elvis’ golden caricatures volume 6 (wild in the 60s)

Es­ti­mated reading time is 4 min­utes.

FROM 1960 THROUGH 1968, the image that Elvis Presley pre­sented to the public was some com­bi­na­tion of boy-next-door and movie-matinée-idol. In fact, the Elvis of these years comes close to re­al­izing the goody two-shoes/mama’s-boy image he was sad­dled with in some quarters!

Among car­i­ca­tur­ists, there isn’t as much in­terest in re-imagining this Elvis as there is in the Elvis the Pelvis of the ’50s and the jump-suited Elvis of the ’70s. Nonethe­less, I found an­other twelve fan­tastic pieces of art for this second volume of Elvis in the ’60s—and the sixth volume overall. (The first four were Elvis in the ’50s.)

Some of the im­ages below may not be of Elvis from the ’60s; any cor­rec­tions would be appreciated.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in the '50s by Andre Koekemoer.

Artist: Andre Koeke­moer

This is how Elvis looked shortly after his re­turn from the US Army in March 1960: nat­u­rally brown hair, cut short on the sides, and no side­burns. This is the look he sported on the pic­ture sleeve for It’s Now Or Never—a look that few car­i­ca­tur­ists have favored.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in Heaven by Glenn F.

Artist: Glenn F.

The image that Glenn E chose to work with is from Blue Hawaii. This drawing could mean that Elvis is now in heaven with the an­gels, or it could be bor­der­line blas­phe­mous, por­traying Elvis as God.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in the 60s by Ric Machin.

Artist: Ric Machin

This could be an image of Elvis from the ’50s or the ’60s, with the lean face and the red shirt. But if artist Machin in­tended the streaks in the hair to be gray, well then it could be of an Elvis who lived past 1977.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in the 60s by Chris Wahl.

Artist: Chris Wahl

This looks like the pablum Elvis of 1961-1962 who made Follow That Dream. In fact, the ex­ag­ger­ated bridge on his nose makes it look broken, which would not have been out of place for Kid Galahad.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in 1967 by Sebastian Kruger.

Artist: Se­bas­tian Kruger

This unique work sat­i­rizes the pic­ture sleeve for the 1967 single We Call On Him / You’ll Never Walk Alone. The cross around Pres­ley’s neck ac­cents the car­i­ca­ture’s theme while the smiley faces on the shades call to mind For­rest Gump.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis and Priscilla in 1968 by Pablo Lobato.

Artist: Pablo Lo­bato

Mr and Mrs Presley in post-marital bliss. Which may have lasted a day or two and then things re­turned to normal: he was away in Hol­ly­wood fending off groupies; she was home alone. Lo­ba­to’s neo-Cubist art is a de­light; Presley rarely at­tracts artists who work in so modern a style.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by unknown artist.

Artist: un­known

The face looks like ’50s Elvis, but the at­tire is from the gospel medley se­quence in the 1968 NBC-TV spe­cial. Great car­i­ca­ture; I spent quite a while trying to find the artist but gave up.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by Hirschfeld.

Artist: Hirschfeld

Elvis in black leather for the June 27 or 29, 1968, ses­sions at NBC’s studio in Bur­bank. I don’t re­call thinking Elvis’s light chest hairs peeking out from his leather top was any big deal while watching the spe­cial on De­cember 3, 1968. But it ap­par­ently made an im­pres­sion on Hirschfeld, who chose to ex­ag­gerate it so that it’s al­most the focal point of the drawing!

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by Ron K.

Artist: Ron K

This looks like the sleek, tanned Elvis of the ’68 NBC-TV special—especially with the sculpted sideburns—but the high white collar brings to mind the jump­suits of the ’70s.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by Mick H.

Artist: Mick H

An­other grotesque ren­dering of what I as­sume is a stoned Elvis in his black leather outfit from the NBC-TV special.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by Ibrahim.

Artist: Hassan Ibrahim

An­other grotesque ren­dering of what could be Elvis in his black leather outfit from the NBC-TV spe­cial, or an at­tempt at an Elvis from the ’70s.

 

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Elvis in NBC-TV special in 1968 by Rob M.

Artist: Rob M

Elvis in the “stand-up ses­sions” on June 29, 1968, at NBC Studio in Bur­bank. Grotesque but effective.

 

Golden Caricatures Volume 6: Mural of artists from the 1960s by Pablo Lobato.

FEA­TURED IMAGE: Artist Pablo Lo­bato cre­ated this time­line mural of the 1960s starting with Elvis on the left with the Bea­tles in the middle and Hen­drix at Wood­stock on the right.

 

Elvis 1957 goldsuit standup 1000

POST­SCRIP­TU­ALLY, I have planned four vol­umes of car­i­ca­tures of Elvis in the ’50s, and two each for the ’60s and the ’70s. There are at least two artists who have done enough high-quality car­i­ca­tures of Presley to merit a volume of their own, Al Hirschfeld and Al­berto “Sting” Russo. Here are links to the volumes:

The First Pub­lished Car­i­ca­ture of Elvis Presley
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 1 (Rockin’ the 50s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 2 (Rollin’ the 50s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 3 (Rat­tlin’ the 50s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 4 (Shaggin’ the 50s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 5 (Stuck on the 60s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 6 (Wild in the 60s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 7 (Elvis by Hirschfeld)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 8 (Love Let­ters from the 70s)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 9 (Aloha from the 70)
Elvis’ Golden Car­i­ca­tures Volume 10 (Elvis by Russo)

 

 

 

Leave a Comment