Robert Crumb [Original Art] [African-American Jazz] [Bands] [Orchestra]

1984. Two original works in pencil by famed underground artist R. Crumb, measuring 6 1/2 x 8 1/4". Drawn on lined paper.

One of the drawings features a prominent burning candle surrounded by a series of small heads and busts of humans and animals. The following is written: "Luis Russel [sic] and his Orchestra / McKinney's / Cotton Pickers / In Dat Mornin' Jimmy [sic] Lunceford / Charlie Johnson's Orchestra / Buy Buy Baby / Chocolate Dandies / Beale Street Blues / Creep / Ben Polla(ck?) / Candle / March 22, 1962 / Benny Moten / 1984 / 1962."

The second drawing features Crumb's signature depiction of a female character. Here, the woman is saying, "Where's Manlove Bradley?" I am able to find a reference to this sketch in a past Heritage auction record that describes a sketch by Crumb in the style of an Ivory Soap advertisement. On the verso of the soap sketch is a doodle of a voluptuous woman asking "Where's Manlove Bradley?" In fact, the entire sketch is the same as the sketch that we have here. The cataloger for Heritage states that, "She is undoubtedly an early version of his character Mabel." R. Crumb, from his humble beginnings as a greeting card artist in Kansas City, went on to become a sixties icon with his work for Zap Comix. He was responsible for creating Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, and is now collected by museums and galleries across the globe. He was the subject of the Terry Zwigoff documentary Crumb (1994).