Gnarly Magazine is the most prominent Kustom Kulture magazine to date. It’s encapsulation of artists gives the world a face to the name of those whose work has been featured in magazines worldwide but never in true depth. You see pinstriping on a deuce coupe, you’re intrigued but not enough to care about the credits at the end of the article. You know about the owner of the car, but never truly care about the work others put into the flake work. The credit goes to the owner, and the artists are humbly left to continue their lives, a couple more bucks in their bank account, but mostly in vain. When Gnarly published their first issue back in 2017 the floodgate of opportunity had finally opened up for those who may not have had it in the past. That little credit had now become a full page spread. Independent and Professional artists alike were cast onto the same theatrical stage and the barrier between them finally demolished. Our protagonist, Johnny, delivers a product that does not disappoint. It’s the punk rock ethics of DIY culture that brought his dream to reality. You don’t have to be a fan of the Sex Pistols or even Black Flag to know what it means, the spirit of DIY lives in each and every individual who creates a product on their dime, and by the labor of their own hands. By hand and by brain, and with a little passion, people can do some great things and even help others in the process.
Thanks so much for the kind words and for this awesome opportunity to talk with you!
2.) How’s the winter in Pennsylvania? Just as crappy as Iowa I take it? haha
Actually, it hasn’t been too bad. The cold sucks, but as long as the snow stays away, I’m happy!
3.) How long were you in the Kustom Kulture community before you decided you wanted to start the magazine? What inspired you to start the magazine and what were you doing before it?
I used to publish skateboarding and punk rock fanzines as a teenager. In 2017 I started GNARLY Magazine because the magazines on newsstands didn’t showcase all of the cool stuff I wanted to see, such as pinstriping, kustom paint, lowbrow art, hot rods & motorcycles, weird comics, pinups, and all around cool shit! Sure, some magazines featured some of that stuff, but I wanted all of it in one magazine. So, I started GNARLY.
4.) The first two issues you have ever done are completely out of print, which speaks to the volume of readers collecting the magazine. How does it feel to know that your babies had made such an impact? Were you surprised by the response?
It’s really gratifying when you see the hard work you put into something pay off. And, in a digital world, it’s great to see people still like to read something physical. I wouldn’t say I was surprised by the response because the Kustom Kulture community is very supportive and they have been supporting GNARLY Magazine since the beginning.
5.) What I love about the magazine is it’s price to quality ratio. Some Car and Motorcycle Rags now days can run up to anywhere between $7 and $10 which is ridiculous being most of them have nothing but ads throughout them. You however pack a lot of content into your magazine and keep the ads in designated sections for those prices. You also sell back issues for cheaper and I like this concept because it helps those who are new to the magazine catch up on issues they have missed, as opposed to magazines like Ol Skool Rodz who can charge up to $13 for back issues. You go by a seasonal basis as opposed to monthly basis which generates time for you to gather as much content as possible, while other magazines do the same thing but generate less content. Do you think they’re lazy or just plain ripping off their readers? What has been your drive to bring us so much content and to make sure we are getting our moneys worth?
I don’t think other magazines are lazy, nor do I think they are ripping people off. The main issue is that glossy magazine printing is VERY expensive. Without a lot of ads, it’s impossible to stay on newsstands. I don’t like a lot of ads in a magazine, so early on, I made it a point to have a minimal amount of pages dedicated to advertisers who I thought had an awesome product. If I didn’t think an advertiser gave value to GNARLY readers, I didn’t reach out to them. I was lucky in that my online sales of magazines and GNARLY merchandise took care of my print costs. Everything was a well oiled machine until the pandemic hit.
6.) For a few years you also had a side magazine by the title of “Reissue” up for sale in the Gnarly store. I never had a chance to get my hands on an issue before they stopped being printed. What was the content of that particular magazine and why was printing permanently halted? And since the halting of that magazine you have started production on another rag by the title “Speed and Kulture“ and just like “Reissue” I haven’t had a chance to get my mits on a copy but the interesting thing that I see about this magazine is that it’s a flip style publication, which is interesting to me because it reminds me of an old issue of Spider-Man from the 90’s I once had as a kid. What are the contents of this magazine and how does it differ from Gnarly? Not only that but what’s to be expected when you flip each issue over?
Re-Issue is a skateboarding art magazine that only published one issue. The publisher, Richie Griswold, loves skateboarding art (who doesn’t!?) and wanted to release an issue as sort of a passion project. He asked me for a little bit of help with the page layout and I sold copies on the GNARLY website. This was back in 2017 or ’18. I recently asked Richie for permission to use the Re-Issue name so that I could release a couple of issues per year on the (coming soon) Gnarly Magazine mobile app. Stoked for that! Speed & Kulture magazine is actually owned by Chuck Stanfill and Trent Sherrill. Chuck, like me, is a big fan of print magazines and we have been supporting each other for a couple of years by selling copies of our magazines on each others websites. Speed & Kulture Magazine has a heavy focus on traditional hot rods.
7.) Last year you announced a new addition to the Gnarly lineup “Kustom A Go Go”, a free newspaper that folks would receive in purchases or upon request. How did that idea come about? How many issues have you produced of it so far and is it available for subscription?
Kustom A Go Go is a free tabloid newspaper one-off and was an idea I had where I could go back to my publishing roots and print on newsprint. I worked with Chuck Stanfill on it so that we could use it as a promotional tool to cross-promote our magazines. We printed about 2,000 copies and distributed them around the country. And, like you said, we also slip them into customer orders or offer them free on the GnarlyMagazine.com store. Kustom A Go Go features articles from GNARLY Magazine and Speed and Kulture Magazine so people can get a free look at the awesome content our publications offer.
8.) The Gnarly art Contests have become like a worldwide county fair, everybody and anybody can enter them and people thoroughly get excited whenever a new one comes up. They are set up so readers are the judges and can vote for the contestants they feel are the best. Done on a round to round basis until the official winner is decided. When you first decided to start doing contests, did you think they were gonna be as big as they have become? And to your knowledge has anybody become super successful from these contests?
The GNARLY Magazine art contests are SUPER fun! What’s great about them, for me, is that I continually discover new artists! Just when I think I’ve seen all of the gnarliest artists out there, someone new will come along and submit an entry into a contest that just blows me away! The contests are also a great way for me to discover artists to feature in the magazine. And, aside from discovering new artists, these same artists can be discovered by clients as well.
9.) Your magazine gave me one of the greatest opportunities of my life, and that was to meet Darren McKeag. In 2019 I had recently discovered that Darren lives and works here in my hometown during one of the worst times of my life. Your magazine gave me a reason to break out of my shell and meet a living legend and get his autograph. He couldn’t have been anymore of a nicer person. I just thank you so much for giving me that memory. I also discovered Von Dago and his products which I still use to this day through your magazine as well. So thank you for also helping out others looking to advertise their products and be seen, and to give hard working people a fair shot.
On top of being an amazing artist, Darren is a great dude. He gets a lot of well deserved respect in the kustom art and motorcycle communities. That’s really cool to hear you got to meet him and have that memory forever! It means a lot to me to hear you say that GNARLY Magazine has had a positive impact on your life. It’s those types of stores that keep me going! And there are a lot of amazing artists out there like Von Dago who also have great products to offer painters and pinstripers. I’m stoked that GNARLY Magazine gets to play a small part in connecting artists such as yourself with inspiring artists and craftsmen who dedicate their lives bringing you a great product to keep this old artform alive.
10.) Mr. Pinstriper, who designed him and of all the characters in the merch lineup do you believe that he is the most popular? Whether yes or no, what has been some of the most popular designs to move from the store shelves?
Mr. Pinstriper is based off of the Clay Smith Cams mascot named Mr. Horsepower. I loved him when I was young and still love him to this day. A few years ago I had some free time and thought it would be fun to create a spoof Mr. Horsepower and give him big bulging eyes and a pinstriping brush in place of the cigar. It was just a fun illustration project I gave myself. But, he turned out to be so cool looking that I adopted him as sort of GNARLY’s second mascot. I made a few stickers and t-shirts to help promote the brand and he just stuck around.
11.) In these crazy times of COVID that we know as “the new normal”, how has business been for you? Has there been a rise in subscriptions due to shelter in place orders, social distancing, and quarantining? And during this time which medium has taken off more, print subscriptions or virtual subscriptions, and has COVID made it harder for you to do interviews?
Not gonna lie, COVID hit us really hard. It hit us so hard that we put a pause on releasing print issues until things get back to normal. Issue #15 (Winter 2021) was GNARLY’s last print issue. But, rather than focusing on the negatives, I’m focusing on the positives. “Adapt or Die” is a motto used by many people in the past and that’s what we have done. Rather than bitch and moan about print dying, we decided to create a GNARLY Magazine mobile app, kustom built from the ground up, with the kustom kulture reader in mind. But, yeah, as soon as things are back to normal, we’ll be printing again.
12.) What is your dream issue of Gnarly? What would you consider the issue that as you lay on your deathbed to have been your life work? Has this issue already happened? Has it yet to happen?
Great question! There are a couple of dream issues, actually. The first dream issue is issue #1. You have this big publishing idea and you put all of this work into it and when the boxes of issue #1 arrive, it’s one of the best feelings of accomplishment. I’m happy to say I’ve lived that dream. As for the other dream issue, I’m not sure that it could happen without a serious infusion of cash from a billion dollar investor! The staff I would need to pull it off on a consistent basis would be expensive!
13.) What are some words of advice you could offer to young and aspiring journalists out there doing what they love and hoping to make it their future.
Be prepared to hustle every single day and to think about ways to improve your craft from the time you wake up until you fall asleep at night. And make sure you have a notepad next to your pillow so you can jot down your ideas that will most certainly wake you up in the middle of the night!
14.) Johnny Boy it has been a real pleasure to do this interview with you! As a fan I am beyond ecstatic, and I am thrilled to see what the future holds for the magazine! Thanks brother!
Thanks so much for this awesome opportunity to talk about art, publishing, and Kustom Kulture!
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