Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Artist, Writer, Musician
Notable works	Zap Comix Keep on Truckin' Fritz the Cat
http://crumbproducts.com

Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) — known as R. Crumb — is an American artist and illustrator recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream. He currently lives in Southern France with his wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded as its most prominent figure. Though one of the most celebrated of comic book artists, Crumb's entire career has unfolded outside the mainstream comic book publishing industry. One of his most recognized works is the "Keep on Truckin'" comic, which became a widely distributed fixture of pop culture in the 1970s. Others are the characters Devil Girl, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural.

Life and career

Robert Crumb was born on August 30, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is of English and Scottish ancestry, and is related to former US president Andrew Jackson on his mother's side. His father, Charles, was a career officer in the United States Marine Corps; his mother, Beatrice, a housewife who reportedly abused diet pills and amphetamines. Their marriage was unhappy and the children — Robert, Charles, Maxon, Sandra and Carol — were frequent witnesses to their parents' loud arguments. In the mid 1960s, Crumb left home and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he designed greeting cards for the American Greetings corporation, and met a group of young bohemians including Buzzy Linhart, Liz Johnston, and others. Liz introduced him to the woman who would become his first wife, Dana Morgan. He befriended another Cleveland resident, Harvey Pekar, and eventually contributed artwork to early issues of American Splendor. In 1967, encouraged by the reaction to some drawings he had published in underground newspapers, including Philadelphia's Yarrowstalks, Crumb moved to San Francisco, California, the center of the counterculture movement. Crumb published the first issue of his Zap Comix in early 1968 by publisher and Beat poet Charles Plymell.

The Book of Genesis

In 2009, he published his illustrated graphic novel version of the Book of Genesis. The book includes annotations explaining his reactions to the stories. It is reported on NPR in October 2009, that it was a four-year effort and does not rewrite any part of the text. Much research was done by Mr. Crumb in the earlier language versions of the text to support the interpretations. It contains all fifty chapters of Genesis and comes with a warning on its cover: "Adult Supervision Recommended for Minors."

Influences and critical response

A peer in the underground comics field, Victor Moscoso, commented about his first impression of Crumb's work, in the mid-1960s, before meeting Crumb in person: "I couldn't tell if it was an old man drawing young, or a young man drawing old."

Crumb has also cited his extensive LSD use as the factor that led him to develop his unique style.

Crumb's comic artwork has elicited harsh commentary from critics. He frequently draws pictures of overly sexual women in subservient roles, as well as "darky" afro-americans among other stereotypes. Numerous critics cite his overly sexual women, calling him "the chief sexist of underground comics." Other critics, such as African American cartoonist and author Charles Johnson, claim that Crumb's comics are inherently racist because of their racist portrayals of minorities.

Crumb remains a prominent figure, as both artist and influence, within the alternative comics milieu, hailed as a genius by such talents as Jaime Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, and Chris Ware. In the fall of 2008, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia hosted a major exhibition of his work, which was favorably reviewed in the New York Times and in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Professional collaborations

In the early 1980s, Crumb collaborated with writer Charles Bukowski on a series of comic books, featuring Crumb's art and Bukowski's writing.

Among his less sexuality- and satire-oriented, comparably highbrow works since the 1990s, especially Crumb's collaboration with David Zane Mairowitz, the illustrated, part-comic biography and bibliography Introducing Kafka, aka Kafka for beginners, is well-known and favorably received, which, due to its popularity, was republished as R. Crumb's Kafka.

A friend of Harvey Pekar, Crumb illustrated many of the award winning American Splendor comics by Pekar including the first issues (1986).

Musical tastes

Crumb has frequently drawn comics about his musical interests in blues, country, bluegrass, cajun, French Bal-musette, jazz, big band and swing music from the 1920s and 30's, and they also heavily influenced the soundtrack choices for his band mate Zwigoff's 1994 Crumb documentary. He was a member of the band R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders. Crumb often plays mandolin with Eden and John's East River String Band and has drawn covers for them including 2009's "Drunken Barrel House Blues" and 2008's "Some Cold Rainy Day".

Additional information

At least three TV or theatrical documentaries are dedicated to Crumb, not counting numerous reports running 10 minutes and below:

• Prior to the 1972 release of Fritz the Cat, Austrian journalist Georg Stefan Troller (see German Wikipedia) interviewed Crumb for a 30-minute documentary entitled Comics und Katerideen (roughly, "A Cool Cat's Calamity Comix") on Crumb's life and art, as an episode of Troller's Personenbeschreibung ("Personality account") documentary format broadcast on German ZDF. The documentary also included a making-of the upcoming Fritz movie with production background interviews of Ralph Bakshi. In this documentary, Troller called Crumb's work "the epitome of contemporary white North America's popular art". As part of Troller's Personenbeschreibung series, it can still be seen on rotation on ZDF-owned digital specialty channel ZDFdokukanal dedicated to highclass documentaries.
• The Confessions of Robert Crumb (1987)
• Crumb (1994) by Terry Zwigoff

In 2006, Crumb brought legal action against Amazon.com after the website used a version of his widely recognizable "Keep On Truckin'" character. The case is expected to be settled out of court.

Also in 2006, Sirius Radio host Howard Stern revealed that Crumb had contacted his show, offering to swap some of his art prints in exchange for a subscription to Sirius that he could listen to in France. However, it was not Robert Crumb who contacted the Howard Stern Show. Crumb is not a listener of the show and claims that he has never even heard it. The actual caller was his brother-in-law Alex, who moved to France from New York and deals in R. Crumb prints.

R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions, a collection of his most personally revealing sexually-oriented drawings and comic strips, was released from TASCHEN publishing in November 2007.

R. Crumb contributes regularly to the The New Yorker and Mineshaft magazine. In 2009 Mineshaft began serializing "Excerpts From R. Crumb's Dream Diary".

Album covers

He also illustrates album covers, including Cheap Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company and the compilation album The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead.

In 2008 Crumb did a new LP/CD cover for Eden and John's East River String Band, a New York based duo that play country blues from the 1920s & '30's, titled Some Cold Rainy Day. In 2009, he did another cover, for Drunken Barrel House Blues.

Also in 2009, he did the artwork for a 10-CD anthology of French traditional music (compiled by Guillaume Veillet for Frémeaux & Associés) .

"Devil Girl Choco-Bars"

In 1994, Kitchen Sink Konfections, a branch of comic book publisher Kitchen Sink Enterprises, used his character Devil Girl to promote chocolate candy bars named "Devil Girl Choco-Bar." Promotion for the candy bar was most unusual, and exhibited a rare form of candor in advertising.

• The candy bar's slogan was "It's BAD For You!"
• The wrapper's artwork was printed onto a promotional lapel button: Devil Girl giving a knowing wink and a voluptuous smile to the reader while saying "Eat me!".
• The back of the wrapper read "7 Evils in One! 1-Delicious Taste; 2-Quick, cheap buzz; 3-Bad for your health; 4-Leads to hard drugs; 5-Waste of money; 6-Made by sleazy businessmen; 7-Exploits women".
• The bottom of the display box featured the following text written by Crumb himself:

  A word to wholesalers and retailers of the Devil Girl Choco-Bar. It may seem to you the depths of marketing ignorance to state in bold letters on the package 'IT'S BAD FOR YOU,' but think about it... this is a brilliant strategy in consideration of kids today; a stupid, know-nothing generation of brain-dead morons who want nothing more than to be 'BAD.' We're certain this morally bankrupt horde of 'slackers' will eat up this low-grade product as fast as you can place it on your candy counter. The sharp, up-to-date business operator will not fail to perceive the beauty - and reap the profits - in the hook 'IT'S BAD FOR YOU!'

Kitchen Sink folded in 1998 and the candy bars, of which nearly a half-million were reportedly sold, are no longer in production, but the wrappers, display boxes and advertising signs are now sought-after collectibles. A second product, "Devil Girl Hot Kisses," a hot cinnamon flavored candy, was also produced. It is back in production by Cheesy Products.

Awards and honors

Crumb has received several accolades for his work, including a nomination for the Harvey Special Award for Humor in 1990 and the Angoulême Grand Prix in 1999.

Bibliography

• The Book of Genesis (2009)

Further reading

• Crumb Family Comics. Trade Paperback Collection of stories by each member of the R Crumb family
• The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book. (ISBN 0-316-16306-6, 1997).
• The R. Crumb Handbook, Published by MQ Publications, London, 2005, ISBN 1-84072-716-0
• The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (1998) written by Charles Bukowski and illustrated by Robert Crumb.
• Busted! Drug War Survival Skills (2005) written by [M. Chris Fabricant] and illustrated by Robert Crumb.
• Robert Crumb, written by [D. K. Holm], published by Pocket Essentials, 2003 (revised edition 2005), 13 digit ISBN 978-1-904048-51-0.
• R. Crumb: Conversations, edited by [D. K. Holm], published by the University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 2004, ISBN 1-57806-637-9.
• R. Crumb and Mineshaft. A brief history, with letters and art, of Robert Crumb's ongoing collaboration with Mineshaft magazine.

External links

• Videos of Robert playing mandolin with Eden & John's East River String Band
• R. Crumb at David Zwirner, New York
• Template:Worldcat id
• Crumb's newest album covers 2009, 2008 for Eden & John's East River String Band
• Robert Crumb at Curlie
• Portrait on France Culture  : 75 mn Radio program (In French - valid until July 2008)
• Crumb plays mandolin with Eden & John's East River String Band
• Wall Street Journal review of gig w/ East River String Band 2009
• Crumb Music Video with East River String Band
• The Crumb Family Website Official Site started by Jesse Crumb
• Les Primitifs du Futur (review)
• Page Six New York Post about music gig
• Mineshaft Magazine regularly publishing Robert Crumb.
• East River String Band Band that Crumb plays mandolin with and does album covers for.
• R. Crumb: Dangling from the Wings of Madness
• Robert Crumb's Underground
• Robert Crumb Illustrated Biography
• "Dysfunction's Greatest Hits", Entertainment Weekly #277, June 2, 1995.
• "Monsieur Naturel: R. Crumb in France" by Brendan Bernhard, LA Weekly, April 29, 1998.
• "R. Crumb" by Steve Burgess, Salon.com, May 2, 2000.
• G2 In Crumbland (article series), The Guardian, March 7–25, 2005.
• "Mr. Natural" by Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books 53(6), April 6, 2006. – Review of The R. Crumb Handbook
• "No Girls Allowed!: Crumb and the Comix Counterculture" by Claire Litton, PopMatters, January 24, 2007.
• Crumb playing mandolin "Allen Brothers Rag" w/ ERSB
• Hand-written interview with Robert Crumb From ifpthendirt.
• The Crumbs' Underground Comics NPR Fresh Air interview with R. Crumb and wife Aline Kominsky Crumb
• North Fork Sound Review of gig with Crumb & East River String Band.
• Biblical Sex Row Over Explicit Illustrated Book of Genesis, The Telegraph, 18 October 2009