A Generation-Defining Saga Captured By Today’s Most
Distinguished Historical Graphic Novelist
It’s with great honor and enthusiasm that we introduce you
to the original art to Grateful Dead Origins by Noah Van
Sciver.
Spanning 1964 through 1969, Van Sciver shows the story of
the Grateful Dead’s beginnings, and in doing so provides a
vibrant, bawdy, and visionary portrait of the sixties
counterculture. In addition to bandmembers Jerry Garcia,
Phil Lesh, Pigpen, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey
Hart, you’ll encounter icons like Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady,
Count Basie, Janis Joplin, Bill Graham, Mountain Girl,
Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Brian Jones, Peter Tork, and even
Ronald Reagan, all striving to assert their vision in the
tumultuous culture of the times. Van Sciver’s art also
portrays the lush, psychedelic landscape of San Francisco
itself at a moment in time when the city was the epicenter
of massive cultural change.
I was first drawn to Noah’s remarkable art through his
historical graphic novels The Hypo, a dramatization of
Abraham Lincoln’s battles with depression and Eugene V.
Debs, a biography of the socialist labor activist. Those
books showcase his talent for humanizing the subjects of
American history, making figures we may see as lofty seem
deeply relatable. This led to discovering Fante Bukowski,
Noah’s acidly funny series of graphic novels about a
struggling writer that lampoons the tropes of 20th Century
literary culture. His most recent graphic novel, Joseph
Smith & The Mormons goes deeper, interrogating a
uniquely American approach to defining spirituality and
community. In Grateful Dead Origins, he accesses all of
these themes and more, providing a humane, electrifying,
and compelling portrait of the great band and their era in
a way that also speaks to our own.
About
Noah Van Sciver 
