Invasion Of The ​“Croctails”

The New Haven Independent’s retro logo, a nod to the days when men wore fedoras and all the newspapers were hard copy only, was drawn in only a few minutes — but with a slight twist.

A long snout protruding from under the fedora’s brim and a serrated, reptilian tail blending in with the lightning bolts were clues to the drawing’s creator. The signature cocktail napkin was also a sure sign that New Haven artist Robert S. Greenberg had added yet another illustration to a napkin-art series he calls ​“Croctails,” now numbering in the thousands of pieces.

Greenberg can often be seen in New Haven’s bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, and museums, from which he draws inspiration. With only a handful of markers and the Pilot razor-point pens he favors, Greenberg transforms his ​“canvases” — small 5” x 5” BevNap cocktail napkins — into crocodile-centric imagery, drawing snapshots of the people, places, and occasions that surround him. Greenberg said that his personified croc characters are ​“a way of depicting life without infringing on any preconceived cultural, racial, or ethnic notions.”

Some of his recent croc drawings have included a threatened New Haven Landmark, a snow-shoveling croc in a snow globe, and a two-panel drawing commemorating a super event.

Greenberg’s up-to-the-minute musings of crocs with attitude have been lighting up social media of late, finding new fans and a global audience in a way that was impossible when he began the series three decades ago. 

From East Rock to Hard Rock — And Back

Born in New Haven, Greenberg credits its public schools and the enrichment opportunities he had at ECA with preparing him for the creative paths he would later pursue. While a public school student, he won several citywide design contests, early indicators of his precocious talents and city engagement.

At Rhode Island School of Design, Greenberg, a graphic design major, studied with illustration luminaries like Chris Van Allsburg, writer-illustrator of the award-winning children’s book classics The Polar Express and Jumanji. An assignment in Van Allsburg’s class resulted in an impressive scratch board illustration in which Greenberg fused the body of a nattily dressed J.P. Morgan with the head of a lizard. He points to that illustration, along with a Beecher School first grade assignment about crocodiles, as formative experiences in the evolution of his reptilian-based design work. 

Other sources of his early fascination with reptiles were the Peabody Museum dinosaurs and Rudolph Zallinger’s unforgettable mural, The Age of the Reptiles.

Later, while hanging out at the then-nacent Hard Rock Café in New York City, he drew the subterranean reptiles of urban myth emerging from the sewers.

His sketches caught the eye of Hard Rock owner Isaac Tigrett, who commissioned Greenberg for the very first special-edition Hard Rock Café t‑shirt commemorating the Statue of Liberty centennial in 1986. The image depicted Lady Liberty with a guitar and martini glass, the latter inspired by Greenberg’s cousin, New Yorker cartoonist Bernard Schoenbaum. The shirt sold a reported 10,000 units in the first week, helping launch the Hard Rock multimillion-dollar merchandising industry. 

During a 26-year career in the art departments of Penthouse, Spin, MTV, and Smith Barney, Greenberg drew by night at the China Club, The Palladium, Club Expo, and other popular venues where his work was displayed. He continued to maintain a connection to his New Haven hometown, however, where he left his artistic mark in Richter’s (now Ordinary), the music venue The Moon (long gone), and Toad’s Place. His redesign of the Toad’s logo in brilliant, day-glo colors inspired their souvenir Rock Shop, which is still glowing strong.

Chance encounters with some of the leading figures in entertainment…

… sports …

… politics …

… and arts in New York might not be believed were it not for Greenberg’s penchant for documentation and finely-honed M.O. in usually walking away with a memento for the drawings he would gift to subjects.

Greenberg said he has given or traded away many more illustrated napkins than he kept for his collection. Nevertheless, a long antique munitions box bulged with neat ziplock packets of his croc drawings, each one a time capsule with its own story. Greenberg reached for a stuffed satchel and a nearby storage bin.

“This is nothing” he remarked, as he revealed artifact after artifact of encounters and opportunities made possible though his unique drawings.

Today, Greenberg’s studio and office space also houses his museum-worthy collection of historical New Haven artifacts, located in a 19th-century brick building on Crown Street, which is home to the family business begun in 1912 by his grandfather, Joe Greenberg, and now operated by his father Alan. Acme Office Furniture is a packed repository of office and mid-century modern furnishings in the heart of Ninth Square.

Among Greenberg’s varied collections are family pictures, artwork, autographs, photos of famous people, and the historical objects that inform his work as artist and New Haven historian. His ongoing activism as an ardent preservationist of all things New Haven has placed him in the media spotlight on a number of occasions, and on the radar of the institutions and individuals who do not prioritize preservation.

Over the years, Greenberg has successfully merged his interest in history with the crocodile concept to educate and promote local historical events in Newport, Rhode Island, in Sun Valley, Idaho, and in New Haven with his ​“New Haven on the Crocs” exhibit at DaSilva Gallery. It is a concept he hopes to apply to cities and towns across America.

The internet, Facebook and other social media have provided a virtual worldwide gallery and increased demand for Greenberg’s creations, including his work in pastel and the full-sized acrylic canvases based on his small-format images.

In moving back to New Haven from New York three years ago, Greenberg has come full circle, embracing his hometown, its history, and a belief in its potential. Each day he can be found building an enduring artistic legacy with the most ephemeral of materials: his storytelling Croctail napkins. 

For more information contact the artist through his website.