Robert Williams Trading Cards: Crimes Against the Eye

CRIMES AGAINST THE EYE Trading Cards by ROBERT WILLIAMS (1991). 1st printing.

Williams is one of the most famous and enduring figures of the underground comix movement. A regular contributor to Zap, he was also the most dedicated to a serious painting career. Williams has created a significant number of surrealistic paintings and "super cartoons" that have appeared in several collections, including Visual Addiction (Last Gasp), The Lowbrow Art of Robert Williams (Rip Off Press) and Malicious Resplendence (Fantagraphics).

His masterpiece painting Appetite for Destruction was the short-lived cover of Guns n' Roses' controversial debut album of the same name (under pressure from feminist staffers, Geffen Records quickly switched to safer cover art). He's the publisher and guiding light of Juxtapoz, a magazine dedicated to other contemporary artists whose work is influenced by comics, tattoos and "junk" culture.

Williams created two popular trading card sets for Kitchen Sink Press in the early '90s. The first of these was Crimes Against the Eye in 1991. The 36-card set reproduced hand-selected Williams paintings on UV-coated card stock. The card backs describe each painting in typical Williams "art speak": a common (short) title is followed by the "Museum Catalog Title" (long and pretentious) and then a third smart-allecky "Colloquial Title." These cards were originally published as a boxed set.

What we are offering here is the full 36-card set minus only the box. The set offered here is the scarcer first printing with distinctive monotone blue-green ink backs (KSP's 2nd printing featured black & orange card backs). Lots of nekkid girls, skulls, hot rods, bulging eyeballs and trademark grotesquerie, as only Robert Williams can do 'em! Adults only. $12.00