deck photos (for example, a better example of the Blind Henry Sanchez Beauty and the Beast board); and new quotes from Francesco Albertini, the former H-Street artist, and James Levesque, the original Agent Orange bassist. In no way do these updates compare to those made with the second edition - this is just out-patient cosmetic surgery for lack of a better definition. Someone did put forth the idea I post up downloadable PDFs of these corrections so they can be slipped into previous printings. I'm not opposed to doing this - it is indeed a good idea - but I may not be able to post them anytime soon due to current workload obligations.

08.12.2005: Not much to say. I've been swamped with work of late and unable to make any serious additions to the galleries portion of this site. In fact, the last thing I was able to do was add a few rare Powell Peralta boards to the VCJ and Kevin Ancell galleries, courtesy of Larry Ransom. Someday I'll get around to loading more deck images, though.05.08.2005: Quick update to just say thanks to all those who stopped by the Tailtap booth to pick up a Disposable book or shirt. Turned out to be a decent afternoon and I managed to get my own book signed by a few old pros in attendance, most notably Steve Olson, Jesse Martinez, Lance Mountain, and Paul Constantineau.

Above: Steve Olson doing the reverse autograph thing.

05.05.2005: Jim Phillips just sent me these photos that he had taken at last week's book signing. There was no particular reason that Todd Francis and Todd Bratrud wound up in the back of the signing bus...the seats just came out that way, I guess.

Above left: Rare group action shot featuring the two Todd's in back of everyone else.
Above right: Phillips Studios alumni shot with Mojo, Jim, and Jimbo.

05.02.2005: Okay, so the date has come and gone for the San Jose signing and I have to say it went off much better than I expected. Then again, I'm a pessimistic optimist, so the glass is always only slight more than half empty in my world. Anyway, almost 70 books were sold within the designated hour, and numerous people made the trek to the very southside of San Jose, among them being several skateboard collectors I've had contact with over the years- including the now legendary Got_Wood - and I'd like to extend a word of thanks for doing so. Also want to thank Jason Strubing at Skate Works for hosting the event and Jai Tanju for making sure everyone had a little Coke mixed with their red wine. Below is a haphazard selection of photos that were thankfully taken by my wife, otherwise I wouldn't have anything visual at all to spruce up this news bit:

Above left: The crowd as seen from the perspective of Steve Caballero, myself, and Kevin Marburg.
Above right: Sean Cliver and Steve Caballero doing the scribbled name thing.

Above left: Jim Phillips Sr. alongside Jimbo Phillips. A fraction of Todd Francis may be seen just to the left of Jim's head, conveniently situated beneath his Real "Texas Chainsaw Pigfucker" board.
Above right: Expanded view of the table with Johnny Mojo.

Above (left to right): Jimbo Phillips, Jim Phillips Sr., Johnny "Mojo" Munnerlyn, Todd Francis, Todd Bratrud, Sean Cliver, Kevin Marburg, and Steve Caballero.

04.01.2005: Well, someone finally called me out. The past couple months have been nothing short of nutty on eBay with regard to a curious price spike in old skateboards and, as much as I hate to admit it, the book—and a few wayward promo articles for it—may be to blame. It was a double-edged sword, I guess, because on one hand there's the kick in the gut for inviting random new collectors to join the fray; on the other, it's the fanciful chance of luring out more of these rare boards from the garages and storage closets where they'd been all but forgotten about. Anyway, for a condensed version of the year's obscene first quarter, check out the latest eBay report on skateandannoy.com

03.31.2005: Just a word of thanks to Tim Steenstra over at spyhillskates.com for contributing a smattering of photos from his past and present collection—especially so since they all came pre-clipped and shot to spec. These additions have subsequently been posted in the Jim Phillips, Bernie Tostenson, V. Courtlandt Johnson, Pushead, Johnny Mojo, John Lucero, and Wes Humpston galleries. Thanks again, Tim!

03.10.2005: Advance copies of the second edition have been seen and it looks good - damn good. Normally I'm not a horn blower, but I have to toot a bit about this because Disposable now looks like I'd originally hoped it would. Beefier paper stocks and 16 pages of expanded/additionalmaterial, which includes original, never before seen VCJ concept sketches, rare Powell Peralta prototypes, new quotes/text from Don Brown, Rodney Mullen, Bernie Tostenson, Jim Knight, Jim Phillips, and Christian Hosoi, and a slew of new decks that I'd never have found if the book hadn't been published in the first place. Look for it in skate shops come mid-April sometime.

12.02.2004: So yeah, the book is out now and it seems to be fairly well received. Early reports have all been favorable and several mail order businesses sold out within the first couple days of having it in stock. Now it's just a matter of building the "word of mouth" power, because this thing ain't headed to mainstream bookshelves until very later 2005. So please pass the word on or at least kick your local skate shop owner's ass into stocking a few.

11.23.2004: It would be a bit of an understatement to say I'm less than comfortable with having my photo taken, and here's the visual proof. I don't know what's going on with me here, but I really do look overly serious and constipated about skateboard art. Very strange. The only thing I'm really proud of, though, is the scar that can be seen on my left forearm. It's the result of being intoxicated at the ASR trade show and I wound up in some random Long Beach hospital emergency room at 1:00am. Anyway, EXPN has posted an interview with me about the book and other related stuff. Click the laughably serious photo below to link to the article.

10.18.2004: Throughout the two years I've worked on this book there was, on many occasions, the feeling that I was just gonna let everyone down in the end. And I don't mean like if the book sucked or anything. I'm talking about just plain getting it published and printed. There were a bunch of people that I badgered to no end, all just to get interviews, obtain quotes, or to set up times to shoot board collections—and then the subsequent hours that it took to photograph the boards—and I just kept thinking, "What the hell do I tell them all when this project falls flat on its misbegotten face?" Well, today I can officially put those fears to rest, because 10 advance copies hit the mainland this morning from China —and I gotta say it felt pretty damn cool to finally hold the physical embodiment of all my stress and anxieties. The 4,990 other copies, incidentally, were all off to the docks for their transcontinental voyage across the Pacific. Unfortunately, however, as I was just informed of today, there are some significant delays in the Long Beach harbor right now—boats are backed up 40 deep or something—and imports aren't making it to shore in a timely "fresh off the boat" manner.

But what about the actual printed book itself? It's good, I think, but heck, I'm biased. What do you expect. There are a lot of words, a lot of pictures, and it's nothing that anyone is gonna breeze through in one sitting, that's for sure. But it also reminded me of something I probably should've stated in the book at one point: All the boards shown in the book are credited to the company, pro model, artist, and release date—and by release date, I mean what year the board was likely produced in, according to its shape, construction, colors, wheel wells, etc., not when its graphic was first issued. (Best example of this is the Powell Peralta Mike McGill Skull and Snake. From the tail end of 1986 to 1989, this board was released with the exact same graphic on three to four different board shapes/constructions.) I hate mistakes just like everyone else—hell, more than anyone else in this case, seeing as my name is attached to it—but it didn't help matters that many of the artists, pros, and company owners couldn't even remember the correct data, especially when it came down to dating boards in the ’90s. So there are a few minor discrepancies I've already noted and plan to, hopefully, correct them with future printings of the book. Most embarrassing, a few Jason Lee Stereo boards that are dated 1997 and 1998, when his Retirement model—which is situated right next to them—clearly states 1996. But, like any good human (or should I say American?), I'm refusing to take accountability for this error. Instead, I'm just deflecting the blame on the artist, Todd Francis, who supplied me with all the release dates on his Deluxe graphics. Thanks Todd, you ruined my book!

09.30.04: After years and years of allowing the technophobe within me to rail on the Internet and the monumental waste of time that it is, I finally threw in the towel and littered the worldwide wasteland with a load of crap all my own. I guess it just took a selfish interest in promoting something for it to all make sense. And now that I've just learned the most rudimentary pre-school basics of web use, expect loads of new updates as I impatiently countdown to the final release of Disposable this coming November—and beyond that who knows what further nonsense will come to mind and leak out onto the web.

09.11.04: Disposable was formally introduced to the public courtesy of a "book launch" event hosted by Blitz Distribution, during the fall ASR trade show in San Diego. Luckily the book's publisher, Michael Brooke, was on hand to talk a bit about the book, because I have all the public speaking skills of an electric toaster. At the time, the book had not yet shipped to the printer, so there were no hard copies to speak of much to the dismay of many of those in attendance. But there were loads of the new fall 2004 issue of Concrete Wave magazine, which features a four-page teaser to the book's contents, along with the obligatory poster previews. Faces in the decent-size crowd included Garry Davis, Andy Howell, Per Welinder, Johnny "Mojo" Munnerlyn, Kevin Marburg, Pierre-Andre (the ex-French freestyle pro whose last name is too confusing to type), Kevin Harris, Lance Mountain, Jim Fitzpatrick, Warren Bolster, Todd Bratrud, Kevin Wilkins, Dave Swift, Miki Vuckovich, Jim Goodrich, Nate Sherwood, and the book's designer Eric Simpson.