"One evening in the mid sixties I accompanied a writer friend to the editorial office of an alternative 'underground' newspaper that was just beginning to circulate around the streets of Hollywood, a weekly called the 'Los Angeles Free Press'. My friend was picking up a manuscript he had submitted to the paper and thought I might be interested. We arrived at the 'Fifth Estate' coffee house, at the east end of the Sunset Strip. It was a popular hangout for ageing beatniks and youthful hippies. I knew the place fairly well and occasionally hung out there myself. However, I was surprised when my friend led me to the back of the table service area, through a door I had never noticed, and down a flight of stairs into a dimly lit basement. The place was cluttered with composing tables, various machines and old furniture.
This is where I met Art Kunkin, the publisher and editor of the 'Freep', sitting at an ancient roll top desk under a single light bulb, looking for all the world like a young Leon Trotsky. After a short tour around the office, I suddenly realized that I could submit my cartoons and get them published with limited censorship, so long as I didn’t ask to be paid. I immediately offered Kunkin one of my rejected cartoons from Playboy Magazine. (I always carried them with me in a beat up old briefcase, you never know) and joined the staff of the Free Press as the editorial cartoonist for the next five years. Toward the end of the sixties my cartoons were syndicated in over eighty counter cultural newspapers across the United States as well as in Europe and parts of Asia, even Australia. They included the Berkeley Barb, the Chicago Seed, the East Village Other, Lot’s Wife, Farrago etc." --Ron Cobb
This is where I met Art Kunkin, the publisher and editor of the 'Freep', sitting at an ancient roll top desk under a single light bulb, looking for all the world like a young Leon Trotsky. After a short tour around the office, I suddenly realized that I could submit my cartoons and get them published with limited censorship, so long as I didn’t ask to be paid. I immediately offered Kunkin one of my rejected cartoons from Playboy Magazine. (I always carried them with me in a beat up old briefcase, you never know) and joined the staff of the Free Press as the editorial cartoonist for the next five years. Toward the end of the sixties my cartoons were syndicated in over eighty counter cultural newspapers across the United States as well as in Europe and parts of Asia, even Australia. They included the Berkeley Barb, the Chicago Seed, the East Village Other, Lot’s Wife, Farrago etc." --Ron Cobb
CLICK TO ENLARGE (Some of you just aren't getting that, what is this, 1997???)...
Ron Cobb (born 1937) is an American cartoonist, artist, writer, film designer, and film director. He lives in Sydney, Australia. By the age of 18, with no formal training in graphic illustration, Cobb was working as an animation "inbetweener" artist for Disney Studios in Burbank, California. He progressed to becoming a breakdown artist on the animation feature Sleeping Beauty (this was the last Disney film to have cels inked by hand.) After Sleeping Beauty was completed in 1957, Disney laid off Cobb and he spent the next three years in various jobs — mail carrier, assembler in a door factory, sign painter's assistant — until he was drafted in 1960 into the US Army. For the next two years he delivered classified documents around San Francisco, then, after signing up for an extra year to avoid assignment to the infantry, was sent to Vietnam in 1963 as a draughtsman for the Signal Corps. On his discharge, Cobb began freelancing as an artist. He began to contribute to the Los Angeles Free Press in 1965.
Edited and published by Art Kunkin, the Los Angeles Free Press was one of the first of the underground newspapers of the 1960s, noted for its radical politics. Cobb's editorial/political cartoons were a celebrated feature of the "Freep", and appeared regularly throughout member newspapers of the Underground Press Syndicate. However, although he was regarded as one of the finest political cartoonists of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Cobb made very little money from the cartoons and was always looking for work elsewhere. Among other projects, Cobb designed the cover for Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album "After Bathing at Baxter's". He also contributed design work for the cult film Dark Star (1973) (he drew the original design for the exterior of the Dark Star spaceship on a "Pancake House" napkin). His cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s are collected in "RCD-25" (1967), "Mah Fellow Americans" (1968), "Raw Sewage" (1971), and "My Fellow Americans" (1971). In 1969 Cobb designed the Ecology symbol, later incorporated into the Ecology Flag. In 1972, Cobb moved to Sydney, Australia, where his work appeared in alternative magazines such as "The Digger". Independent publishers Wild & Woolley published a "best of" collection of the earlier cartoon books, "The Cobb Book" in 1975. A follow-up volume, "Cobb Again", appeared in 1978.
In 1981, "Colorvision", a large-format, full-colour monograph appeared, including much of his design work for the films Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), and Conan the Barbarian (1982), the first feature for which he received the credit of "Production Designer". Cobb has also contributed production design to the films The Last Starfighter (1984), Leviathan (1989), Total Recall (1990), True Lies (1994), The Sixth Day (2000), Cats & Dogs (2001), Southland Tales (2006), and the Australian feature Garbo, which he directed. Cobb contributed the initial story for Night Skies, an earlier, darker version of E.T.. Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite. While Cobb was in Spain working on Conan the Barbarian, Spielberg supervised the rewrite into the more personal E.T. and ended up directing it himself. Cobb later received some net profit participation. In 1985 Cobb received credit as "DeLorean Time Travel Consultant" for the film Back to the Future. Cobb also co-wrote with his wife one of the 1985 Twilight Zone reboot episodes.
Edited and published by Art Kunkin, the Los Angeles Free Press was one of the first of the underground newspapers of the 1960s, noted for its radical politics. Cobb's editorial/political cartoons were a celebrated feature of the "Freep", and appeared regularly throughout member newspapers of the Underground Press Syndicate. However, although he was regarded as one of the finest political cartoonists of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, Cobb made very little money from the cartoons and was always looking for work elsewhere. Among other projects, Cobb designed the cover for Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album "After Bathing at Baxter's". He also contributed design work for the cult film Dark Star (1973) (he drew the original design for the exterior of the Dark Star spaceship on a "Pancake House" napkin). His cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s are collected in "RCD-25" (1967), "Mah Fellow Americans" (1968), "Raw Sewage" (1971), and "My Fellow Americans" (1971). In 1969 Cobb designed the Ecology symbol, later incorporated into the Ecology Flag. In 1972, Cobb moved to Sydney, Australia, where his work appeared in alternative magazines such as "The Digger". Independent publishers Wild & Woolley published a "best of" collection of the earlier cartoon books, "The Cobb Book" in 1975. A follow-up volume, "Cobb Again", appeared in 1978.
In 1981, "Colorvision", a large-format, full-colour monograph appeared, including much of his design work for the films Star Wars (1977), Alien (1979), and Conan the Barbarian (1982), the first feature for which he received the credit of "Production Designer". Cobb has also contributed production design to the films The Last Starfighter (1984), Leviathan (1989), Total Recall (1990), True Lies (1994), The Sixth Day (2000), Cats & Dogs (2001), Southland Tales (2006), and the Australian feature Garbo, which he directed. Cobb contributed the initial story for Night Skies, an earlier, darker version of E.T.. Steven Spielberg offered him the opportunity to direct this scarier sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind until problems arose over special effects that required a major rewrite. While Cobb was in Spain working on Conan the Barbarian, Spielberg supervised the rewrite into the more personal E.T. and ended up directing it himself. Cobb later received some net profit participation. In 1985 Cobb received credit as "DeLorean Time Travel Consultant" for the film Back to the Future. Cobb also co-wrote with his wife one of the 1985 Twilight Zone reboot episodes.
