Brettsplitter - mitten ins Hirn - Skateboard Zeugs: Disposable. Sean Cliver Interview.

Disposable. Sean Cliver Interview.

19. August 2009, 09:22 - Autor: Manuel Dietz

Skateboarding ist ein verdammt schnelllebiges Ding… In Videos, Magazinen und im Internet muss immer das neueste und beste am besten sofort gesehen werden. In Zeiten von TheBerrics stellt das ja auch keinerlei Problem dar. Ich bin da auch mitten drin, allerdings hat sich bei mir in den letzten zehn Jahren die Einstellung etwas geändert. Klar ich sehe trotzdem gerne Koston und Co beim Skaten zu, ich habe aber auch gerne ein paar Erinnerungen, wie es früher einmal war… Genau hierfür ist die Skateboard Bible von Sean Cliver wie geschaffen. The Disposable Skateboard Bible gibt einen größtmöglichen Überblick über alles was jemals auf ein Skateboard aufgedruckt wurde (zumindest was aus den USA kam!). Jeder Rollbrettfahrer, der schon etwas länger auf dem Brett steht wird in Erinnerungen schwelgen können und wird sehnsüchtig nach längst weggeworfenen Schätzen Ausschau halten. Anhand von diesem Buch habe ich sogar erkennen können, dass selbst PlanB einmal richtig schöne Grafikboards fabriziert hat !

Auf knapp 370 Seiten hat Sean Cliver alles zusammengetragen was man sich vorstellen kann. Tausende, gestochen scharfe Deckgrafiken sind zu sehen und sind ergänzt mit vielen Infos über die Menschen, die diese Grafiken geschaffen haben.
Das Buch kostet 39,90€, hat die ISBN 978-1-58423-327-5, ist beim Gingko Press Verlag erschienen und erhältlich im Buchhandel. Sobald ihr dieses Werk in den Händen haltet, werdet ihr wissen, dass ihr euer Geld sinnvoll angelegt habt.

Wer dieses Buch für sich entdeckt, wird realisieren, wieviel Liebe und Hingabe in einem simplen, bedruckten Stück Holz stecken können ! Es sollte halt auf jeden Fall bedruckt sein !

Sean war so nett uns ein paar Fragen zu beantworten.
Portraitpic: Shari Mac Donald

Hi Sean, please give us some short facts who you are.

Simply put, I’m a kid from middle America—Wisconsin, to be precise—that was very, very lucky. I was about as far as you can get from anywhere near the skateboard industry and were it not for an art contest advertisement that Powell-Peralta ran in Thrasher magazine circa 1988, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Through curious twists of fate and circumstance, I’ve worked as an artist for a number of companies during their peaks and valleys in the industry—Powell, Blind, World Industries, 101, Plan B, Prime, Birdhouse, Hook-Ups—all the random events of which made for the story that comprised the bulk of my first book, Disposable: A History of Skateboard Art (2004). Presently I’m 40-years-old and working at jackassworld.com, a bastard stepchild of the late Big Brother skateboard magazine, where I’d originally worked as a writer/editor from 1992-2000. I still have one foot over at the drawing table, though, and still do freelance graphics (most recently for Girl, Supreme, Element, and Cliche.

You did lots of skateboard graphics. What is your personal favourite that you did and your overall favourite?

Twenty years later I still think I’m most happy with the first and last Ray Barbee designs I did for Powell-Peralta. Although there are a few from the early 90s I did at 101—like Adam McNatt’s Charles Manson Brown and Bad Babies—that are longtime favorites. Beyond the crap that I did, Pushead’s John Gibson and Craig Johnson Fire Demon graphics for Zorlac are some of my all-time favorites, as are VCJ’s Mike McGill Skull & Snake on Powell, Marc McKee’s Jason Lee American Icons on Blind and Natas Kaupas Devil Worship on 101, and Jeff Grosso’s original Schmitt Stix graphic by John Lucero. Sorry, but it’s rather hard for me to narrow down favorites when it comes to skateboard graphics…

McNatt | Bad Babies

You did the Claudia Schiffer board (what we like here in Germany!) twice, but there was only one released! What’s the story behind that?

The Claudia Schiffer graphic was the controversial bridge in my transition from Powell-Peralta to World Industries in 1991. At the age of 22 I didn’t quite grasp the whole intellectual property/work for hire concept, so when I was laid off from Powell, I cleaned off my desk, took the half-finished Claudia Schiffer artwork that I’d been working on for Adam McNatt’s first pro model, and then went on my merry unemployed way. It made sense, I thought: my idea, my art, and I didn’t want anyone else taking credit for it. Days later, though, I received a friendly call from Craig Stecyk saying it would probably be in my best interest to “find” and return this art. So, tail between my legs, I did. Only Steve Rocco then convinced me to completely redraw the art a week later for a Blind series and beat Powell to the production punch. I was still royally pissed (and embarrassed) about being laid off, so I jumped at the opportunity to exact revenge—especially in such a high-profile and public manner. This act singularly torched my relationship with Powell for nearly 15 years, up until Disposable came out and I was able to finally mend the fence with George and let bygones be bygones. Perhaps him more so than I as I really was a jerk back then; ultimately he was doing me a favor by cutting me loose … I just couldn’t see the forest through the trees at the time.

The (first) disposable book was a milestone for books about skateboard graphics. What was the impulse for you to start working on the skateboard bible ?

Well … I was having a hard time letting go. On one hand I still felt I hadn’t covered everything I’d hoped to with the first book; on the other, I’m an obsessive-compulsive skateboard collector who simply can’t afford to physically own all the boards I’d like. So this was the next best way to “collect” them. So the “Bible” was a way to tie up a few loose ends with artists, skaters, and company owners that I wasn’t able to contact or work into the format of the first book—primarily people like VCJ, Mark Gonzales, Greg Evans, Bruce Walker, Art and Steve Godoy,and Mark “Gator” Rogowski. I also wanted to provide a more comprehensive visual overview of skateboards as a whole, including boards from the 60s and 70s. I’d hoped to showcase more boards from the 90s and 00s, but I’d already pushed my luck with the publisher and maxed out at 368 pages.

how long did it take to publish the skateboard-bible ?

I started working on The Disposable Skateboard Bible just after finishing up jackass number two in the fall of 2006. So it took approximately two-and-a-half years to compile all the material. The hardest part by far was editing down all the images. I think I have well over 4000 hi-res skateboard images lodged on my hard drive now.

Are you satisfied with the result? Or are there lots of things you miss in that book? And are there plans for a third book?

Yeah, I’m 99.9 percent happy with how this book turned out. The only thing that went amiss was a last minute correction that the printer failed to make to a Brand-X spread in the 80s. Unfortunately, longtime skateboard artist and screenprinting innovator Bernie Tostenson passed away this April just before the book was about to hit the printing presses. I tried to swap in a quick dedication to Bernie, but it didn’t happen. So, unlike the first Disposable book, this will be the one and only change I will make if it goes back in for a second printing. As for a third book… no, I don’t think so. There are still tons of boards and graphics out there, but I think I’ve exhausted my primary concerns and interests.

Where are all those boards from? How many boards are there in your collection?

My own collection is nowhere near what everyone believes it to be—unfortunately. I only wish I could live among stacks and stacks of skateboards. So I have a very focused collection of boards from Powell-Peralta and Zorlac with a few random others that hit a sentimental chord or two, like John Lucero’s second pro model on Schmitt Stix, a few Natas Kaupas SMA models, and a mandatory Mark Gonzales Vision board. I keep saying that the only board I’d still like to get in unskated condition is Steve Caballero’s first board on Powell-Peralta—the Bearing Dragon—but if money and circumstance allowed I’d also pick up Neil Blender’s G&S Coffee Break model, Natas’s first SMA model, and Rodney Mullen’s Rock Is King board on World Industries. As for most of the boards in the Disposable books, they were all shot from personal collections (both inside and outside of the industry) and select company archives.

What do you feel when you see actual skateboard graphics compared to the 80s ?

It’s tough… I’m of an older generation now that still appreciates the look and feel of a silk-screened skateboard graphic. So many boards look so slick and polished now that they’re reminiscent of boards produced in China. Oh, wait … most all of them are now. Anyway, there’s still some great stuff being created these days graphic-wise. Todd Bratrud, Aaron Horkey, and Evan Hecox are a few of my current favorites, but I’ve always enjoyed the look of the Alien Workshop line as well.

sean cliver working.