Sunday, January 20, 2013

Keep on Truckin'

Talking with grandkids after church, I made made a cultural reference to the hippy-dippy days of the late '60s when I mentioned Keep on Trucking, the iconic image by Robert Crumb.  The grandkids, of course, had no idea what I was talking about.  Originally appearing in Zap! comics, the image resonated with the culture of the day and was immediately pirated.  Crumb moved to protect the copyright on his work and the case eventually made its way to the Ninth US Circuit, where Crumb was able to repair his rights to the image.  Crumb never really wanted to become the iconic image of the hippys, but the damage was done.

It is a very cool image, and when I started Googling today to let the grandkids know what I was talking about, I was surprised to find that Crumb's image is still printed on T-shirts today.
 I may have to order a T-shirt.  I still think that the image is cool, and it certainly ties me back to my high-school/college days.

1 comment:

Oldlurker said...

Thanks for that blast from the past, Pawpaw. The image was also put to music by the Grateful Dead, but I'm not sure whether that was before or after. Some parts of those days don't deserve glorification, but it was our youth, and that DOES deserve remembering. Guess I've got to get one too.