If I could point to one of the most influential graphic artists in my lifetime I would have to start with VAUGHN BODE (pronounced Bo DAY). This where graffiti begins in my opinion. BODE used a conflated, puffy style of lettering and his characters like the Cheech Wizard, the lizards and the voluptuous nymphs are mandatory elements of all the best graff artists evar. If you don’t own any Cheech Wizard or Junkwaffel comics and you consider yourself a true graff artist I suggest that you should leave the house now and buy his entire series, or hang yourself nude from the shower head in your parents’ basement.
VAUGHN BODE was a rebel artist and storyteller. He was one of the fabled underground artists along with ROBERT CRUMB who would give birth to subversive publications like Eerie and Heavy Metal.
VAUGHN BODE was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War as well as an underground voice for the civil rights movement. It was with his art and his storytelling that he challenged the J. EDGAR HOOVER led government and their attempts to censor all forms of art, and more importantly, thought.
It’s interesting to understand how a high, horny green lizard could become such an icon of the rebel artists that would leave their designs along subway cars and handball courts throughout New York City. Everyone could relate to these characters, and we certainly would lust after the women that BODE illustrated with all the curves that his pencil could contain.
The BODE image gallery.
I gave Puma a lot of shit for their Yo! MTV Raps bastardization project, but after I saw that they gave love to one of my heroes I had to fall back. They should have made a hat as well since the Cheech Wiz was all about his hat.
Like so many special voices VAUGHN BODE was taken aboard the mothership before we could all experience his gifts firsthand, but his comicbooks still exist and they are still relevant considering we are governed now by an administration with more dirty tricks than NIXON himself.
I imagine that VAUGHN BODE is on the mothership right now making the walls beautiful and oh so colorful. Real recognizes the realest, and DP Dot Com respects the architects.
