Rick Griffin a.o. – Tales from the Tube No. 1

Tales from the Tube as an insert for Surfer magazine in 1972. An expanded 32-page version of the comic was published separately by The Print Mint, Berkeley the following year. Apart from Griffin’s own work it contained contributions by S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, Bill Ogden and other renowned comic artists. Unique to the Print Mint edition of this zine are four pages at the centre printed in colour on glossy paper. The condition of this particular copy is fine with only minor damage to the spine, slight yellowing of the newsprint pages and a 60¢ sticker covering the original 50¢ cover price.

Rick Griffin (1944-1991) was one of the leading poster artists of the psychedelic era. Griffin designed some of the iconic psychedelic posters of the 1960s and his work appeared regularly in Surfer magazine, Promethean Enterprises and Robert Crumb’s Zap Comix. Griffin was at the heart of the southern California surfing culture and much of his work – such as Tales from the Tube – centres around this psychedelic subculture. After having travelled to Mexico on a surfing trip with his wife Ida Pfefferle, Griffin moved to San Francisco in 1966 where, amongst other things, he designed posters for The Grateful Dead and the Family Dog concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. Griffin returned to southern California in 1969 and became a born again Christian the next year. He died in a motorcycle accident in Petaluma, California in 1991.