Raymond Pettibon

Interview and Photos by Nicholas Gazin.

Raymond has stacks of drawings inside his studio. He pulled this one out to talk about something but got distracted. Vice: I had some questions prepared, but I’m getting distracted. How about we just start with some questions about the stuff in your studio?
Raymond Pettibon: How about this painting of a guy surfing giant waves? Why did you decide to make this?
I love the concentric lines of color. I’ve been accused of ripping off that sort of texture from you.
Depending on how Raymond decides to complete it, this may or may not be a skinhead funeral. Can you tell me about this drawing with the skinheads?
Right now it’s just a bunch of guys carrying a body?
Does this type of stuff come from your head, or is it based off photographic references?
So the characters are slowly fleshed out the longer you work on them?
This is a good example of how Raymond juxtaposes slight lines of ink with big fields of black. This one with the large inky shape and light brushwork is interesting. What’s going on here?
Terry and the Pirates Steve Canyon This might be a corny question, but here it goes: What is your favorite thing to draw?
Have you ever seen Secret Identity, the collection of black-and-white illustrations Joe Shuster made for porno booklets after he was fired from Superman and estranged from DC Comics? A lot of your drawings remind me of his use of black ink.
All the characters look a lot like Superman and Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, but they’re sexually humiliating each other. There are butt-paddling machines, men in hoods, people tied up, and lots of whips. It’s really strange and scary.
Do you remember when you first read a comic book?
Were they mostly EC titles?
A random drawing that was on the floor near piles of comics. When did you start drawing regularly as a serious endeavor?
Did your father teach you to draw at all? I know he was a painter.
How about your mom? Was she supportive of your art?
Were there any specific visual references that inspired you as a kid?
When did you change your name from Ginn to Pettibon?
This is some sort of scary demon-monster drawing that is exemplary of Raymond’s use of cross-hatching and black ink. At what point did you start playing music?
But weren’t you in a band with your brother Greg before Black Flag got started?
When Black Flag formed, were you already drawing these confrontational and provocative images? For instance, the drawing of the giant devil throwing a cop.
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No, I think it’s insightful, but I really want to know the story of how you got pulled into doing so much of Black Flag’s graphics.
Sandy Koufax is one of Raymond’s favorite baseball players. This illustration of him is almost life-size. What about the Black Flag logo? It’s almost as ubiquitous as the McDonald’s logo in my mind. How did you come up with that?
Yours is rigid and imposing.
Is there any reference to worshiping evil or anything like that? I’m not implying that you admire that idea, but maybe it’s some sort of commentary on the weirdness of flags and pledging allegiance to them?
So you’re saying human nature is not inherently evil or violent?
points to his drawings Impotence?
Do you have any tattoos?
Why were you at Pelican Bay?
At this point Raymond was just shuffling through hundreds of old drawings by him and his relatives, all of which were great.