Bend #5

“Mel Bend?” I asked Kevin, as I thumbed through a copy of Bend Zine #4 which had landed in his mailbox recently. “Is that his real name?” Kevin shrugged.

“Who. The. Fuck. Is. MEL. BEND?” I asked myself flipping through page after page of scribbles and drawings, great photos pulled together with layout skills far, far beyond an average teen zine maker like I was. And why, after years of absorbing and memorizing the finest print and most obscure and pointless skate trivia in any skate mag I could ever get my hand on, had I never before seen the name Mel Bend? Something was amiss. I was mislead. This stuff was too good. I pledged to leave crude cut-out zine making behind and aspired to get a xerox machine to spit out something as, well…, beautiful as that issue of Bend. Moreover, I made it my mission to acquire my very own copy of Bend one day. And, maybe I’d even learn if that was his real name.

I can’t recall whether my copy of Bend no. 5 came through a zine trade or a groveling letter of appreciation, but it raised the stakes. Paper bag, ink-stamped cover. Mail-art collages. Scribbles. More names I didn’t recognize… (Dewbag? Spot?) Praise again for 10 FOOT BONE LESS (and again, no address!). And to top it off, photos reproduced perfectly somehow with high contrast and grain, with a perfectly even tone that was probably 90% black. So…. good.

I kept up correspondence with Mel Bend for months or longer before his true identity was revealed as Andy Jenkins: Art Director, Artist, Curb Grinder. And it’s probably not news to the folks that follow @skatezines, but he’s never stopped working, creating and inspiring 30-plus years later.

Download a PDF of this issue here.