| For the last decade artist Robert Armstrong has been lending his unique cartooning style of illustration to a wide range of Gryphon projects, including the Gryphon Gazette, ads in various magazines, and of course the wonderful headings that make our website more fun to browse. Bob was one of a select group of underground cartoonists in the '70s and '80s, Mickey Rat being his most memorable character, and was also the inventor, if you could call it that, of the Couch Potato. That's right, before it was a household term, and a TV show, the Couch Potato was a cartoon character, and a doll, and the subject of a newsletter called "The Tuber's Voice,," which was the work of Bob Armstrong and a few pals. |
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| Bob has a long history in the music scene as well, being one of the founding members of R. Crumb's Cheap Suit Seranaders. We hope to be able to offer a recent CD of one of Bob's more recent musical projects, The Joy Buzzards, on our mercantile page soon. Other highlights in his long career include playing that eerie musical saw solo for the opening and closing theme music for the movie version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. |
| The photo here shows Bob with some of his wacky hand-painted instruments. Some of the ukuleles shown below were made in small batches that we sold here at Gryphon. Bob also did the artwork for the Collings Cowboy model guitar with a wonderful stenciled scene on the face, and a similar cowboy theme that we used on a couple of less expensive Martins sold here at Gryphon. The guitars are no longer available (although a Collings Cowboy could perhaps be ordered), but hand-painted ukes are still available through Bob directly. If one of the designs shown here tickles your fancy, you can contact him through his website, "Armstrong's Art & Novelty Hut". |
