Charles Plymell writes:
I sent Robert some old political cartoons on crumbling paper from 20’s-30’s & some extra sheets of the plain parchment which had beautiful tan sheen like I ran the first ZAP on. I had remembered the old comics I found in Lawrence of Andy Gump & another one of The Katzenjammer Kids that had red cardboard covers & inside black in on newsprint. The forward on one was written by Mayor LaGuardia & on the other a forward by Enrico Caruso. I put them in my mom’s basement in Wichita. When she died my Christian relatives cleaned out her house & threw them away as “dirty” I’m sure. They were sort of same format as these drawings! I wrote on the plain paper I sent to Robert with pen, pencil, & a pen that writes on slick stock as an experiment. I told him Gerard [Malanga] always prefers lead pencil on photos & that some old beams in attic were signed in carpenter pencil & held up good, but I like black ink on this stock. I signed it as “The Chresmologue”. I said he should draw something on the paper & we could pass it off as 1930 original. Haha! Today Pam got these at the P.O. !! cp
Portrait of Charles Plymell © R. Crumb [2018]
Click to enlarge.
Portrait of William S. Burroughs © R. Crumb [1985] Water Row Press.
Click to enlarge.
The portrait of William S. Burroughs was commissioned and originally published by Water Row Press in Massachusetts. It was issued in 1985 as “Meet the Beats Poster Number Two” and printed in a limited edition of 100 numbered copies by Tabula Rasa Press, as were two other “Meet the Beats Posters” by R. Crumb — of Jack Kerouac and of Allen Ginsberg.
Portrait of Jack Kerouac © R. Crumb [1985] Water Row Press.
Portrait of Allen Ginsberg © R. Crumb [1985] Water Row Press.
He did old fat Kerouac without making him grotesque or pathetic. Bravo.
A very great artist who, like Blake, will someday receive his due.
Kerouac looks just as he was : A Republican momma’s boy on bottle who couldn’t drive Neal’s stick shift.
Charles Plymell
CP’s is the Crumbest of them all, but they’d make a great run of postage stamps, to go on all those real letters that none of us can afford to send to each other anymore.
Love these.