War News

Robert Crumb. 1991. [Logo]. War News, March 2.
Crumb designed the logo for an anti-war (first Gulf war) newspaper put out by Warren Hinckle.

Seed

Poster created for an R. Crumb exhibition at the Modernism Museum.

"Seed", 32 x 17"

The Future according to Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb. 1988. "A Short History of America...With Epilogue." Back cover for Whole Earth Review. Winter 1988. No. 61. 20th Anniversary Issue.

Sequel to "A Short History of America" first published in Whole Earth Review's predecessor publication, CoEvolution Quarterly (Fall 1979, #23) and the subject of numerous prints over the years (a print with this epilogue was published by Kitchen Sink Press). The three scenarios: a nightmarish wasteland, a Jetson's funky high-tech or a hippiesh, rural idyll. It looks like he was sort of right on all 3 counts as today's world looks like a mix of the three. Although an extension of Short History of America, the Epilogue also stands on its own. Five years later, Crumb's cover for the Whole Earth Review 25th Anniversary Edition, the pessimistic view seems to have set in. The original "Short History" and "Epilogue" are shown on pages 34-35.

HINCKLE. FREE AT LAST.

1985. Hinckle. Free At Last. Cardboard. 21 1/8" X 13 3/4". Signed "R. Crumb" lower right.

An unusual Crumb piece: a cardboard poster that slots into a
newspaper rack. Warren Hinckle was a San Francisco journalist who had a column in the Examiner. He had written a series of articles critical of the SF police and then mayor Dianne Feinstein. A few days after Hinckle penned an article about the arrest of porn star Marilyn Chambers during constant raids on the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Street Theater, he was arrested for walking his basset hound, Bentley, without a leash.

A humorous critique of excessive police force. Hinckle is dragged off by three big cops. He cuts an amusing character with his eye patch and long hair. The lines radiating from his head make a halo-like effect, creating a kind of St. Hinckle. His dog Bentley is also carried away. The drawing effectively expresses the ridiculousness of three beefy cops dragging away a harmless journalist and his dog, a microcosm of the widespread resentment felt by the counterculture against authority and the police.

For related information see the Wild Dog poster. 

Wild Dog

Robert Crumb and Victor Moscoso. 1985. Wild Dog. Poster. 18 x 24 inches.

“You've got it about right, those columns were in the Chronicle and the rack card was to herald my moving from the Chronicle to the rival Examiner. Crumb also did some editorial- cartoon type drawings for the Chronicle to accompany my columns about the absurdity of it it taking 30 cops to bust one naked woman. You should see the "Wild Dogs" poster Crumb did at the time in partnership with cartoonists Dan O'Neill and Victor Moscoso. The "Wild Dogs" poster was commissioned by the Mitchell Brothers, whose O'Farrell Street Theater, which Hunter Thompson called "The Carnegie Hall of sex in America," Feinstein was constantly raiding and where the Chambers bust occured. (Chambers before starring in the Mitchell's porn classic "Beyond the Green Door" was the cover girl model for the Ivory Snow "99 and 44/100 per cent pure" soapboxes. The poster portrays Feinstein as Little Bo Beep with a huge hoop skirt under which the porcine police are beating the shit out of everyone under her undies -- including me. The "Wild Dogs" poster was famously plastered on the marble stall walls of every bathroom, ladies and gents, in San Francisco City Hall...If you want a copy of the poster -- its included in a book I'm just completing called "Who Killed Hunter S. Thompsom" to be published by Last Gasp of San Francisco in June -- (Crumb drew the scene of copy mayhem under Feinstein's hoop skirt.)...

Cheers,

Warren Hinckle

Pepper & Stern Rare Books, Inc.

Robert Crumb. 1984. Pepper & Stern Rare Books, Inc. Black & white. 18 x 24 inches. Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from the poster’s publisher.

A limited printing of 100 posters illustrated by R. Crumb to promote this antiquarian book selling firm’s rare book catalog; the image was used on the catalog itself as well. The drawing features a self-portrait of Crumb. Documented in Odds & Ends including a "reddish" version on the back cover.

Orpheus Books

Robert Crumb. 1981. Orpheus Books. White plastic shopping bag. Around 16 by 9 inches (excluding handle). Adapted from an illustration in Winds of Change, Vol. II No. 11 (June 1981) p. 13 (see Odds & Ends, 1981 page).

“Dear Michael,
I received you letter, today; thank you! I will send out your Winds of Change in the morning. I also included one of my old bags from my bookstore. I used to have a physical shop, and that's where I met Robert Crumb. I instantly liked him... This was 30 years ago, and we are still in touch... Anyhow, he did the drawing on my bag; he actually drew it for an ad in Winds of Change, and I liked it so much that I asked him if I could use it on my bags and business cards, and he gladly consented... I saved several of the bags... so...........................................it's yours to keep. I have the original drawing in a frame, above my kitchen table/work area.
Regards,
Robert Liebman Orpheus Books