Date of Premiere Issue : Summer 2002
Publishers : Campbell Milligan and Chris Searl
Design : Campbell Milligan
Editor : Chris Searl
Dimensions : 8 1/4" (h) x 11 7/8" (w)
Frequency : Four Times a Year
Country of Origin : NSW, Australia
Website : www.monsterchildren.com
Contributed by : G. Trinh
www.unseenmagazine.com
Statement
Even 15 years ago you could still spot a surfer or a skater a mile off. Surfers pretended they didn't care how they looked, wore Oakley blades and wrapped their balls in hideous fluorescent shorts. Skaters pretended they didn't care how they looked and proved it qith 30 kinds of flanno, black jeans and chain-wallets. It was all a bunch of superficial bullshit anyway. Even then, the surfers were still viewed as (most likely) druggie losers, skaters nothing more than a bunch of rolling juvenile shoplifters and Jake Burton was ony just strapping in.
But back then though, computers were still something only the kids that did table-tennis for school sport played with. (Now that lot, they really didn't care how the looked, but that's a different story.) Point is, things are different now, and regular old 'action sports' mags don't seem to have caught up. Pro surfers are DJ's. Skaters are opening art galleries and making movies. Snowboarders build websites and play in bands. They all have a favourite video game. And they all love music. Emimem and breakbeat. Rock and hip-hop. Anything, as long as it's good.
Monsterchildren isn't an 'action sports' magazine, whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean anyway. If it's 'extreme' then it's because we've taken a chance and done what we felt like, not because we took our cues from some soft drink ad. (We represent what they want. But we decide what we represent, not them.) You'll see photos from skaters, music from surfers but more importantly, people doing what they love.
Monsterchildren represents the convergence of several strands of the same cultural DNA, the idea that the fences are down, that the rules have been set alight and the ashes left to blow in the spring offshores. Riding isn't just something you do. It's part of who you are. That leaves the rest for you to write, shoot, mix tracks, paint, play games, get political, travel, get freaky on the net. What you ride may shape your life, but it doesn't make you stupid. It makes you see things differently.
You (we) are the agents of change. We (you) are the monsterchildren.