Greg Irons (September 29, 1947 – November 14, 1984) was an American poster artist,

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

cartoonist, animator and

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...

Profile

Irons was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, 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 The Print Mint, Inc. was a major publisher and distributor of underground comix based in the San Francisco Bay Area during the genre's late 1960s-early 1970s heyday. Starting as a retailer of psychedelic posters, the Print Mint soon evolved into ...

Last Gasp Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to * Last Gasp (publisher) * ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode * '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled * ''The Last Gasp'' (novel) * "Last Gasp" (song) {{dab ...

''Eco-Funnies'', and other local underground publishers. Irons' collaborations with writer

Tom Veitch Tom Veitch (September 26, 1941 – February 14, 2022) was an American writer, known for his work in the comic book industry. He was also a novelist and a poet. He was the brother of comics writer and artist Rick Veitch. Early life Veitch was ...

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 ''Slow Death'' is an underground comix anthology published by Last Gasp, the first title published by the San Francisco Bay Area-based press. Conceived as an ecologically themed comics magazine (in conjunction with the first Earth Day), the titl ...

''. A solo comic entitled ''Light Comitragies'' was published in June 1971 by the

. In the mid-1970s he began book illustration work, mainly for Bellerophon Books. One of these was a coloring-book format illustration of

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's "

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale "The Wife of Bath's Tale" ( enm, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe) is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. It provides insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and was probably of interest to Chaucer himsel ...

" which was issued with "

The Miller's Tale "The Miller's Tale" ( enm, The Milleres Tale) is the second of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' (1380s–1390s), told by the drunken miller Robin toquite (a Middle English term meaning requite or pay back, in both good and negative ways ...

" illustrated by

Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940) is an American cartoonist and a key member of the underground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground characters ''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'', '' Fat Freddy's Cat'', and ''Wonder W ...

. In 1979, he illustrated ''The Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album'' which was both a

coloring book A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media ...

and a short adventure module authored by

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

. 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. The August 1985 issue of ''Swamp Thing'', vol. 2, issue #39, written by Alan Moore, is dedicated to Greg Irons.

References

External links

Tattoo Archive's biography

Bio in ''Comics Journal''

Brief writeup about the D&D coloring book with illustrated title page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irons, Greg Underground cartoonists American animators American poster artists American tattoo artists 1984 deaths 1947 births Pedestrian road incident deaths Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Road incident deaths in Thailand