Eric Orr

Courtesy the artist

FIRST PRINTING PLUS STUDY FOR HIP HOP'S FIRST COMIC BOOK, RAPPIN' MAX ROBOT

In 1986, Bronx artist Eric Orr published his comic book Rappin’ Max Robot, a comic for and about the hip-hop community widely acknowledged today as the first hip-hop comic book. The present lot are two of Orr's first studies for the eponymous character of the comic, executed in 1984 and 1985.

Orr’s vision was to create a comic focused on Hip Hop's album releases, graffiti, and music, however, getting the comic to print was going to take some work and some help from the community. As Orr’s portfolio grew, so did his reputation. In 1982, he met New York artist Keith Haring, and the two became friends. Two years later, the pair collaborated on a series of drawings that appeared in New York City subway stations. When it was time for Orr to rally his friends and family to get the first issue of Rappin’ Max to print, Haring was one of Orr’s calls. “Keith Haring bought an ad on the back page of comic book and helped fund the first printing along with other family and friends,” Orr says. “I was able to go to a local Bronx printer and printed 500 copies.”

The first issue was released in 1986, featuring our robotic hero in scenes from the city: rap battles, hearing the latest release on his boombox, and letting dealers know he was a strictly drug-free robot. Ads for local businesses—a record store, a video store, a pizza shop—all filled the pages of issue one, each of them playing a part in getting Rappin’ Max’s comic debut from Orr’s imagination onto the page.

Distribution was also DIY: “I walked around to all of the comic stores.” Orr’s effort paid off, and the first issue sold out in a month. It even garnered some press attention including coverage in the New York Daily News. The hip-hop community, which he had in mind all through the project’s creation, was responding to it. Orr produced three more issues, although with some changes. The first issue was styled like a traditional comic book, but the later three issues, produced in a fold-out style, took their inspiration from the zine International Graffiti Times, another homegrown New York City publication that documented street art and hip-hop culture around the world.