Rockin'Jelly Bean and Erostika: Reading the Prints, Editions and Collaborations

Our thesis: Rockin'Jelly Bean is collected through the edition, not the image. The same pin-up girl may appear on a first-press silkscreen of 100, an offset party poster, a skate deck and a sukajan, and the press, the number and the partner decide what each one is. The habit of reading prints by their edition is set out in our essay on why edition context is the product, and his place among Japan's living artists is on our shelf of Japanese artists.

At a glance

From band flyers to Los Angeles

Rockin'Jelly Bean began, like many illustrators of his generation, by drawing for music. From the age of 18 he played bass in the surf combo Jackie and the Cedrics, and he designed flyers, posters and record jackets for the band. He moved to Tokyo at 19, worked for three months in a design office and went freelance, and from 1990 he worked as an illustrator. He is masked in public, and we found no published record of his name; we do not speculate.

His sources are named in his own biography. In his biography's own phrase he followed the low-brow footsteps of the American artists Ed Roth, Robert Williams and Robert Crumb, from hot-rod art to the underground comic. In 1996 he went to the United States, where he found his place in the lowbrow art scene of Los Angeles, showed in group exhibitions with poster artists such as Coop and Frank Kozik, and stayed about seven years. Early work from those years includes the main poster for the German film Killer Condom in 1996.

Erosty Pop and Erostika

Before Erostika there was Erosty Pop, his first brand; an early Frosty Pop screen print from the 1990s Erosty series belongs to that period. In 2004 he produced Erostika as his own shop in Harajuku, making limited silkscreen prints, T-shirts and other goods under the house theme quoted above. The shop's anniversaries became events in their own right: an El RJB vs Zombies silkscreen poster for the Erostika sixth anniversary party was printed for one night. Later goods name an Erostika shop in Shibuya, among them an Erostika Tokyo crewneck sweatshirt.

The prints, by press and number

Silkscreen is his principal medium for collectors, and his prints are numbered by press and edition. The table reads examples in the house.

Print Edition as marked What it shows
Rock'n'Roll Circus, with Rude Gallery First print, 55 of 100 A first press, numbered low
Escape from Women Prison Second edition, 129 of 200 A later press, larger run
Invasion Club Erostika limited edition of 230 A shop edition
Junk Blues Erostika exclusive, edition of 100, signed A shop exclusive
Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Third press, signed and numbered A licensed game print

The difference between a first press and a third, and between a signed edition and an open offset poster, is the whole subject of the Lexicon entry on edition numbers and artist's proofs. Prints of this scale, often 900 by 470 millimetres, also need careful framing; our guide to framing and conserving Japanese prints covers glass, mounts and light.

Film, anime and the Japanese monsters

Much of his licensed work pays homage to film and anime. His biography lists a Dr Pepper package design in 2006, a collaboration T-shirt for Evangelion 2.0 in 2010 and a Kill Bill silkscreen poster for the print house Mondo in 2013. Tezuka, one of his childhood influences, reappears as a subject in an Apollo's Song silkscreen after Osamu Tezuka, edition of 60, the bridge to our guide to collecting Astro Boy and Tezuka.

The Showa monsters are a second thread. A Godzilla vs Hedorah screen print, a BEAMS edition of 150, signed, and an Erostika Destroy All Monsters open-collar rayon shirt, GZL-S01 both draw on Toho's films, which our guide to collecting Godzilla reads in full. Erostika also issues soft vinyl figures, such as a Matango soft vinyl figure in a 60th edition colourway, which belong beside our soft vinyl shelf.

Leather, sukajan and skate decks

The collaborations reach well beyond paper. Rockin'Jelly Bean's work for the London maker Lewis Leathers produced riders such as a Lewis Leathers and Erostika Lightning 391T in black horsehide, boxed, which sit on our Lewis Leathers shelf. With the Japanese label Rude Gallery he made a reversible sukajan with a green satin map side, which joins the long line of Japanese souvenir jackets on our sukajan shelf.

Skateboarding brought him back to his Californian years. A complete set of four Santa Cruz pin-up series decks, factory sealed, shows how a single series can be collected whole. For the wider Japanese rock and print graphic tradition, read our essay on Hysteric Glamour, Number (N)ine and Wacko Maria.

How to read a Rockin'Jelly Bean piece

  • The press. Prints are marked as first, second or third press. A first press is the earliest run of that image.
  • The number. Read the number and the edition size together, such as 55 of 100 or 129 of 200, and check them against the certificate or shop paper if present.
  • Silkscreen or offset. Silkscreen prints show layered, slightly raised ink in flat colours; offset posters, such as party posters, are printed from plates in dots. Both are collected, but they are different objects.
  • The partner. Many prints are joint editions with galleries or brands such as Rude Gallery, BEAMS or Cyclops Print Works; the partner is part of the edition.
  • The packaging. Many prints were sold in tubes or dedicated frames; unopened or framed-by-Erostika pieces are a distinct state.

Paper is the weak point of every print. Silkscreen inks sit on the surface and can rub; large sheets crease at the corners when rolled too tightly; and framed prints fade if they hang in sun. Every piece is graded on the letters explained in our guide to Japanese condition ranks, with paper checked for creases and handling marks at the margins.

Where the record differs

Accounts differ on the return from Los Angeles. One Japanese account gives seven years in the city from 1996, which would point to about 2003; his publisher's account describes a triumphant return to Japan in 2004 and after, the year Erostika opened. We print both. On his origins, a Japanese reference gives his birthplace as Hawaii and a childhood in Kyoto; we found no confirmation from the artist himself, and we do not speculate further.

A correction to the common story: Erostika was not his first brand. It followed Erosty Pop, and the artist's own book traces two brands, not one.

Starting a Rockin'Jelly Bean collection

Choose a format before an image. A first-press silkscreen, a shop-exclusive edition, an offset party poster and a sukajan may share a pin-up, yet they are different objects with different numbers behind them. Start with one numbered silkscreen and its paperwork, frame it properly, and let the collection grow outwards to the leather and the decks. The prints carry the energy of a Harajuku shop that took its motto from the lowbrow tradition and its subjects from Japanese film. That is our reading.

Answered plainly

Who is Rockin'Jelly Bean?

A masked Japanese illustrator working since 1990, rooted in American lowbrow art, who founded the Erostika shop in Harajuku in 2004.

What is Erostika?

Rockin'Jelly Bean's own shop and brand, opened in Harajuku in 2004, which makes his limited silkscreen prints, apparel and collaborations.

What does first press mean on a Rockin'Jelly Bean print?

The earliest printing run of that image. Later runs are marked second or third press.

Is an offset poster the same as a silkscreen?

No. Offset posters are printed from plates; silkscreens are printed through screens in layers of flat ink, usually in small numbered editions.

Further reading

Sources

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