Rick Griffin Epigrams

This is the original comic panel with Rick Griffin’s character Murphy that appeared in Surfer Magazine in 1969, followed by the Tales from the Tube version (1972).

From a 1973 interview with Rick:

“Yeah, the thing in the last panel was a Greek epigram. It reads the same if you read it across or up and down. That was a literal translation that was written in the small panel across the bottom. It was all in a effort to know my creator. I’ve since gotten to know him through his son Jesus Christ. I changed that to leave reference that it was an epigram and the other contents were pre-salvage mumbo jumbo.”

Some say a better translation is: “The sower, with his plough, holds the wheels with care.”

The 2020 Christopher Nolan movie Tenet — which was the last movie I saw on a plane and was kind of amusingly incomprehensible — has references to this epigram all over it FWIW.

Related:

The Experience Shop Clifford Neal John Thompson Communique, 1969 First Appearance of Mr. Natural Ric Sloane Jim FitzPatrick, 1972 Tazewell High Let the Sun Shine in Dreamer, 1973 Printing It Health is Beautiful Vaughn Bode, 1968 Oakland, 1969 Food Is God Trina Robbins, 1970 WomanSpirit is a vibe Sergio Macedo Tonto’s Expanding Head Band Crumb Draws Phoebe Rick Griffin visions Zap Comix, 1968 Rick Griffin, Promethean Rick Griffin’s Passionetta Rick Griffin, 1969 Rick Griffin, WomanSpirit Rick Griffin Style Illuminations Bill Ogden, 1973 Barbara “Willy” Mendes Meet Me in San Francisco