Swank Zine #19

The first Swank product that landed in my mailbox in the summer of 1987 was Swank Zine #19, the All Phred issue. According to the intro, Miki Vukovich took most of the photos, Phred Conrad did most of the writing, Garry Davis did the layouts and Tod just bossed everyone else around.

The letters from Phred to Tod and to Phred from others provided one seventeen year old Nebraskan a peek into the not so glamorous lifestyles of west coast skate folk. I was glad to learn that they were all just bored dorks like myself. Phred reviews records from REM, Meat Puppets and Dead Milkmen, wherein Phred declares ‘Bitchin Camero’ “the worst fuckin’ song ever!’ Great curb session photos, too. And, being the all-Phred issue, the standard ‘ads’ for Skull Skates and Gullwing were usurped by promos Zorlac and Indy.

And, the two color cover got me thinking about doing a cool cover for one of my next zines.

Download a PDF of the full issue here.