Keep on truckin’.

“Keep on Truckin’” is most closely associated with underground comix artist Robert Crumb, who popularized the phrase through his 1968–69 “Keep On Truckin’” cartoon (notably featuring striding, big-footed figures) that became a ubiquitous countercultural image. The slogan circulated widely on posters, T‑shirts, and other merchandise during the late 1960s and 1970s, often detached from its original comic context. Crumb later expressed discomfort with the mass commercialization and unauthorized reproduction of the image, which turned a satirical/vernacular catchphrase into a generalized feel-good motto.

In Crumb’s hands, the phrase functions as a piece of American vernacular—part pep talk, part ironic commentary. Literally it means to keep moving forward, to persist; culturally it evokes the road, work, and the improvisational resilience of everyday life. The comix rendering amplifies the idea through exaggerated forward motion: the figures stride with almost absurd determination. Because the slogan was rapidly commodified, it also came to illustrate how countercultural expressions can be stripped of edge and repurposed as generic optimism, making the phrase simultaneously an emblem of perseverance and a case study in cultural appropriation by mass markets.