Books
Curated by Jai Tanju
Tails of… is a labor of love and we could really use your support. Subscribe, buy some merch or share with your skateboard friends–everything helps.
Tails Of… Books
A few words from Jai Tanju
I’ve always been a bit of a slow learner–not really at the forefront of anything. Art and photography books didn’t come into my life until I was in my early ‘30s. When I first started sending photos to magazines and companies, I put negatives and slides into an envelope with a bit of cardboard, sent them off, and just hoped for the best. I checked every magazine every month to see if any of my photos had been used, and then I would follow up with a letter or invoice. This is how it went for years. When the internet and emails started, I was suddenly expected to use these new tools to communicate. I didn’t have my own computer so I went to my local library, which is massive. It’s eight stories with each floor hosting a row of twenty or so computers– free to use if you had a library card. Most of the time I used the computers on the first or second floor because they were the easiest to get to. One day all the computer stations were filled on the first two floors, so I went up the escalator to the third floor. As I walked through to an open computer, I noticed I was in the art and photography section. After I did my emails, I checked out both sections and ended up being there for hours! This became a regular ritual. Suddenly my eyes were opened to so many great artists and photographers. Around this same time, I also found the local used book store and started buying books for the first time. I caught the book bug that still infects me to this day.
I’ve been contributing to “Tails of…” since issue zero, and John has long been trying to get me to guest-edit or curate an issue. At first, I thought it was a no-brainer to do a photo issue, but the process of getting all the photographers on board to do what I envisioned was daunting. One day as I sat on my couch looking at the blank TV screen that sits atop my bookshelf, a lightbulb went on in my mind. What if I based the issue on books? And since it is a skate ‘zine, it could be books by skateboarders. I went to my bookshelf and pulled out fifty or so books by skateboarders that I had collected. I texted John a picture of the stack of books with my idea for the issue, and now here we are! After working on the issue for a few months, our goal finally came into focus: a resource for you, our viewers, so you can see just a small amount of the amazing books that are out there in stores, libraries, and at your fingertips online! We didn’t get to interview everyone or show all the books we wanted to, but we did do interviews with the likes of Grant Brittain, Greg Hunt, Dennis McGrath, Jason Arnold, Thomas Campbell, Ed Templeton, Garry Scott Davis, Lucas Beaufort, Norma Ibarra, and Russ Howell. We spotlighted over fifty books, did a photo feature with Mark Whiteley from his book, “We Are All in the Gutter But Some Of Us Are Holding Flashes,” gave a lifetime-achievement award, and did our best to build up a great catalog of books by skaters. Hopefully, you’ll catch the book bug like I did! It’s a worthwhile pursuit.
Jai Tanju
Table of Contents
Tails Of… is a print magazine and we’d love for you to experience it in that form if possible. We also understand that we can’t reach everyone in that way so we’ll publish some of the articles online. These could get released over time, eventually… if we get around to it.
10 : J. Grant Brittain
12 : Greg Hunt
16 : Dennis McGrath
18 : Jason Arnold
20 : Thomas Campbell
30 : Ed Templeton
38 : Norma Ibarra
40 : 12 Books
48 : Garry Scott Davis
50 : Russ Howell
52 : Lucas Beaufort
58 : 12 More Books
66 : Mark Whiteley
86 : 8 From Japan
92 : Hot Off the Presses
94 : Lifetime Achievement Award: Ray Potes
95 : Jocko Weyland
100 : A Few Books (Not About Skateboarding)
102 : Skateboard Book Archive
Contributors
Copy Editor
Mo Hayes
The Core Counsel
Rich Jacobs, Jai Tanju, Jim Houser, Ben Horton
Contributing Artists & Designers
Aaron Frisby, Russ Pope, Ben Horton, Carlos Miaco
Contributing Writers
Rich Jacobs & Matt Sharkey
Huge Thank You to all the Interview Subjects
All photographs and artwork are the copyright of the artists and are in use here to showcase their talents. We encourage you to go out and find copies of these books and support the artists. Tails Of makes no claim to any of these individual’s works