Archive Collection of Ron Cobb 1960s Sawyer Press Collection

Ron Cobb

Known to many people from the 1960’s and 70’s who surrounded themselves with social political ideals and awareness of the currents flowing through the underground and counter culture movement. 

Cobb, like so many people of the era were effected by the political currents of the time, seeing the dissent growing in the youth culture movement. We know of the music of protest and awareness but the underground comix artists like Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, the amazing and biting wit of the Mad Magazine and the group around Harvey Kurtzman, along with those and others Ron Cobb stands side by side with this group and figures.
Ronald Ray Cobb (September 21, 1937 – September 21, 2020) was an American-Australian artist.
Some of his works….“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. 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. His cartoons were featured in the back to the land magazine Mother Earth News." 

As mentioned the scene between the genres sometimes blended, how could they not, ideas and creativity were not isolated, there was once a thing called collaboration and in the case of Cobb, he designed the cover for Jefferson Airplane's 1967 album, After Bathing at Baxter’s.

Sturgis Antiques, working with an estate in Maryland has brought together this collection of artifacts from a friend with the Artist. The estate knew and grew up in California and was part of the scene of the 60’s and 70’s figures of the Los Angles political, advertising, and media scene. 

When my client brought this collection to my attention, I was excited, excited to see how well items by the estate’s friend were kept secure and safe.

**In the collection there is the great and very limited book, “May Fellow Americans Cartoons from the Underground Press Syndicate” A Sawyer Press Publication 2nd edition 1968 Softcover book

**RCD-25 25 Drawings. This special collection is unbound and loose pages of the book. Not a published edition but an assembled and mock up of the book. 24 pages of the 25 proposed.

**32 looses pages of art titled “ Cobb Editorial Cartoon For Release with dates and the address of Sawyer Press. Most are printed on slick glossy paper, much like early musician press photos. One is stamped on the back with the Sawyer Press stamp. #256-261 are printed on a texture paper stock. Included in the collection is the title image with the caption of “this is an actual sample of the weekly drawings mailed out each Saturday to members of the Sawyer Press Syndicate.” This pieces were used to “spread the message” to other magazines and small press operations around the country and the World.
Numbers include: #231-261 and the Title page. 

A collection of note and in very stable condition. Images are all in Very Good to almost perfect condition. The Book has some soiling to the cover and back but the binding is tight and still intact and strong. The RCD-25 mock up has the front cover, some staining and discoloring the page, the pages inside are very fine with light marks from storage. Note, no back cover of the mock up book. 

The press images for syndication are in very good condition with slight curl to the pages. Please see the images for more details and feel free to email me with any questions.
The collection is not being broken up or separated. 

Thank you and enjoy the art of Ron Cobb