Background

Eric Drooker was born in 1958, in New York. He is the son of Harold Drooker, a computer programmer, and Nina Drooker, a teacher.

Education

Eric Drooker attended the Downtown Community School in Manhattan's East Village and received a degree in fine arts from Cooper Union.

Career

Like his maternal grandparents, who were socialists during the 1930s, Drooker became interested in social causes. He became involved in such actions as organized rent strikes and protests against police brutality. During the 1980s, he was known for using his artwork to publicize the activities of leftist groups and was once thrown in jail in Washington, D.C., for “illegal postering.” Much of his work at this time commented on the economic disparities of the Reagan-Bush era. During the 1990s, Drooker’s art found its way onto the opinion-editorial pages of mainstream periodicals, including the New York Times.

In 1992, his graphic novel, Flood, rolled off the presses. Drawn over a seven-year period, Flood contains three chapters: “Home,” “L” (named for the 14th Street cross-town subway), and “Flood,” which are made up of both full-page images and multiple-panel pages of block-print-like cartoons. These cartoons portray the varied activities of down-and-out New Yorkers: the poor, the homeless, the powerless.

It was during the 1970s that poet Ginsberg first noticed Drooker’s art, on lamppost junction boxes on the Lower East Side Avenues leading to Tompkins Square Park, and he started collecting them. After the two men crossed paths at political rallies and poetical and musical entertainments, they began collaborating, with Drooker illustrating Ginsberg’s poem “The Lion for Real” for a Poetry Project New Year’s Day 1993 Benefit poster. Their work together later took the form of Illuminated Poems, a collection of thirty-six poems (two previously unpublished) dating from 1948 to 1995. Drooker’s illustrations include both black and white and color images.

Drooker designed the animation for the film, Howl, 2010, a movie based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg. His best-selling book, Howl: A Graphic Novel visualizes the poem with animation art Drooker designed for the film.

Achievements

• The work of political cartoonist Eric Drooker has been seen in many places. His posters have hung on lampposts all over the East Village in New York City. His cartoons have appeared in such periodicals as Village Voice, Nation, and the New York Times, and in a group exhibition at the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City. They have also appeared in book form in Flood: A Novel in Pictures, in collaboration with Beat generation poet Allen Ginsberg in Illuminated Poems, and in Street Posters and Ballads.
  
  Drooker is also a recipient of a significant number of awards.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Blood Song: A Silent Ballad

    (Consisting mainly of full-page images, spreads, and dipty...)

    2002
  • Howl

    ("Howl" is a prophetic masterpiece - an epic raging agains...)

    2010
  • Street Posters and Ballads

    (In this limited edition folio of his graphics, songs and ...)

    1998
  • Slingshot: 32 Postcards

    (Disguised as a book of innocent postcards, Slingshot is a...)

  • Flood!

    (Flood! is a modern novel written in the ancient language ...)

    1992
  • Illuminated Poems 1996

• illustration

  • Tomorrow

  • Brooklyn Winter

  • Library at Alexandria

  • Native New York

  • Children's Games

  • Flood

  • Cat Stairs

  • Subway Lovers

  • Dog's Eye View

Connections

Father:

Harold Drooker

Mother:

Nina Drooker