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After stopping by Toys R Us with my 7 year old (on the hunt for his upcoming birthday), I decided to drop into my local indy skate shop: Sanction of Thornhill. I pulled up my car, left my son in viewing distance of the shop (with the keys taken out of the ignition, of course) and promply screamed “HEY! I want my Kingshit Magazine!” Happily, they had a few neat stacks piled on the front counter. On Tuesday, my friend Jay Mandarino had told me about the mag. From what I know about Jay, it’s not going to be at his skatepark reception area any time soon - based on the name alone! However, Concrete Wave embraces all sides of skateboarding and it’s my sworn duty to blog about what’s out there - the good the bad and the ugly.
Whenever I see a magazine, I react just like you do. I am affected by how it looks, what it feels like and how many ads are inside. Every page tells a story.
Dave Carnie, the former editor of Big Brother is the Editor at Large of Kingshit. Dave, who I have met on a number of occasions, is very different in real life. What you get in print however, is something else entirely. Dave headed up Big Brother for a number of years and when the ship went down in February 2004, Dave gravitated to a number of writing projects. He’s been active with the Skateboard Mag, but that really is Dave and Grant’s show. Dave along with Chris Nieratko (who is a contributing editor) have a certain writing style and outlook on life that you either like or don’t like. There is very little gray area. It’s easy for many to dismiss a magazine like Kingshit based on the name alone. That’s the trap they WANT you to fall into.
The most curious thing about Big Brother when Larry Flynt bought it is that he cleaned it up. By cleansing it of pretty much all the stuff that made it such a fascinating train wreck of a magazine, he killed it. The fact was that BB was outrageous and pornographic. As I have often said, anyone can publish porn in a skate mag and get 13 year olds excited. A true skate pornographer gets 40 year olds excited about skateboards. (guilty as charged!)
So, where does this leave Kingshit? If you are looking for Big Brother Part Deux, you will be disappointed. There are no incendinary shots at the skate industry. For that you’ll have to go to their website and Dave’s humorous look at the IASC meeting. Then again, you have to be careful what you say about your current and potential advertisers…too much rocking of the boat and you are SOL in terms of revenue.
Quality-wise, the magazine contains the usual assortment of very nice photos. Clean, sharp images of…rails and ledges…Surprises? None whatsoever. Nothing mind-blowing. If you put The Skateboard Mag or Transworld photos next to the photos found in Kingshit, I doubt you could tell which mag they came from.
The cover however does merit a special mention. It’s black and white…a very big no no in publishing generally (I speak from experience - our Kevin Staab cover was by far the lowest selling issue as a percentage of mags put out there). But it’s not about the cover photo…it’s about that uber expensive hotfoil stamping. I sense that Thunder Trucks (the back cover advertiser) chipped in to cover the costs. Kudos to the publisher for thinking creatively.
The bottom line for me? Kingshit is not offensive and outrageous enough to be the next Big Brother. It mirrors the other skate mags out there perfectly. Sure, there is a story about a snowstorm in Vancouver and an essay about dachshunds (3 pages?!) but the for the most part, it’s just the same ole crap, served up to a new generation….
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