80s Skateboard Graphics: VCJ, the Screaming Hand and the Art Under the Deck

Steve Caballero didn't want a skull. When Powell Peralta offered him a propeller and skull idea for his first pro board in 1980, he turned it down and sketched a crouching dragon himself. The company's artist reworked it, and the Cab dragon ran on his decks until 1986. It's still being reissued.

A lot of 80s skateboard art was made that way: a skater with an idea, an artist with a pen, and a screen printer fighting a curved board. The artists, the riders' own ideas, the printing and the prices all follow.

Powell Peralta and VCJ

Powell Peralta was founded in 1978 by George Powell, an engineer who'd been making boards since 1957, and Stacy Peralta, who ran the team and the advertising. Their artist was Vernon Courtlandt Johnson, known as VCJ or Court. George Powell had married VCJ's older sister, and later hired him to help set up the factory. His skulls became the look of the brand.

VCJ drew freehand, mostly skulls, with heavy, exact lines. Caballero later called his linework "strong and super bold." His first pro graphic was the Skull and Sword for Ray "Bones" Rodriguez in 1979, released in bright Day-Glo colors. One of his decks is now in the Smithsonian.

The skater picked the picture

The best stories from the Bones Brigade era are about riders pushing back.

Tony Hawk. Hawk turned pro in 1982 at 14. His first deck had a soaring hawk on it and sold poorly. In 1983 VCJ drew a hawk skull over an iron cross. It took off in 1984 and picked up the nickname "screaming chicken skull."

Mike McGill. His first graphic was a fighter jet. The second, in 1984, was the Skull and Snake. McGill chose the snake and the lightning bolts because Florida has plenty of both. He was at a summer camp in Sweden inventing the McTwist while it was being drawn.

Lance Mountain. VCJ offered him a skull and knee bone. Lance wanted something else and took the cave painting style VCJ was working on for the 1985 video Future Primitive.

Rodney Mullen. His first deck had a robot dog on it. The second, from 1986, showed a skeleton freestyling on a chessboard while spinning a crown, which is about as Mullen as a picture can get.

Not everything was VCJ. Kevin Ancell drew Tommy Guerrero's first V-8 dagger graphic, which VCJ later reworked. In 1988 Powell hired Sean Cliver, whose style sat close to VCJ's, and his redrawn Cab dragon got nicknamed the "Ban This" dragon after the 1989 video.

The Ripper

The most famous skull of them all, the Ripper, is often dated to 1985. Powell Peralta's own pages say VCJ drew it in 1983. It started life as a "Bones Sold Here" sticker for shop windows, then went on T-shirts, then on decks. A reissue of the original 10 by 30 inch shape sells today for $105.95.

Santa Cruz and the Screaming Hand

Up the coast, Jim Phillips was doing the same job for Santa Cruz Skateboards. Born in San Jose in 1944, he was art director for Santa Cruz and its parent company NHS through the 70s and 80s and drew thousands of decks, shirts, stickers and ads. He designed the red dot Santa Cruz logo in 1978 and proposed the iron cross for Independent Trucks in 1979.

His best known drawing is the Screaming Hand from 1985: a blue hand with dark red arteries and a tongue sticking out. Phillips has said it grew out of a childhood sketch of a hand rising from behind a wall. His reasoning: "Your hands are the things you see the most in your life." It became the company's logo and got its own touring 30th anniversary exhibition.

Phillips also drew Rob Roskopp's "Target" series in the mid-80s. The third one, from 1986, is the "Face" graphic.

Vision, Thrasher and the rest

Vision, founded by Brad Dorfman in 1976, released its first pro model in 1984, designed by Greg Evans. Mark Gonzales got a Vision pro deck in 1985, and the "Psycho Stick" by LA artist Andy Takakjian followed in 1986. Vision Street Wear's bold logo, also by Evans, was inspired by the "FRANKIE SAYS RELAX" T-shirts of 1984.

Holding it all together was Thrasher, first published in January 1981 by Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello, the same pair behind Independent Trucks. The other glue was VHS. The Bones Brigade Video Show came out in 1984, expected to sell 300 copies, and sold 30,000. Kids watched the tricks and memorized the boards under the riders' feet.

How the art got onto the board

Every 80s deck graphic was screen printed, one screen per color. The problem was the concave: the board curves, the screen is flat. Printer Don Mills explained the fix: "The screens need to stretch a bit to accommodate for the concave." Lining up several colors on a curved surface was hard, so slightly off registration is normal on originals.

Detail improved over time, from roughly 45 lines of halftone dots per inch to about 151. Heat transfers, where the art is printed on a flat sheet and rolled on with a heated roller, only arrived around 2000. If an "80s original" has a glossy transfer that's flaking, be suspicious.

From fishtails to the popsicle

Mid-80s boards were wide, about 10 by 30 inches, with a flat nose and a kicktail. Pro shapes got wild: fishtails, odd cutouts, whatever helped land big vert airs. Then street skating and Rodney Mullen's flat ground ollie pushed things toward a sharper tail and a slimmer outline.

In 1989 Mullen designed the Barnyard for Mike Vallely at World Industries, called the first mass produced pro model double kick. Its farm animal graphic also pointed skate art in a new direction. Vallely later said it was the best selling board he ever had. As writer Sean Mortimer put it: "the popsicle is the offspring of the double kick."

What an original deck is worth

It depends hugely on the board. At Julien's Auctions in September 2025, Tony Hawk's own first pro model, a 1982 Powell Peralta deck, sold for $57,600 against a $7,000 to $9,000 estimate. Another of his 1982 decks, one that survived a house fire, made $51,200. Those are rider-owned boards with a story.

Ordinary originals are a different market. An appraiser valued a 1986 Hawk "chicken skull" deck in cobalt blue at $400 to $600. Asking prices online run higher than that, so check sold listings. And if you just want the art on your wall, the brand reissues cost around $100.

Wearing the era

If the decks got you in the mood, start at the feet. Our VHS High Top Sneakers ($89.99) and Retrowave Runner Sneakers 1982 ($59.99) are two easy picks, and the Color Block Windbreaker 1984 ($59.99) goes on top. For the culture side, read the legacy of 80s skate culture and how to get 80s skater style right.

Questions we get

Who designed the Powell Peralta skull graphics? Vernon Courtlandt Johnson, known as VCJ, drew most of them, including the Ripper, Hawk's skull and McGill's Skull and Snake. Kevin Ancell drew Tommy Guerrero's first dagger and Sean Cliver drew later Powell art.

Who drew the Santa Cruz Screaming Hand? Jim Phillips, in 1985. It became the Santa Cruz logo.

When was the Powell Peralta Ripper made? Powell Peralta says VCJ drew it in 1983. It first appeared on a shop sticker.

How much is an original 80s skateboard worth? Ordinary originals can be worth hundreds of dollars. Rider-owned boards with provenance can reach five figures, like Tony Hawk's 1982 deck at $57,600.

Why were 80s skateboards so wide? Vert skating ruled, and wide boards around 10 inches gave a bigger landing platform for big airs.

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