Pedro Bell

Pedro Bell (June 11, 1950 – August 27, 2019) was an American artist and illustrator, best known for his elaborate album cover designs and other artwork for numerous Funkadelic and George Clinton solo albums. Bell also wrote many of the liner notes of the records under the name Sir Lleb (his surname spelled backwards).^{[1]: 22 [2]} The liner notes contributed to P-Funk's literary mythology^[3]: 238 — a sampling of his contributions include "Thumpasaurus", "Funkapus", "Queen Freakalene", "Bop Gun", and "Zone of Zero Funkativity". Bell's work was preceded and partially inspired by Sun Ra^[4] and was a precursor to the modern graphic novel and the Afro-punk movement.^[5]

Born on June 11, 1950, Bell was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.^[6][7] His family was very religious.^[8] Bell had older brothers.^[9]

Often sick as a child, Bell would read books and comics, especially Ace Comics.^[10]: 20 Bell said that he gained his artistic talent from his father, whom he described as frustrated artist; and his mother, who wrote and played the piano.^[7]

Bell attended

Bell also attended Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he took art classes and studied with Don Baum.^{[10]: 20 [12]: 21}

Between late 1969 and early 1970, Bell heard Funkadelic on the underground Chicago radio station WXFM for the first time.^[1]: 22 He began writing illustrated letters to the band and contacted their manager, Rod Scribner, in order to send him drawings and college-newspaper writing samples. Bell additionally created and mailed what he called "psychedelic envelopes", but since Funkadelic bandleader George Clinton was under investigation at the time by the RCMP for his involvement with the Process Church of the Final Judgment, the envelopes also were investigated.^[13]: 23

Bell was hired to produce artwork for the band, beginning with local show posters, promotional items, and press kits.^[14] He moved on to album artwork, where he built a mythology that included slang, nicknames, and otherworld concepts that eventually became part of the artwork and liner notes of the Funkadelic records.^[1]: 22 Bell often came up with nicknames, which he called "tags", for people.^[15] The album cover artwork was credited under Bell's name, but the liner notes credited his work to Sir Lleb.^[14] Bell worked to reflect the band's atmosphere of its music and stage performances in his work,^[16] for which he used markers and felt-tipped pens^[17] because the fumes of the paint he used were too toxic, and he often traced the markers with acrylic due to issues with color separation from the printing process. The finished works were often 300 percent larger than the actual record covers for higher printing quality.^[18]: 24 Although he went to college, Bell considered himself to be self-taught. Bell said he created the original pieces on three foot square panels, and often would only have the record title, and would not have heard the music before creating the album artwork.^[14]

According to his biography via George Clinton's official website, Bell's "stream-of-contagion text rewrote the whole game. He single-handedly defined the P-Funk collective as sci-fi superheroes fighting the ills of the heart, society, and the cosmos…As much as Clinton's lyrics, Pedro Bell's crazoid words created the mythos of the band and bonded the audience together."

Bell had his own studio that he named Splankwerks,[23] and in 1988, he created a cartoon for MTV called Larry Lazer.^[24] In addition to working on comic books (including a compilation titled Artusi Tribe) and screenwriting, Bell started a band called Tripzilla.^[25][26] In 1997, he published a zine titled ZEEP Magazine.^[7][27] According to Bell, the word was P-Funk slang for "deeper-than-deep".^[1]: 22

In August 1996, Bell was declared legally blind.[7] He struggled with health and poverty issues for much of his later life.^[2] In January 2010, the Black Rock Coalition held a fundraiser called "Miracle for a Maggot: Funkraiser for P-Funk Graphic Artist Pedro Bell" to help Bell.^[32]

On August 27, 2019, Bell died in Evergreen Park, Illinois at the age of 69.^[6][33][34] He had a son.^[7]

• 1973: Funkadelic, Cosmic Slop (Westbound Records)
• 1974: Funkadelic, Standing on the Verge of Getting It On (Westbound Records)
• 1975: Funkadelic, Let's Take It to the Stage (Westbound Records / 20th Century Records)
• 1976: Funkadelic,
  Warner Bros. Records
  )
• 1976: Funkadelic, Tales of Kidd Funkadelic (Westbound Records)
• 1978: Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove (Warner Bros. Records)
• 1979: Funkadelic, Uncle Jam Wants You (Warner Bros. Records)
• 1981: Funkadelic, The Electric Spanking of War Babies (Warner Bros. Records)
• 1982: George Clinton, Computer Games (Capitol Records)
• 1982: George Clinton, Atomic Dog' '(12 inch) (Capitol Records)
• 1983: George Clinton, You Shouldn't-Nuf Bit Fish (Capitol Records)
• 1985: George Clinton, Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends (Capitol Records)
• 1985: Jimmy G And The Tackhead, Federation of Tackheads (Capitol Records)
• 1986: George Clinton, R&B Skeletons in the Closet (Capitol Records)
• 1988: INCorporated Thang Band, Lifestyles of the Roach and Famous (Warner Bros. Records)
• 1989: Various artists, George Clinton Presents Our Gang Funky (MCA Records)^[22]
• 1991:
  Pandisc)^[35]
• 1994: George Clinton,
  P-Vine)^[35]
• 1995: Axiom Funk, Funkcronomicon (Axiom)
• 1996:
  Sony 550)^[35]
• 1996: George Clinton, Greatest Funkin' Hits (Capitol Records)[35]
• 1998: Enemy Squad, United State of Mind (Tufamerica Records)^[35]
• 2005: George Clinton & the P-Funk All-Stars, How Late Do U Have 2BB4UR Absent? (The C Kunspyruhzy)^[35]
• 2007: Funkadelic, By Way of the Drum (Hip-O Select)^[22]