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VCU James Branch Cabell Library
Special Collections and Archives 901 Park AvenueKeahi Adolpho
Bob Gorman GWAR and Richmond flyer collection, 1992-2016, Collection # M 574, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
Gift of Robert "Bob" Gorman, 2018.
Robert "Bob" Gorman has been working with GWAR, a heavy metal band with science fiction and mythological themes and a rotating line-up of musicians formed in Richmond, VA, since 1988. At first, his work consisted of prop fabrication and live character roles. Later, his contributions expanded to include stage management, and since 1997, he has served as the shop foreman for the fabrication department.
Since 1988, Gorman has also been heavily involved in an artist collective, production company, and independent record label named "Slave Pit" that was founded in 1984 and originally housed in the Richmond Dairy building in Jackson Ward in Richmond, Virginia. [1] Gorman has been a contributing writer, penciler, inker, and colorist for Slave Pit's self-published "Slave Pit Funnies." Besides GWAR, the collective also worked with Death Piggy, Dave Brockie Experience, X-Cops, Locus Factor, and Mensrea.
[1] - This collective of mostly (or entirely) white artists chose to name their company "Slave Pit" when, in the 1840s and 1850s, Richmond was the largest market for the sale of enslaved people in the upper South, and the Jackson Ward area they operated out of is a historically Black neighborhood that white business owners and the Virginia General Assembly disenfranchised through red lining, strategic condemnation of thousands of houses and apartments, and by building a highway through the middle of the neighborhood in the 1950s.
In a 2015 TEDxRVA Talk titled "GWAR and Regional Identity in Richmond, VA," Michael Bishop (a GWAR bassist and singer) discussed the name of the production company. In it, he argued that the collective's use of the word "slave" was meant as a "DIY ethic of punk rock" and "voluntary devotion to art" that "represents the freedom to create." However, he also stated that "we can't divorce that word from the concept of slavery, especially not in Richmond, Virginia," and that the name "betrays privilege, it betrays GWAR identity in that in our narrative, slavery is an option, just like it was an option for us to live and work in Jackson Ward, and it might not have been that way for the other people who lived there." Although the record label is now named "Pit Records," the name for the artist collective and production company has not been changed (as of July 2025).
Collection includes original art by Bob Gorman; promotional flyers from Metal Blade Records on GWAR shows and album releases, as well as other acts signed to Metal Blade Records; promotional flyers for events at Hardywood Brewery, and two Richmond newspapers discussing GWAR.
The majority of the collection materials were created in the early 2000s, with some materials created as far back as 1992 and as late as 2016.
Poster consists of a decapitated head wearing a beret with various pens, pencils, and paint brushes stabbed through it. The words "The 'art' of" are written on a banner at the top of the print, with the word "GWAR" appearing illustrated in blood at the bottom.
Poster features a coat of arms with a welding helmet, bicycle crankset on a wrench, crossed paintbrush and hammer, and fish on it.
Poster shows a zombie standing outside and wearing a striped shirt while holding a beer can in one hand and a hammer in the other.
Poster shows a skull with braces and an exposed brain stuck full of nails.
Poster shows an alien/monster in armor, driving a two-wheeled vehicle made out of a bong.
Poster shows a zombie crawling out of a grave.
Black and white poster with orange accents depicting GWAR members in a swirling vortex.
Poster has an American flag-themed background with a figure in a purple suit with gold chains smoking a cigarette and pointing a gun.
Poster is printed with a blue and white background and red text reading "X-COPS" in the crosshairs, evoking imagery from the show Cops.
Poster is printed in orange, yellow, green, and black. It features green plastic toy soldiers lined up in a row, with two being melted with a match and stabbed by two children. The print is numbered 291 out of 510 by the artist Marco Almera.
Poster features GWAR's "Violence has Arrived" album cover.
Poster advertises 3 GWAR DVDs and 1 CD avaiable for purchase.
Poster of GWAR's "Live From Mt. Fuji" album cover.
Double-sided poster featuring GWAR's "Beyond Hell" album cover on one side and a photo of the band on the reverse.
Print features a black shield, warhammer, and axe on white paper. Numbered 233 out of 289 with the initials "CP."
Coffee-stained poster print in red, white, and blue featuring a horned alien/monster wearing a spiked headband or diadem.
Poster featuring artwork from the "Bloody Pit of Horror" album cover.
Poster of a horned skeleton wearing an apron that reads "grill ghoul".
Poster features a horned skeleton half-submerged in water wearing an apron that reads "Eat Meat."
Poster features a horned skeleton grilling a steak and a severed arm.
Poster features a horned skeleton wielding a bloody meat cleaver at a woman labeled with cuts of meat.
Poster features a skeleton wearing a hazmat suit and stirring a bubbling vat of liquid.
Poster features an illustration of a winged and horned skeleton standing in what appears to be a large cauldron full of heads.
Poster features an illustration of an atomic bomb going off.
Poster features a greyscale image (presumably) from the film Streetmuse: Kenya with an individual holding up a skull mask over their face.
Poster features a skull/octopus creature, printed in black, grey, purple, and green.
Poster features a horned creature wearing spiked bracers and wielding a large scythe.