Buffalo native Larry Todd (1948-) studied art at Syracuse University and began his professional career in the noted Science Fiction digest Galaxy Magazine in 1967. He met fellow student/Galaxy artist Vaughn Bode, and they began a famous series of collaborative oil paintings that included covers for Warren Publishing’s horror magazines Vampirella, Creepy, and Eerie. Todd’s pilgrimage to Underground Comix mecca San Francisco in the early ‘70s led to him becoming a prolific creator and contributor to many titles, including Skull Comix, Paranoia, and Young Lust. His signature character Dr. Atomic starred in a successful series with multiple printings, mixing sci-fi hi-jinx with practical marijuana cultivation tips.
In 1982 pre-eminent publisher Last Gasp of San Francisco released “It’s A Dog’s Life”, which collected several of Todd’s earlier strips with new material, to flesh out his brilliantly dystopic nightmare vision set in the grim “future” Las Vegas of 1996. Human heads are grafted onto canine bodies, resulting in hybrid beings with no legal rights but with their intellects and aspirations unaltered.
Todd’s Science Fiction paintings have been likened to “novels in oil”, and this haunting vision is no different! The slick future metropolis pictured here stands in stark contrast to the ultimate dispossessed of society, the dog-men, whose eyes betray the people trapped within the animals.
The piece offered below is the original artwork illustrated for the comic It's a Dog's Life. The oil painting measures 16"x20" and is composed on a Masonite panel.
(D2183)
(MEARS Auction LOA)