In the late 1940s and early ‘50s, Kerouac made four trips crisscrossing North America by automobile. His notebooks from these journeys became the foundation for On the Road. In The Illustrated On the Road, the artist Christopher Panzner imagines the novel as fifty-five postcards from the road.

Panzner's postcards are many things. As with all postcards, image and word, official stamps and unique signatures, mix together and speak to each other. Panzner's black ink line combines with fields of color. We are reminded that postcards are letters both public and private. The old mixes with the new in Panzner's work — social realism and modern advertising, the old country highway markers and the new interstate signs, the postcard and the digital image. There are symbols and codes that remain mysterious. These and much more are Panzner's themes — and Kerouac’s too.

Christopher Panzner is an American artist living and working in France.

All images © Christopher Panzner. All Kerouac text and Kerouac likeness copyright the Jack Kerouac Estate. This project has been approved by the Estate. Neither images nor text may be used without permission.

The idea was to create a watercolor/ink carnet de voyage (travel sketchbook or “Moleskine,” in English) to make it appear to have been done on the road while travelling with the real people in the book. All of the real people—and in color—were used to show who they corresponded to in the book for each of the 55 illustrations (with younger versions of each to correspond to their age in 1947-50). Famous musicians like George Shearing and Perez Prado from the era as well as other Jazz stars were included. Images of the real people were as authentic as I could find according to my exhausting research.

The location of each illustration shows where Jack was when he wrote the quote from On the Road and includes on what trip he based the experience from: Summer 1947/^1st trip, Winter 1949/^2nd trip, Spring 1949/^3rd trip, Spring 1950/^4th trip. The roads he was on for each quote are also included—based on maps of his trips—or the city seal of the big cities he spent time at or passed by on his trips (New York, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, etc.) All of the cars, buses, trucks, tractors, trains, buildings, etc. are authentic as well as the clothing, props, decorations, signs, logos, advertisements, street signs, etc. from historical information from 1947-1950 or before.

All of the illustrations were done with watercolor and ink. The date for when the series was finished (April 28th, 2019), a stamp of the Eiffel Tower (since all of the illustrations were done in Paris), the original dimensions of the illustrations (31 X 41 cm/12 X 16 in), a “CMYK” reference for accurate color correction, a corresponding number of the fifty-five works, signed (with my own Asian stamp) with “APPROVAL” of the artist’s proof and “FINAL” for the master, and “carnet de voyage.”

Some effects like lightning, rain, headlights, street lamps, snow, sparks, etc. were added in Photoshop (with color correction on all of the illustrations to give them uniformity and continuity.)

I also used Jack Kerouac’s handwriting—fortunately, he always wrote in block letters—from his letters and notes to make an alphabet and then used that to quote him in his own handwriting. Jack Kerouac’s date of birth is also on each illustration (1922-1969) with a logo to commemorate the fiftieth year (2019) after his passing.

These illustrations are my homage to the mastery of Jack Kerouac and to his classic, On the Road. I am especially grateful to The Jack Kerouac Estate’s participation in the presentation of this series. My special thanks to UMASS Lowell’s Dr. Michael Millner for his wonderful dedication to bring it to the public and to Wyeth Stiles, of In Flight Studio, for creating the online design.