Rick Griffin's Last Drawing Before He Died

RICK DREW ORIGINAL ART ON TWO OF THESE SERIGRAPHS I PUBLISHED, JUST A DAY OR SO BEFORE HIS TRAGIC UNTIMELY DEATH MID-AUGUST 1991. CONTAINS AUTHENTIC SIGNATURES AND ART BY RICK GRIFFIN, ALTON KELLY AND STANLEY MOUSE

The very rare original 1969 first version of this famous Halloween concert poster sells regularly in the five to seven thousand dollar range. The urban legend has it the local acid dealers of the day were cutting up the 100s of little Lon Chaney heads into orange sunshine blotter tabs. Whatever reason there is that comes to be called "truth," one thing is for certain, this has always been one of the toughest posters out there to acquire ever since I began collecting and dealing them, first in my Telegraph Ave comic book store beginning August 1972, then also in my Haight Ashbury store first opened November 1976.

This is a one of a kind opportunity for the Rick Griffin and/or Grateful Dead collector who thinks they have "everything" because.....ONLY ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD CAN OWN RICK'S LAST WORK OF ART, READ ON......

Rick Griffin was a good friend of mine since 1973 when he first wandered into the Berkeley California comic book store Comics & Comix on Telegraph Ave at Dwight Way when I was partners with the late John Barrett and Bud Plant back in the day. We traded C&C's old comic books & pulps for his original art, with me first ending up with his original cover to the Print Mint edition of Tales From The Tube.

By 1991 I had became Rick's last art agent and partner when we opened a Rick Griffin Art Gallery in The Cannery at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. He created several business logos, store signage, shirt designs, etc insisting that gallery also carry comic strip book items from around the world as he remained true to all the art fields he enjoyed working in. He could never forget his Zap Comics involvement and in this piece he also pays homage to his Von Dutch roots.

Rick was coming down from his mid-age crisis, tuning back into his kids, wanting to create new art as he began the next level of his extra-ordinary career. We worked on creating a gallery where he could showcase his new work. He was at peace with himself. He was supremely confidant with his artistic abilities. This is the very last drawing Rick made before he died. He told me that day from now on all he was going to paint and draw were nude women as envisioned by the thought balloon as seen in his self-portrait of himself as artist in the scans. Within two days later, after a tremendous amount of hard work and money laid out for many months, Rick Griffin had his most unfortunate motorcycle accident.

I miss my friend. I miss the new art which would have been created in past 17 years. Never thought I would be selling this most special of momentos of a day now long ago in that galaxy now far far away inside Fisherman's Wharf. It was a fun day when me, my former partner and three of the ghods of the psychedelic poster art form, which transformed the way much of the world viewed art and is still having its impact felt in new generations of artists continuing to be inspired by that which came before, got down to the business at hand.

After much mirth and jest of us all feeling good that day, just two drawings later, Rick announced he had a hot date at the beach up north of Golden Gate Bridge along the Marin coast with a new girl friend, going surfing again, he said, before he was to head back to some where on Long Island to finish up an animation project which initially looked most promising as this veteran of lost causes kept looking towards the future.

I have absorbed a lot of Griffin lore over the past 40+ years, including having been first & foremost Rick's friend, then honored as his exclusive art agent in a gallery devoted to his work in The Cannery down in San Francisco's world-famous Fisherman's Wharf opening back in May 1991, the year of his untimely demise. The aftermath of the 6.5 years of his probate wars from leaving no will was such it has been almost 15 years before I could consider dealing in my friend's work again as the memories remain very strong. I am soon completing work on a bio-book about the last two years of my friend Rick Griffin's life as well as the aftermath of his death. There is a lot of urban myth out there about what happened. I call it Rick Griffin: Without A Net.

What i offer you now is the chance to say, "I own Rick's last piece of art he ever did before he died."

A SCARCE Artifact of American History Original Remarked Seriagraph Of An Original Poster From A By-Gone Era
MEASURES A HUGE 39 X 23 INCHES