The album cover of Cheap Thrills, released in 1968 by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, is as iconic as the music it represents. This psychedelic rock album became a defining work of the late 1960s, both musically and visually. The cover art, designed by famed underground comic artist Robert Crumb, is a pivotal piece of 1960s counterculture, capturing the rebellious and experimental spirit of the era.

The Artist: Robert Crumb

The album cover story started in January 1967 when Crumb moved to San Francisco. The previous two years were spent soaking in LSD and travelling between New York, Chicago, and Detroit. The drug was legal then and an eye-opener for many. During these two years, he published the character of Fritz the Cat, the most outrageous feline in history, in various magazines, including Help! and Cavalier. Other characters started their life during that period and bloomed after his move to the hippie capital. They included the mystic guru Mr Natural, the sex-crazed Mr Snoid and last but not least, Snoid’s favourite companion Angelfood McSpade, the insatiable African black woman who took stereotyping to new levels

Interestingly, Crumb had no patience for much of the music surrounding him in San Francisco or elsewhere in the late 1960s. He came from another era, mentally, and to him, this music was commercialism personified compared to the roots music from the 1920s and 1930s that moved him: “I had no patience for any of that psychedelic pop music or crap that came in the 60s: The Grateful Dead, Jim Morrison, The Doors, The Beatles, Bob Dylan. I had little or no interest in any of that. I thought I had found some much more real music that came from the heart of people’s culture but had been wiped out by mass media and commercialism.”

But Crumb made an exception with Janis Joplin, connecting with her for their mutual love of old Blues music: “She wasn’t nationally known yet. I remember seeing her at the Avalon Ballroom, and you could tell right away that she had an exceptional voice and would go far. She started out singing old-time blues like Bessie Smith“ While he didn’t care for her current band and the psychedelic spin they took on blues, he recognised her ability to belt out the good ol’ blues: “Janis had played with earlier bands just playing country blues, and it was much better. Way, way better. She’s singing well, not screaming, not playing to the audience that wanted to watch her sweat blood. In the beginning, she was just an authentic, genuine Texas country-girl shouter”

Crumb wasn’t the first choice for the album cover. The original title for the band’s first album for Columbia was Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills, a fair summary of the band’s philosophy. That, of course, didn’t fly with the suits at Columbia who nixed the blunt Sex and Dope and left only the vague Cheap Thrills. When it came time for the album cover, the band’s idea was to go with an expected band photo, with a minor twist of taking the picture in their birthday suits. The result proved unsatisfactory, and another no-no for the suits who make the decisions

Drummer Dave Getz recalls when the idea of asking Crumb to do the cover came up: “We had a huge loft/warehouse in SF where we rehearsed and I lived. I remember us all sitting around and talking about ideas for the cover, and I said, ‘How about asking Robert Crumb?’  Janis, James (Gurley, guitar player), and I were all big fans of his work; we loved his cartoons, which were appearing in the SF underground newspapers and Zap Comics. But outside of SF, not that many people knew of his genius.” They got Crumb’s number through a mutual friend, and Janis called him. Crumb continues the tale: “Janis asked me to do an album cover. I liked Janis, and I did her cover. I took speed and did an all-nighter. The front cover I designed wasn’t used at all. They used the back cover for the front. I got paid $600, “ Getz adds: “The next weekend, Crumb came to our show at The Carousel Ballroom, sat on the floor in our backstage dressing room and observed. He really wasn’t into our music, but it didn’t matter. It was maybe one or two days later Crumb called Janis to come and pick up what he’d done”

Comic Book Aesthetic

Crumb’s original idea for the front cover was a cartoon of the band performing on stage with the band’s faces pasted on them. This totally underwhelmed the band, but then they looked at what Crumb had delivered for the back cover and saw the light. A comic strip with a panel for each song plus band members’ credits. They immediately decided to make it the front cover and forever cemented the iconic status of that comic strip among album covers.

The album cover reads more like a comic book than a traditional album sleeve. Each panel contains exaggerated, almost grotesque depictions of the band members and the chaotic energy of their performances. In the centre is a wild, larger-than-life image of Janis Joplin herself, in full passionate performance mode. The top panel bears the title of the album in large, bold letters, and below it are colourful, cartoonish illustrations that reference specific songs from the album

One of the most notable panels is Crumb’s take on the song “Piece of My Heart,” in which an exploding heart represents the intensity of Joplin’s performance. Other panels show various humorous and exaggerated images of the band members and song lyrics, all presented in Crumb’s signature counterculture style.

Controversial Cover

Cheap Thrills was released in August 1968. It steadily climbed the Billboard LPs chart until it reached the top and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks despite competition from Electric Ladyland and Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Time Has Come by The Chambers Brothers, Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Wheels of Fire by Cream. Indeed, the golden age of psychedelic music

Despite its now-classic status, the Cheap Thrills cover sparked controversy upon release. Columbia Records executives initially hesitated about the cover’s unconventional, hand-drawn look. Album covers at the time tended to feature slick, professional photography, so Crumb’s crude, comic-book style was seen as a bold departure. However, Joplin’s insistence on using Crumb’s artwork and the album’s massive commercial success helped make the cover one of the most recognisable in rock history

The Cheap Thrills album cover remains a cultural touchstone, symbolic of the 1960s’ psychedelic movement, not just for its artwork but for embodying the era’s freewheeling spirit. Robert Crumb’s artwork became highly influential, especially in rock and roll, with his style becoming synonymous with the countercultural underground movement. It also represented a turning point in album cover design, breaking the mould of glamorous, polished images and replacing them with raw, expressive, and unconventional visual narratives, paving the way for future artists and designers to experiment with album cover formats

Now 81, Crumb remains a prominent figure, as both artist and influence, within the alternative comics milieu. He is hailed as a genius by such comic book talents as Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, and Chris Ware