Robert Crumb Zap Comix #0 Complete 3-Page Story "Ducks Yas Yas" Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1968).... (Total: 3 Items)

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Robert Crumb Zap Comix #0 Complete 3-Page Story "Ducks Yas Yas" Original Art (Apex Novelties, 1968). "This is a story about big city blues, about the stoned out gurus, hopped-up saints and flunked out hipsters who roam the streets and stay up all night and don't watch television!" So begins this three-page saga of a 1960s New York stoner and his quest for spiritual enlightenment (...or cash, drugs, or sex -- whichever comes first). It's a true hippy comix classic, the quintessential R. Crumb comic strip. It was created while Crumb was still mostly unknown to all except those few free thinkers that happened to pick up one of the 1967 Underground newspapers like East Village Other that carried the occasional comic strips Robert submitted. Encouraged by the publisher of one of those papers to do a complete comic book, Crumb hid out in his San Francisco apartment in October, 1967 and dashed out pages like mad for what was to be Zap Comix #1 -- until that publisher ran off with the art. Crumb spent the next month doing a second book that wound up as issue #1; when Xerox copies of the first book's art turned up, they were published as Zap #0 (as #1 and 2 had already been released by then). Finally, years later, the art was returned to Robert (actually to his estranged wife, who, along with lawyer Albert Morse, promptly sold the pages). According to Robert, he never got the chance to see the art or use it to reprint the book, which remained in print using those slightly retouched photocopies.
The artwork was drawn with the Rapidograph mechanical pens that Crumb had brought with him from Cleveland and his job at American Greetings, where he designed humorous greeting cards. Most of the art was put down freehand in ink right on sketchbook paper, although a few panels were loosely sketched-in using a pencil. The image areas for each page averaged 7.5" x 10". There's a hint of handling wear in the outer borders, but the artwork remains in Excellent condition, which is quite remarkable considering the times in which they were created. Pages 1 and 3 were signed in later years by Crumb.
Finding any published R. Crumb comic book original art from this period is remarkable, but getting the chance to bid on a complete story like this is practically unheard of. It may never happen again, as most stories wind up being sold page by page. Here's a second chance to own a cultural treasure from the bygone 1960s!

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Auction Dates

August, 2014

7th-9th Thursday-Saturday

Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 36

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