Thrasher cover similarities

[tkp]

I've spent some time going deeper down the image search + comparison rabbit hole and applied similar methods to Thrasher magazine covers.

4plymag and samespotsameangle have done or are doing neat things with manual analysis in the search for patterns.

There is a percentage shown in the images below. It represents a similarity rating calculated by comparing image hashes, which are digital fingerprints generated from a photo’s visual patterns or colors. The control image (100%) is what the others are being compared to

Angle, spot, trick, graphic design

(note: no control image, just a random discovery)

Angle, spot, trick


Fit check


Depth perception


Black + white photo / blue text


Pool slash


Wallrides / image element structure


Skater location / body stance, transition lip and rail have a similar angle


Red border


Colors


Going frontside


Water gap


I plan to release access to the cover comparison tool.

Edit: Jan 3rd, 2026 - tool is live at https://shoplurker.com/labs/thrasher-covers

Edit Feb 15, 2026: Updated version https://shoplurker.com/labs/img-compare/

[LOU.502]

Lol I forgot about that Anthony Shultz cover, kickflip tuck-knee is SOOO random in the dopest way. Pretty crazy tbh. That dude was/is so fucking sick

[Taraval]

as a skatenerd who loves seeing composition like this, this is amazing work!

I’m sure Burnett had majority input when he was designing covers in the 2000’s and onwards and saw historical similarities. I’m sure Jake was involved but definitely a team effort.

Who did the most magazine layout editing for 80’s- was it Fausto himself? and for the 90’s?

[steve]

this is great. thank you

[DVstorm_chaser]

nice

[Ty Evans Lightman]

I remember a thrasher article where they dug out the original photos that inspired a lot of the maildrop envelope art. Some cool sleuthing.

[Cheshire Cat]

as a skatenerd who loves seeing composition like this, this is amazing work!

I’m sure Burnett had majority input when he was designing covers in the 2000’s and onwards and saw historical similarities. I’m sure Jake was involved but definitely a team effort.

Who did the most magazine layout editing for 80’s- was it Fausto himself? and for the 90’s?

As a skatenerd based in the UK, I wish I was able to see any of the op
The image hosting site is not accessible to us over here, and this is a great thread idea.

[PalaceButtPlug]

wait, obstacles look similar? but how?

[Noble Experiment]

Just kidding of course; this is rad.

[Nosferatu]

as a skatenerd who loves seeing composition like this, this is amazing work!

I’m sure Burnett had majority input when he was designing covers in the 2000’s and onwards and saw historical similarities. I’m sure Jake was involved but definitely a team effort.

Who did the most magazine layout editing for 80’s- was it Fausto himself? and for the 90’s?

Probably Kevin Thatcher

[waffle]

This is great - we have a 4ply article that never saw light of day that does something somewhat similar:

1. Feeds thrashed covers through ViT layer
2. Dim reduction + UMAP to 2D
3. Render in webgl for exploration

The final product is an interactive scatterplot of covers, with distance encoding image similarity (kind of like the bottom chart here, but with nice images:  http://4plymag.com/filmers/). I’m sure I could dig that up if you ever wanna explore/help finish it.

Anyways, awesome stuff - I don’t realize just how similar the composition is, especially the blue text covers.

[CossRooper]

SO sick tkp

[mattchew]

This is really sick.
By inverting the process, I wonder what the most unique covers are and in what ways.

[Yakusoku2]

Very enjoyable! Thank you!

[ferguu]

Expand Quote

as a skatenerd who loves seeing composition like this, this is amazing work!

I’m sure Burnett had majority input when he was designing covers in the 2000’s and onwards and saw historical similarities. I’m sure Jake was involved but definitely a team effort.

Who did the most magazine layout editing for 80’s- was it Fausto himself? and for the 90’s?

[close]

As a skatenerd based in the UK, I wish I was able to see any of the op
The image hosting site is not accessible to us over here, and this is a great thread idea.

It's so sick you gotta get a VPN. Tor Browser has one built in. Or DuckDuckGo. TunnelBear has a free 500MB a week I think.... Just don't use France they have the same restrictions I think.

Makes me wonder if there's ever been an ABD cover... Probably as a tribute but how about unintentionally? Or even better intentional and malicious?

[somethingmustbreaknow]

hell yeah. nice work man.
very intersting

[bugtown]

The image hosting site is not accessible to us over here, and this is a great thread idea.

imgur is banned in the UK? The fuck is goin on over there

edit: ah i see imgur have blocked UK ip's so they don't have to comply with british law to verify users' ages

[ejazzle]

this is the type of autism i come to slap for

[CHONGO]

this is the type of autism i come to slap for

hahahaha no kidding

[tkp]

The comparison tool is up at https://shoplurker.com/labs/thrasher-covers/

This is great - we have a 4ply article that never saw light of day that does something somewhat similar:

1. Feeds thrashed covers through ViT layer
2. Dim reduction + UMAP to 2D
3. Render in webgl for exploration

The final product is an interactive scatterplot of covers, with distance encoding image similarity (kind of like the bottom chart here, but with nice images:  http://4plymag.com/filmers/). I’m sure I could dig that up if you ever wanna explore/help finish it.

Anyways, awesome stuff - I don’t realize just how similar the composition is, especially the blue text covers.

That sounds pretty advanced. Definitely interested in checking the results out if you make them public. Not sure how much I could contribute since ViT (Vision Transformer) and UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection) are completely new concepts to me.

After using your search tool ( http://4plymag.com/thrashersearch/ ), one of the next steps I'd like to attempt is training models to classify and identify tricks, or just start going down the image recognition path.

[grinder]

Expand Quote

as a skatenerd who loves seeing composition like this, this is amazing work!

I’m sure Burnett had majority input when he was designing covers in the 2000’s and onwards and saw historical similarities. I’m sure Jake was involved but definitely a team effort.

Who did the most magazine layout editing for 80’s- was it Fausto himself? and for the 90’s?

[close]

Probably Kevin Thatcher

a quote from Jason Jesse´s people I´ve met from March 1995 may throw some light on this

[sidekickman]

this is cool, props for making a tool for people to mess around with if you release it

[benboardbreaker]

I've spent some time going deeper down the image search + comparison rabbit hole and applied similar methods to Thrasher magazine covers.

4plymag and samespotsameangle have done or are doing neat things with manual analysis in the search for patterns.

There is a percentage shown in the images below. It represents a similarity rating calculated by comparing image hashes, which are digital fingerprints generated from a photo’s visual patterns or colors. The control image (100%) is what the others are being compared to

Angle, spot, trick, graphic design

(note: no control image, just a random discovery)

Angle, spot, trick


Fit check


Depth perception


Black + white photo / blue text


Pool slash


Wallrides / image element structure


Skater location / body stance, transition lip and rail have a similar angle


Red border


Colors


Going frontside


Water gap


I plan to release access to the cover comparison tool.

Edit: Jan 3rd, 2026 - tool is live at https://shoplurker.com/labs/thrasher-covers

I respect your autism. I can see it.

[kookdusoleil]

RIP Mike Bouchard, that nosegrind cover at Love is all-time

[Not_Bruce]

I've spent some time going deeper down the image search + comparison rabbit hole and applied similar methods to Thrasher magazine covers.

4plymag and samespotsameangle have done or are doing neat things with manual analysis in the search for patterns.

There is a percentage shown in the images below. It represents a similarity rating calculated by comparing image hashes, which are digital fingerprints generated from a photo’s visual patterns or colors. The control image (100%) is what the others are being compared to

Angle, spot, trick, graphic design

(note: no control image, just a random discovery)

Angle, spot, trick


Fit check


Depth perception


Black + white photo / blue text


Pool slash


Wallrides / image element structure


Skater location / body stance, transition lip and rail have a similar angle


Red border


Colors


Going frontside


Water gap


I plan to release access to the cover comparison tool.

Edit: Jan 3rd, 2026 - tool is live at https://shoplurker.com/labs/thrasher-covers

love this!

[noxiousPond]

this is the type of autism i come to slap for

Solid comment.

This is super cool. I don’t know what the point is but I like it.

[radcunt]

That no comply is so fuckin' sick

[tkp]

This is really sick.
By inverting the process, I wonder what the most unique covers are and in what ways.

Good idea. I'll look into that.


On a side note, I've released a site for New Yorker covers: https://shoplurker.com/labs/newyorker-covers/

[GnarAlarm]

Not much to add, just wanted to give props. I love this.

[sharkjumper]

Some of this isn’t very surprising. Thrasher has had the same art direction team (Cameron Padgett and Adam Creagan) for at least 20 years. I used to skate with Adam and know he’s been there since the early 2000s. But would need to check old issues to know for sure when those guys started. But that means the style has been consistent. And I think the photographer making the photo weighs heavy on how it appears. It would be interesting to know if the similar cover photos were the same photographer. I know that Atiba shot Tyshawn’s subway cover. Did he shoot that no comply cover too? Where’s that overlap?