The Ramones Plus Dr. Seuss

The best kind of art is the kind that rewards you with something new each time you come back to experience it again. Since becoming a dad, I’ve learned that many things from my childhood have this quality, like The Muppets, which I wrote about back in May, and Dr. Seuss, which I guess everyone knew about, but I didn’t really fully appreciate until I read “Dr Seuss’s Sleep Book” as an adult. What an amazingly intricate, wonderfully absurdist, surprisingly airtight piece of work.

Anyway, that’s why these drawings mashing up the Seussian illustration style with the practically cartoon-like personages of The Ramones caught my eye. The two make for an entirely inappropriate pairing, but as drawn by legendary comics artist and animator Scott Shaw! (it’s a kind of trademark of his to include the exclamation point in his name), the combination seems irresistible. Wouldn’t you want to read this book?

The Ramones in the style of Dr. Seuss
The Ramones in the style of Dr. Seuss

Though I just discovered these drawings recently, Shaw drew them a decade ago as part of a Ramones compilation “Weird Tales of the Ramones” issued in 2005 by, you guessed it, the inimitable Rhino Records. It’s apparently out of print, but as always, eBay can scratch this itch.

By the way, don’t get the artist Scott Shaw! mixed up with this Scott Shaw.

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