Jenkem Mag’s Ian Michna Talks Vol. 3

Words and photos by Andrew James Peters

If you haven’t heard of Jenkem Mag by now, I don’t know why you’re even allowed access to the internet, ‘cause you’re not doing it right.

Over a decade ago, Ian Michna started digging a little deeper into the weird and wild world of skateboarding. He published his findings on a blogspot, which turned into a full-blown online publication. And now—backed by a team of misfit writers and troublemakers—they're onto their third hardcover book, aptly named Volume 3. We caught up with Ian to get the low down on how it all began and his experience with dabbling in the print world. 

Give me a brief rundown on how, when, and why you started Jenkem?

I started it in 2011. I started it because skate media was boring, essentially. I was a 21-year-old that wanted to know a bit more about the world of skateboarding besides the old ‘What was your first skateboard? How old are you? Where are you from?’ I wanted more media that actually reflected what skateboarding actually is: fun, silly, stupid, weird, more Big Brother influenced, and at that point there was really nothing like that.

Did it just start out as a blog or something?

It was basically just like me being a 21-year-old fan that wanted to know all of these stories. Like, I wanted to interview Jereme Rogers about his kooky rap career, and if they’re not going to do it, meaning Transworld, Thrasher, The Skateboard Mag, or whoever else, then I wanted to do it myself to scratch my own itch. So, I would contact these people, you know, you hit ten people; one person gets back, and then I’d put it on a blogspot. As soon as I did the Jereme Rogers thing, it was on Slap, and people were like, ‘What the fuck is this interview? Is this even real?’ From there, I realized there was some traction, and there were other people like me, so I kept looking for stories like that.

When did you decide you wanted to make a print book?

I always wanted to do print, but I didn’t have the cash to do it, and it’s way easier to put stuff online, obviously. In 2015 we had been doing content online for 4-5 years, and I thought it’d be nice to have something that won’t just disappear online at some point. I hit up a couple of advertisers, and Converse has always been a brand that has got our back and let us do our thing, and they basically said, ‘We’ll help you with print costs. Put in whatever you want.’ Volume 1 ended up being half a Best Of from the first couple of years and half new content, and Volume 2 was one-hundred-percent all new content, and we were like, ‘Let’s blow it outta the water and do 300 pages or something ridiculous.’ And then this one is an in-between. We refined it. With Volume 3, we kept it to the core, eccentric, never been done stories as much as possible.

How long do these things take?

Volume 1 took maybe a year and a half. Volume 2 took two years, and Volume 3 took three years cause of the pandemic. We started working on it at the end of 2019, then I didn’t work on it at all in 2020, but picked it up again in 2021 and finished it in 2022. We took a break, but each book takes between one and three years.

Who do you have working on the book?

Our main crew is me, Alexis Castro, Larry Lanza, and Thomas Barker. But then, with the book, I’ll bring on people just to help on that as well. Alexis (Castro) was on the book with Anthony Pappalardo—not the skater, there’s another one that is a writer—Alexis and Anthony both chose the stories, and then Adrian Koenig came in (she did Quell magazine back in the day) to do the layout. I just jumped in and oversaw some stuff, but I was a little bit more hands-off than I have been in the past. They deserve the credit.

How did that feel to step away from the driver’s seat?

It felt really good. In 2020 I needed to work really hard at keeping the online mag going cause things were crazy. So I was like, ‘Anthony and Alexis—it’s your guys’ project.’ It felt really good and that is part of the learning process of doing it long enough now that I don’t have to do everything myself. It’s also part of the emotional separation. Someone else should do it, they should get the credit and be celebrated but they should also get the blame if it sucks (laughs).

What’s the story behind the photo on the cover?

The first two book covers were full of these literally in-your-face close moments, so I just wanted something visceral and up close. This is Larry Lanza who does the ‘Shop Talk’, and we threw a bunch of stuff at his face and that one came out the weirdest and the funniest. There were a couple of other options, like, we dripped honey on him and poured blue paint on him. The blue paint one was trying to pay homage to the Rob Dyrdek Droors cover. I wanted it like that one, but as always, when you try to mimic something, it’s not easy to achieve, and it won't always come out the same way, and ours just didn’t come out quite as cool. Then the honey one was just too sexual.

So, it’s all new content in the book. Does that end up going online as well?

No, in Volume 2, we only released two things online, and there were probably like 25 features in there. In this, there are probably 22 features, and we might pull one, so everything remains in the book. It’s basically like we did two sites at once while making it. We did stuff online that is all video shit, and then all the editorial we put into the book.

So online is focused mostly on video content pieces now.

We started focusing more on video online since 2020 and editorial stuff we put in the book, yeah. Honestly, video is less work and more reach. You know what it’s like, even this, you gotta transcribe it, then edit it, then check with the person, then edit again, source photos, lay it out..etc… Video, it’s done, and the editor sends it back after some revisions—cool. The books are supposed to live on their own. Like if you’re a fan, they live in a silo, and they have special book-only stuff. I think you can put weirder or riskier stuff in books. Online now is too accessible. No one wants their name associated with certain things online because you might be applying for jobs and whatnot. In a book, it’s kind of kept secret. So, for instance, in the book we have an article about the history of ‘Skate Trixxx’, which is a skate-themed porn from back in the day. We interviewed some people involved in it, that probably aren’t dying to show off their involvement to their kids, grandparents, employers, or whatever, so it’s perfect for book content; keep it more special and less attainable. You can’t google it.

So next is Volume 4?

Well, I want to keep the Volume series going, but I don’t want to do another book. So Volume 4 could be a mixtape, a VHS, an original skate video. We don’t have to do another book that is the same size that makes new content. So maybe Volume 4 is a fucking custom piano. I don’t know. It’s going to be weird.

Maybe it’ll be like some AI goggles by then.

Exactly, or maybe it’s just a full-length Jenkem skate video called Volume 4.

Well, congratulations on Volume 3. It’s fucking banging.

You know how it is. It’s like making anything: you’re so sick of it at the end, but you’re happy you did it.

It’s fucking impressive, and books are awesome. I like books.

We tried to have fun with it. Obviously, the spine, ‘it’s a book, you read it,’ which is totally dumb; and then on the back are pull quotes that are fake, like the one from Andrew Huberman, which he actually tweeted about and was hyped on. I was worried he would call it out and be like, ‘I didn’t say this.’ The Transworld one is maybe a little insensitive but you’ve gotta keep walking the path of where other people won’t with content or jokes. They don’t walk it for a reason, because it’s challenging.

Get your filthy hands on Jenkem Vol. 3, here.