You Call This Art?

Book excerpt: If he were alive today, he'd be a superstar. He was that good. But Greg Irons died just as his star was rising. He was only 37 years old when a speeding bus on a busy Bangkok street killed him in 1984. Irons was a psychedelic poster artist, an underground cartoonist, a book illustrator, and an emerging tattoo virtuoso who brought a new sensibility to an age-old art form. This retrospective book spans his whole artistic career, from his earliest dance posters, to his ground breaking science fiction and horror comix, to his innovative and colorful tattoo art. Greg Irons was one of the elite among posters artists who worked for Bill Graham's Fillmore Ballroom in San Francisco during the Age of Aquarius, designing posters for Chuck Berry, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother, and Paul Butterfield. You Call This Art?! reprints his finest psychedelic posters in full-color, as well as complete comic stories from Slow Death Funnies, Legion of Charlies, Deviant Slice, Yellow Dog, Thrilling Murder, and many other underground comic books. It also includes rarely seen album cover art for Jerry Garcia, Blue Cheer, Jefferson Starship and other counterculture musicians. Irons had a third career as an illustrator of children's coloring books, and pages from books including One Old Oxford Ox, Last of the Dinosaurs, Pirates, and Wyf of Bathe appear as well. Many examples of his tattoo art are also included.