Artist Drew Friedman has assembled a nice gallery of airbrush illustrator extraordinaire Robert Grossman’s work. I became familiar with Grossman’s illustrations by reading National Lampoon (Thank goodness the Boulder Public Library subscribed to it so I could read it when I was 11 years old). Grossman also did work for Paul Krassner’s The Realist, and illustrated the cover of The Firesign Theatre’s LP, Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers.
Drew says:
Illustrator, sculptor, comics artist, animator Robert Grossman has had an astounding career covering the last 50 years. To say he’s the greatest airbrush artist/caricaturist of all time isn’t hyperbole, it’s an understatement. Picking just a few samples from his incredible body of work is a near impossible task (he’s created over 500 magazine covers alone!) but I’m presenting some of my favorites. If anyone deserves to have a career retrospective/anthology it’s Bob Grossman. Check out these beautifully rendered, consistently brilliant and memorable illustrations, most chosen from the 60’s-80’s. As Steven Heller wrote: “his mordant wit is never duplicated”.
Bob is still going strong, turning out wonderful new drawings and comic strips regularly for, among others, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic and the NY Observer where I’ve been proud to have alternated with him as a regular cover artist for the last 20 years.