Whether youâre a dedicated Fritz the Cat fan, more of a Mr. Natural -type, or simply enjoy the odd perusal of his finely illustrated realm of sexual obsessions , you might know that Robert Crumb (a.k.a. R. Crumb) likes his women ample, his art nonconformist, and his bitterness self-referential.
In honor of the publicity-shirking cartoonistâs 72nd birthday, you might do well to plunge even deeper into Crumbâs squirrely, squiggly world to discover some lesser-known facts about the guy who brought underground comics into the anxious, sweaty mainstream.
The New York Times explained that cartoonists R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb âmet in 1971 after she heard about a large-rumped woman named Honeybunch Kaminski created by Mr. Crumb for his Snatch Comics seriesâ who bore a striking resemblance to Kominsky. So she âset out to meet the famous R. Crumb.â
In 2007, the couple appeared onstage together as part of a Valentineâs Day event at the New York Public Library, where Aline continued the story , noting that they âfirst met at a party at Robert's girlfriend's house, and he told me that I had âcute knees.ââ
The mostly string-based bands R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders and R. Crumb and His Keep-on-Truckinâ Orchestra have been playing old-time, ragtime, folk, bluegrass, and blues music for decades, and feature classic themes but also ones that directly affect self-critical artists.
As Rolling Stone reported , Crumb isnât just an avid record collector, he has also designed the covers of a number albums ranging from his bandâs releases and a compilation of female singers to Big Brother and the Holding Companyâs 1968 hit Cheap Thrills .
He created the latter as a âwork for hireâ in one night for just $600, and told Rolling Stone he enjoyed working with Big Brother singer Janis Joplin: "Janis used to come around, smoke pot, talk about the comics ⦠She was nice." For several other album cover jobs, he has happily accepted payment in vintage records. He wonât do work for bands he doesnât like, thoughâthe Rolling Stones included .
A compiled list of some of Crumbâs thoughts on famous figuresâtargeting everyone from cinema legends to recent politiciansâreveals that it can take a lot to impress this cartoonist (unless youâre his female classmate from high school). Here are a few of his takes on some highly celebrated artists:
Mozart: "The music just doesnât do much for me. I havenât really [paid] close attention to Mozartâs music. I love the movie [sic] Amedeus about him, but the actual music, nnnaaaah.â
Silver-screen bombshells: â[Movie stars] didnât attract me as much as the girls in my high school class. I wasnât impressed with women in movies as I was with the big legged girl who sat next to me in my homeroom class, Joanne Plunk. I was much more dazzled by her than any girl in the movies.â
Mark Twain: â Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn donât do that much for me. But his later stuff, he gets more cranky as he gets older. His critique gets more interesting.â
Stanley Kubrickâs Dr. Strangelove : âGreat movie. Great. Masterpiece. But I donât like Peter Sellers. I think he was highly overrated in his day ⦠I think he really spoiled Lolita . They shouldnât have let him do his shtick so much in that film ⦠[ Lolita ] could have been a great movie but Sellers f***ed it up.ââ
He does like plenty of famous artists, though, including Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and W.C. Fields. As for Tommy James and the Shondells? "Yes! Last great proletarian rock nâ roll band.â
Crumb told The Paris Review that he took on the 2009 tome âfor the money and I quickly began to regret it. It was an enormous amount of workâfour years of work and barely worth it. I was too compulsive about the detail. With comics, youâve got to develop some kind of shorthand. You canât make every drawing look like a detailed etching. The average reader actually doesnât want all that detail, it interferes with the flow of the reading process. But I just canât help myselfâobsessive-compulsive disorder.â
However, the artist did feel that bringing the bookâs Biblical stories into vivid, Crumb-style color may have served a purpose for readers not familiar with the text:
While the underground cartoonist is not a religious man himself, he says that he âdid try to be respectful. I decided not to make fun of the text, not to put any kind of jokey stuff in there. I was tempted a few times. But I whited it out later because it distracts from the text. The text itself is so compelling that merely illustrating it is enough.â
While her life has certainly taken its own directions (her marriage, for example, is not an open one , like her parentsâ), 33-year-old Sophie Crumb picked up the family pen and became an accomplished cartoonist and artist in her own right, and with a style that shows hints of the aesthetics and tones in Robert and Alineâs work.
As The New York Times explained, the Crumbs relocated to the South of France in 1991 partly âto shield [their daughter] from a growing conservative and fundamentalist Christian influence while continuing to educate her in what they consider the classics,â and instead âreared her on Little Lulu comics from the 1940s and â50s and Three Stooges videos.â
Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations