Skate One, the restructured successor to Powell-Peralta, held a contest in 2009 called "Rip the Ripper", in which it invited skater/artists to make their own rendition of Court Johnson's iconic "Rip Bones, the Ripper", the laughing skeleton that tears through the screen at the beginning of every Powell-Peralta skate video. Among the entrants, of course, was Johnny. I was particularly excited about JW's "No Evil" drawing. It depicts three versions of the Ripper in a biomechanical style, as the three "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.







     Well, in the fullness of time, we came to a place where Johnny owed me some money he wished to repay, and I asked his permission to use this artwork to create a dramatic shirt that I could market to recoup my dough. In the process, I embarked on the project and fancied myself as a "fashionista". I got sewing patterns from Simplicity like my mom used to make clothes and figured out how to get the image printed on a big enough piece of fabric to cut shirt pieces out of with the artwork in the right position.







     Loretta Walkup is an old friend of Carol's from days when they were both working at the Grateful Dead Ticket Office. After 1995 when Jerry Garcia died, and they were both out of a job, Lauretta began to make western wear for children with fancy piping and snap buttons, calling her business "Walkup Wear." I enlisted her to make the prototypes and to arrange professional sewing people known to her to do large production runs if that was in the cards. She did a great job, just what I had envisioned, and amazingly quickly. Before I knew it, I had these eight shirts.



     Counting up the tab to get to this stage, I had spent over $1500.




     Then came what I assumed would be hard part. The "No Evil" artwork incorporates not only the Ripper, but renditions of the logos of our pros; Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero, and Mike Vallely. Each of those guys must have some kind of royalty arrangement with the company for the use of his symbol. To go ahead from here, I would want to get the blessing of George Powell and Court Johnson.




     Well, Johnny and I know these guys; I having worked there for four years in key positions and Johnny is still working there over 30 years later. So of course I was going to ask George and Court if they had any objections, so I did.

Both got back to me right away. George wrote: "...if it was anybody else I would say no, but let me talk to our lawyers." Court wrote a longer encouraging letter, "...wondering at the number of artists who are inspired by my past works. I have no copyrights on any skateboard designs. George can decide as he sees fit."



     On further reflection, I came to the conclusion that the legal issues were too complicated to bother with, so I didn't follow up. This ambiguity is probably the best outcome: Not officially approved, but not disapproved either; and known to all that I was honorably aiming for an authorized knock-off of the Ripper image and it wasn't done with idea that I would make more and sell them without the blessing of anyone with ownership of the copyrights.



     Well, time went on and I went back to my housebuilding, and I lost interest in the fashionista thing. These shirts hang in my closet, and I'll pull one out for the Dia De Los Muertos this year. That's where it stands today, and obviously they are not for sale.



     I'll probably still have them when I croak, when it will be Johnny's kuleana to dispose of everything. Limited edition never to be mass produced, there will be only eight of them. Gotta be worth something.

Not for sale. Uncle John's Garage Sale is just the name of the book.

     

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