Victor Moscoso


Victor Moscoso is a Spanish–American artist best known for producing psychedelic rock posters, advertisements, and underground comix in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first of the rock poster artists of the 1960s era with formal academic training and experience. He was the first of the rock poster artists to use photographic collage in many of his posters.

Early life and education

Moscoso was born in the Vilaboa parish of Culleredo, Galicia. He moved with his mother to Oleiros. His father, whose parents had already emigrated to New Jersey, was exiled to the U.S. after being persecuted by the falange. At the age of four, Moscoso and his mother, joined his father, and travelled to Brooklyn, where he stayed until he was an adult. His father worked as a painter and taught him about color combination. His mother was a seamstress
After studying art at Cooper Union in New York City and at Yale University, Moscoso moved to San Francisco in 1959. There, he attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he eventually became an instructor.

Career

Moscoso's use of vibrating colors was influenced by painter Josef Albers, one of his teachers at Yale.
Professional success came in the form of the psychedelic rock and roll poster art created for San Francisco and Denver’s dance halls and clubs. Moscoso's posters for the Family Dog dance-concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and his Neon Rose posters for the Matrix resulted in international attention during the 1967 Summer of Love. From September to December 1967, his psychedelic posters done for Chet Helms’ Family Dog Denver further extended his accomplishments and recognition. Moscoso's poster work includes album covers for musicians such as Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Herbie Hancock, Jed Davis, and David Grisman.
By 1968, Moscoso was doing work for underground comix, for such titles as Yellow Dog, Jiz Comics, Snatch Comics, El Perfecto Comics, and Zap Comix. As one of the Zap artists, his psychedelic work once again received international attention. His comics appeared in every issue of Zap from 1968 until the title's final issue in 2014; he also illustrated the covers for Zap #s 4, 10, and 13. Moscoso's comix work is notable for its repetitive framing and reliance on an eight-panel grid. The subjects of his comics in Zap are often classic characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Krazy Kat, Mr. Peanut, Bugs Bunny and Winsor McCay's Little Nemo.
In 1977, Moscoso designed radio station KMEL's mascot: a camel wearing headphones.
Moscoso has also created art for use on T-shirts, billboards and animated commercials for radio stations, for which he received two Clio awards. In addition, he was given an Inkpot Award in 1979. Moscoso was a 2018 AIGA Medalist.
In 1979, the French publisher Futuropolis published Moscoso Comix #1, a 52-page collection. Sex, Rock 'N' Roll, & Optical Illusions, a comprehensive collection of Moscoso's poster and comics work, was published by Fantagraphics in 2006, featuring introductions by Steven Heller and Milton Glaser.

Personal life

Moscoso returned to Galicia for the first time in 1965, at age 29. In 2016, he described the visit as "Travelling a 100 years back in time. I could visit my grandparents who were, at the time, very old." Even though he returned sporadically after that, he showed little interest in visiting again, as the last time he did so was in 2001. As of 2021, Moscoso still lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Exhibitions

  • 1987 : "Zap Comix #12," Psychedelic Solution Gallery — along with the Zap Comix collective
  • 2011 "Zap: Masters of Psychedelic Art, 1965-74," Andrew Edlin Gallery — along with the Zap collective
  • 2016 : "The ZAP Show: A Cultural Revolution," Society of Illustrators — along with the Zap collective; curated by Monte Beauchamp
  • 2023 : Moscoso Cosmos: The Visual Universe of Victor Moscoso Instituto Cervantes ; curated by graphic designer David Carballal
  • 2024 : Moscoso Cosmos: The Visual Universe of Victor Moscoso Instituto Cervantes ; curated by David Carballal

    Publications

Album covers

Solo titles

  • Color
  • Moscoso Comix #1 — 52 pages, including "KSAN Comics," a 9-page story from 1971 that was originally displayed inside San Francisco MUNI buses in a partnership with KSAN. "KSAN Comics" was designed as a loop that can be read at any point in the story. The twenty-three panels are all numbered on the lower left side. Moscoso Comix was later republished by Electric City Comix in 1989.

    Contributor

  • Yellow Dog #2 — 2 stories for 2 total pages
  • Zap Comix #2 — 6 stories for 8 total pages
  • Yellow Dog #7 — 1-page story
  • Jiz Comics — 1-page story
  • Radical America Komiks vol. 3, #1 — 2 stories for 2 total pages
  • Snatch Comics #2 — 1-page story
  • Zap Comix #3 — 2 stories for 8 total pages
  • Snatch Comics #3 — 1 2-page story
  • Zap Comix #4 — 2 stories
  • Zap Comix #5 — 1 6-page story
  • West Magazine — 1-page story ; also published as a postcard
  • The Rip Off Review of Western Culture #1
  • West Magazine — 1-page collaboration with Robt. Williams
  • El Perfecto Comics — 2 stories for a total of 4 pages
  • Zap Comix #6 — 1 6-page story
  • Tales from the Berkeley-Con vol. 2, #2 — 1-page story
  • Zam-Zap Jam — 2 jams with Robert Crumb for a total of 9 pages
  • Zap Comix #7 — 1 6-page story and a back cover
  • Arcade #1 — 1-page story
  • Zap Comix #8 — 2 stories for a total of 4 pages
  • Zap Comix #9 — 2 stories for a total of 5 pages
  • Zap Comix #10 — 1 9-page story and the front cover
  • Zap Comix #11 — contribution to one 1-page group jam
  • Zap Comix #12 — 1 7-page story
  • Zap Comix #13 — 8 stories for a total of 12 pages
  • Zap Comix #14 — 8 stories for a total of 16 pages, including 3 "Blobman Comics" and a 2-page collaboration with Spain Rodriguez
  • Zap Comix #15 — 3 stories for a total of 7 pages, including a Blobman comic

    Interviews

  • , 2002
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Category:American comics artists
Category:American illustrators
Category:Spanish album-cover and concert-poster artists
Category:American album-cover and concert-poster artists
Category:Artists from Galicia
Category:Living people
Category:American poster artists
Category:Spanish comics artists
Category:Spanish illustrators
Category:Spanish poster artists
Category:Psychedelic artists
Category:Underground cartoonists
Category:1936 births
Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area
Category:Yale School of Art alumni
Category:AIGA medalists