1985 Rick Griffin Arthur Pendragon Sketch

We are pleased to offer this ORIGINAL Rick Griffin sketch! Around the ZAP Comix era, Griffin invented his pseudonym Arthur Pendragon, a character he portrayed as himself in ZAP issue #11. What we know of the origin of this piece is as follows:

Around 1985, Griffin became fascinated by passages in the Book of Revelations from the New Testament. He compared them with prophecies from the Old Testament, and the mysteries of the prehistoric monuments at Stonehenge. He was also very interested in studying the ancient patterns etched in the ground in South America. What did all these things have in common? He wrote observations in sketchbooks and then created a character named Arthur Pendragon to help express these ideas in an underground comix format. The name came from old comic books which included King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table stories.

The Arthur Pendragon character soon became stylized as an artist, and years later in 1989 was the subject for Rick's popular & widely known Art And Death black & white print. This became his self portrait in many ways. This early sketch most likely goes back to 1985 when Rick first began studies of the character, however the exact date of this original art is unknown. This lot presents an amazing opportunity for collectors and should not be overlooked!

--CRITICAL DETAILS--
--TITLE: Rick Griffin Arthur Pendragon Sketch
--GRADE: Not Graded
--DATE: 1985
--PRINTING: Original Sketch by the artist

Links for full resolution images:


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