Here we have an original Greg Irons screen print for the 1980 Tattoo Convention in Sacramento, California. What can I say, you don’t see many original advertisements for tattoo conventions from 45 years ago, and especially ones created by an icon from the comic AND tattoo world. What a grizzled dude, exploding with tattoos around every corner. He looks seriously amped as well. He’s a pice of flash are himself. What a rare and fantastic piece from back in a time where tattoos were fewer and farther between.
Here’s a bio of The Man, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Irons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He moved to San Francisco, California, in 1967, where he soon found work designing posters for Bill Graham at The Fillmore Auditorium.
He worked on the film Yellow Submarine, then returned to work for Graham Productions. He soon branched out into album covers and "comix" work for the Print Mint, Last Gasp Eco-Funnies, and other local underground publishers. Irons' collaborations with writer Tom Veitch in the early 1970s (the creative team was known as "GI/TV") included Deviant Slice Funnies, Legion of Charlies. Other contributions to underground comics included Skull Comix and Slow Death. A solo comic entitled Light Comitragies was published in June 1971 by the Print Mint.
In the mid-1970s he began book illustration work, mainly for Bellerophon Books. One of these was a coloring-book format illustration of Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" which was issued with "The Miller's Tale" illustrated by Gilbert Shelton. In 1979, he illustrated The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album which was both a coloring book and a short adventure module authored by Gary Gygax. It was also around this time he began doing tattooing.
On November 14, 1984, while on a working vacation in Bangkok, Thailand, Irons was struck and killed by a bus.
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The vintage screen print was created by Greg Irons. It’s stamped “G. Irons” and dated 1980. It was printed by City Screen in San Francisco. The vintage screen print came out of an estate of a dead head that traveled with the Grateful Dead for over 20 years.
The tattoo conventions print on fabric measures 15" tall and 12 1/2" wide. The fabric has patina throughout and diagnal crease in the bottom right corner. Nothing takes away from the power of the crazy cool and rare image. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO boxes). Free shipping on the flash art.
I salute you, Mr. Irons. What a legacy you left for us.
