Revs is my antihero

Krink-Open City

Thanks for the link, Grotesk

Space Monkey's and other stories...

Fecal Face is rocking some rad studio visits. Check out the Dalek interview, then Peep Jim Phillips studio.

Placa Jackpot

Being from New York, I tend to look at graffiti from a very east coast perspective. As far as handstyles go, New York signature style tags and Philly scripts are the influence I came up seeing the most first hand. However growing up in the Jersey Suburbs, during the Powell Peralta era of skateboarding, there was always a constant influence of "cholo" graffiti that spread across the country, by magazines, and stickers and imitated graffiti in any local skate spot. And in some way this influence was deep in my subconcius and interest before I even wrote graffiti, or learned in any of my own local style


When I designed the Mene Mexicali Font, it was primarily an experiment, based on images I studied from the Mexicali graffiti scene and some proportions and other influence that I took from Skate Scene Cholo styles and Philly tall prints which although I do not write ina philly style, were always in my realm of exposure.



Since starting the Handselecta project. I have been particularly interested in Cholo hand styles, being as it is culture foreign and removed from me. But its stylistic influence is obviously great, through hip hop, tattoos, skateboarding, custom cars, and, video games (peep GTA, I heard rumor those placas were by Mister Cartoon)

The following is a list of links and images pertaining to Cholo graffiti, STYLES. I make no claims about gangs, particular or general. According to Chaz, many of these styles predate todays gangs. And gang culture in general was much smaller and local in scale when these styles started appearing post WWII.



A cholo style borrowed for a 60's album cover art for Jackson Brown.

So here are some of my Cholo articles of interest for lettering enthusiasts.

"Cholo Style Graffiti"article by Chaz Bojorquez.



Chaz


Mister Cartoon - Known more for his tattoo and script styles lately, but occasionally roacks those square cholo style letters.


Mike Giant


Count Trackula's Blog

Sleepy Lagoon Blog




Sleepy Lagoon - Check the "Placa Archive" on the lower right hand side of the page.

Golden Age of Gang Graffiti photo set on Flickr


Street Writers-Out of print, and extremely rare. Someone posted images of the book in a flickr photoset



Clanton 14 - One of LA's oldest gangs
Placasos 1
Placasos 2

Chicano Underground

Teen Angels Zine Ebay Store

Teen Angels Zine Myspace Page

Happy St Patty's Day!!!

An Update on the Mobile Leprechaun... It was just Bushwick Bill from the Geto Boyz sittin up in a tree.

PHASE II

SLAMXHYPE is taking it to another level with some new interviews. Not content with writing news posts based on colorways, they are moving their content in a direction that we whole heartedly endorse. Look for another interview next week with CRASH.

The first of which is none other than PHASE II. Phase is one of the godfathers of wildstyle, and the credited inventor of Bubble-Style, Phase has a lot to say. So peep the pages of this interview.


Dope Style (and without a precedent). Sheer invention. Speaking of Invention - Peep that LEE tag in the upper right.




Not enogh for you? Check this interview at RAWVISION.COM

O'CLOCK CRUSHES

Hands down one of the best Handstlyes on the whole European continent. (in the opinion of a yankee, who's been there only about a dozen times, and mostly to England, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Holland in the 90's, which I know is not ALL of the continent). For the most part I find Europeans have great crisp piecing styles, (Feeling the straight letters) but lack in top notch handstyles and decent throwies. Honorable mentions go to some guys with far greater hands than myself though, including 123Klan, Sunset and O'Clock to name a few.

These videos prove my inital opinion WRONG. O'CLOCK CRUSHES.....









And that amazing fat cap SUSNSET tag (you may have seen somewhere else over the last few months)

Spark

Tracy Morgan

is Black Ass....

london white trash

Say "Uncle".

Lately I'v e been collecting vintage books by this illustrator Ryohei Yanagihara, whose work I assume has had a big influence on Reas' pink people. Born in 1931, Yanagihara was the in-house illustrator for Torys Whisky, later renamed Suntory after a corporate merger. His work is great visual slapstick, much of it centered around a dirty old boozehund named "Uncle". Great stuff. Follow the link above to an overview of his work and definitely check out the link to an animated whiskey commercial he did circa mid-1950s. Danvo Publishers put out a really great compendium of Yanagihara's book cover designs thoughout the years that is definitely worth picking up. His work is in league with (though hornier than) Dick Bruna's book covers of the 50s and 60s in line quality, interesting compositions, nice color combos, and lots of paper-cuts. Don't sleep on it! The last book of his work is all sold out.

Ghost Yard-Video Graf

VICE TV

Some of the best international reporting coming out right now isn't on network or cable news. Its from those fucked up guys that brought you Vice Magazine. Who'da thought it. And they're so forwaard thinking they launched a television channel exclusively for the web. This sh*t will be huge.

A couple of the news oriented articles below. But check the site, for other Vice norms, like Do's and Dont's, and the ocassioanl penis joke.

End To End Project

A couple weeks back our friend Scien let us know whats up with the End to End project, by adidas. If you havent seen the footage yet. peep the vids below, and salivate over all that premium aerosol.

adidas END TO END PROJECT


Scien & Ms Klor


Skore


Can2 and Atom


Siloette


Smart

Jose Parla

Ami Kealoha presents a really beautiful piece about Jose Parla over at Cool Hunting, (who seemed to have done a site redesign since I last saw it). Watch this guy move. Kung Fu with a Uni marker. Tons of other great content, peep the video, then check out the rest of the site.