In my opinion Crumb was the best practicing artist in any medium of the 60s and 70s. No easel painter or photographer captured the times like he did. Maybe it's worth taking the time to figure out how he did it.
Crumb shocked everybody with his gritty, realistic inner city landscapes (above). Older people didn't seem to mind this ugly and depressing architecture but young people were steeped in bright mod fashions and appealing images in movies and magazines and they hated the old stuff. Nobody knew exactly how much they hated it until Crumb came along and satirized it.
City streets began to fill with black people wearing outrageous clothes. Nobody would give it a second glance now, but back then white suburbanites were constantly surprised by it. Crumb's the only one who bothered to draw it.
Back then adults didn't watch TV much and they were worried about the effects of TV on kids (above). They had good reason because the modern, clean, exciting world we saw on TV made the ugly, slow-mo real world seem intolerable. Once again, only Crumb bothered to draw that.
Other artists like Peter Max tried to come up with pretty, contemporary styles to represent the modern world. Crumb used a gritty, 1920s style (above). Max misread the generation. He thought theirs was just another fashion change. He failed to get a sense of how deeply the hippies were disgusted by the ugliness around them and how much they wanted warmth and personal connection. Crumb's style was the only one that reflected that.
There was a new kind of sexuality on the streets (above) but normal artists weren't picking up on it. Glossy magazines had pictures of slick models wearing weird, high-fashion mod clothes but that was the world of glamour...it didn't have much to do with what was on the street. Crumb was the first to suggest that the casual clothes real girls were wearing were sexy.
Crumb resisted getting into a rut. Sometimes he would do fine-artsy type pictures like the one above.
Young white suburbanites had mixed feelings about the newly liberated blacks (above). On the one hand they welcomed the "soul" and style of the blacks, on the other hand they feared the ignorance and coarseness that some blacks brought with them. Young whites of the period were firmly and idealistically committed to civil rights, but they must have found themselves wondering if they had opened Pandora's Box. Only Crumb managed to capture this anxiety.
Are there any parallels to today's situation? What should cartoonists be drawing now? That's a tough question but I'll take a stab at it. My belief is that, unlike the hippies, this generation doesn't want to have its nose rubbed in the ugliness of modern cities. Underground comics that stress sloppy, depressing environments are missing the mark and will fail. The society that's coming will reward artists who can create romantic alternatives to what we have now. That's why the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films are so popular. 'Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The one thing I'm certain of is that you better fill your sketchbooks with drawings of baggy while it's still here. When it's gone it'll be gone forever. Emos are wearing stovepipe jeans and they're the new trendsetters.
Crumb shocked everybody with his gritty, realistic inner city landscapes (above). Older people didn't seem to mind this ugly and depressing architecture but young people were steeped in bright mod fashions and appealing images in movies and magazines and they hated the old stuff. Nobody knew exactly how much they hated it until Crumb came along and satirized it. 
City streets began to fill with black people wearing outrageous clothes. Nobody would give it a second glance now, but back then white suburbanites were constantly surprised by it. Crumb's the only one who bothered to draw it.
Back then adults didn't watch TV much and they were worried about the effects of TV on kids (above). They had good reason because the modern, clean, exciting world we saw on TV made the ugly, slow-mo real world seem intolerable. Once again, only Crumb bothered to draw that.
Other artists like Peter Max tried to come up with pretty, contemporary styles to represent the modern world. Crumb used a gritty, 1920s style (above). Max misread the generation. He thought theirs was just another fashion change. He failed to get a sense of how deeply the hippies were disgusted by the ugliness around them and how much they wanted warmth and personal connection. Crumb's style was the only one that reflected that. 
There was a new kind of sexuality on the streets (above) but normal artists weren't picking up on it. Glossy magazines had pictures of slick models wearing weird, high-fashion mod clothes but that was the world of glamour...it didn't have much to do with what was on the street. Crumb was the first to suggest that the casual clothes real girls were wearing were sexy.
Crumb resisted getting into a rut. Sometimes he would do fine-artsy type pictures like the one above.
Young white suburbanites had mixed feelings about the newly liberated blacks (above). On the one hand they welcomed the "soul" and style of the blacks, on the other hand they feared the ignorance and coarseness that some blacks brought with them. Young whites of the period were firmly and idealistically committed to civil rights, but they must have found themselves wondering if they had opened Pandora's Box. Only Crumb managed to capture this anxiety.
Are there any parallels to today's situation? What should cartoonists be drawing now? That's a tough question but I'll take a stab at it. My belief is that, unlike the hippies, this generation doesn't want to have its nose rubbed in the ugliness of modern cities. Underground comics that stress sloppy, depressing environments are missing the mark and will fail. The society that's coming will reward artists who can create romantic alternatives to what we have now. That's why the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films are so popular. 'Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
The one thing I'm certain of is that you better fill your sketchbooks with drawings of baggy while it's still here. When it's gone it'll be gone forever. Emos are wearing stovepipe jeans and they're the new trendsetters.
61 comments:
I love Crumbs work, but sometimes it also gives me like a...nervous feeling sometimes? I don't know what it is, but I can't really look at it for too long before I start to feel uncomfortable.
Also, I think Emo kids are TOTALLY god's gift to cartoonists. They're so funny already, it's harly any work at all to do a funny drawing of them!
You do a fine job of analyzing Crumb. I never thought of him this way
"In my opinion Crumb was the best practicing artist in any medium of the 60s and 70s." Bravissimo! Someone has finally said it! So true. For me, two things combine to make Crumb great: the unique way he adapted that early 'twenties style (Cliff Sterrett, DeBeck, early Rube Goldberg, old sheet music covers, etc.) to his own purposes, and his totally alienated point of view. In case there is anyone in the world who hasn't seen it, a great insight into RC can be gotten from Zwigoff's 1994 film, Crumb.
You really nailed it, Eddie. Crumb's work is a testament to the importance of drawing from life for cartoonists. His streetscapes are great. I love seeing his detailed steet corners with all the signs, and traffic barrels, and road cones that we all just filter out drawn and crosshatched beautifully. It makes you stop and think and realize there presence and what that all means.
What's especially fun is the street scenes he then draws from memory which are far less detailed but still capture the city feel but are super cartoony. I actually copied the drawing of the girl watching TV this weekend to figure out some trick... one of which is shadows go a long way in giving a character weight and presence.
In the movie 'Crumb' there's a scene where he shows a scrapbook of photos and newspaper clippings. He has a library of images of traffic lights, and utility and telephone poles he uses as source material. Inspired by this, I went around my town, Boston, and took a tons of snapshots of just ordinary street scenes, alleys, brownstones, sidewalks, plazas, gas stations, all kinds of places and started drawing some just last night, just to get the feel of the city in my head and fingers.
I love Crumb's work, especially his stuff which is about places, our landscape, that stuff is just imagination food for me, I can gawk at it all day.
Great post! I love Crumb, but you hit the nail on the head explaining WHY.
I loved the post, eddie. I totally agree with your insights, i had thought about some of that stuff but not that deeply. Gee, I'm so glad you'll go on with the blog!
I don't know what I think about Crumb. He's funny at times, and at other times he's horribly disgusting, not in the funny booger eating way, but in a "I need a shower" way.
By the way, Uncle Eddie. A pal and I are going to the sunny land of Californy in late October, and I wonder if there is any possible chance you would grace us with your presence! We'll be there on the 21st and staying for three weeks. Please get back to me at joshheisie@hotmail.com Thanks!
My favorite stuff by him is his early blues/country/jazz drawings in that one book. You should scan some Eddie!
I saw that film about him a while back, I like the way he dresses. Although he is super ugly, even though he somehow gets women. He kind of looks like that one actor Steve Buscemi- they're both super ugly, I wouldn't touch either of them with a ten-foot pole! That's why that one movie, Ghostworld makes no sense. That girl wouldn't have sex with Steve Buscemi in real life. Hahaha, that was sort of a tangent.... but my other point was he could definitely play as Crumb in a film about him!
Thanks for the Crumb post Eddie!
The interesting thing about 'youth culture' today is that there isn't a one dominant style. There are so many types even within the 'hipster' realm alone. It does make for interesting cartooning though!
Aw, Kali somewhere R. has a big fat tear rolling down his cheek....and poor Steve B. as well
I find it hard to believe, but there are a lot of girls that find Buscemi attractive.
Great post Eddie,
Love love love crumb. He was my introduction into a comic-book world outside of superheroes. Some great observations here. I think, though that the image of the hairy girl doesn't quite fit your text below it. Seems more of a riff on a bigfoot siting — I don't think it's really supposed to be a black girl, just a "crumb girl" with lots and lots of brown hair all over her body. Still, I think the essence of the oggling white kids in the car and the shockingness of the character does relate well to what you wrote. I see what you're saying about a possible turn toward more romantic imagery, and you may be right, but there will always be a place for the grotesque. I think Crumb's continued popularity is a testament to that.
So much to comment on here, but those are some of my first thoughts and I'll leave it at that.
Like lester hunt said above, "Bravissimo!"
haha kali, If you were to make a collage of histories most influential thinkers and artist it would look like a cover for people magazines 100 least sexy men issue
also while I cant imagine anyone disagreeing with you about crumb theres more than a few women who would strongly disagree with your assessment of Buscemis aesthetic qualities
Crumb's ideal woman reflects his personal tastes. There is a great autobiographical strip where he theorises about the roots of his obsession with big-legged women. He's into riding piggyback & is rumored to be magnificently endowed. 'Just goes to show....you never know who's going to get one.
I think Crumb's fine rendering of gritty urban neighborhoods grounds his cartoonyness in a certain sense of reality that you didn't see at all in commercial culture of the day. The life in the picture is still as cartoony as ever (note the car & the white man in a homburg).
Does Crumb remind anyone else of Basil Wolverton's strip style?
He depicted black people in an early Bosko style in his strips. Compare the Sasquatch girl in the 3rd illustration to Angelfood McSpade. It goes with the 20's style (early animation was populated only by funny animals & for whatever reason, negroes) & indicates how exotic white Americans found black people in the 60's.
Isn't that mountain molesting the teenybopper the Paramount logo?
Oh man, "Crumb" is a great movie.
I love the part where R. Crumb goes through his brother's (Charles) Art Instruction mail-in, which was filled with insane, lurid drawings of naked women and cartoon rabbits.
I once had a dentist who hung Peter Max work on his wall- PEOPLE, DO NOT DO THIS.
It's amazing how far fame and a million bucks goes toward getting the attention of the opposite sex.
whats bizarre is how many of todays lame artsy cartoonists worship crumb
I seem to recall you saying you didnt care much for crumbs work a few months ago, why the change of heart?
Loved the post...I love crumb's work too and as a youngin' its hard to notice some of the goofy trends us kids take part in. Next time I'm sketching I'll be sure and pay attention to goofy clothes!
I must admit to never really liking Crumb's work. There's nothing wrong with it, but like Brilliantpants said. It makes me uneasy. It is complex and complete, but to me is not inherently pleasing to view for any extended period of time.
I just found out today that Emo kids(who aren't really emo kids, but I guess that's what it became) are also called "Rockers." Their hatred for actual rock-and-roll aside, I found this shocking- I always associated Rockers with guys in London in the fifties and sixties on cafe-racer Triumph motorcycles, slugging expresso, listening to garage rock LPs and slicing eachother open with stilettos.
They didn't wear girl pants and they didn't complain about shit, is what I'm saying. I'm normally an optimist, but when it comes to modern music and fashion, eighty percent of it is a lost hope.
God's gift to cartoonists indeed.
Hey Eddie, you might get a kick out of this.
www.livingroomcandidate.com
It's an archive of president TV commercials. Some of the early ones (like some done in a UPA style!) are both incredibly entertaining and fascinating symbols of the time.
Wow Eddie, that was one hell of a post! Oddly though, it actually made me sad to think that baggies are fading out...
"I find it hard to believe, but there are a lot of girls that find Buscemi attractive."
You and me both, Vincent! PUKE!!
"theres more than a few women who would strongly disagree with your assessment of Buscemis aesthetic qualities"
CREEPY. This is why I am not other women, haha.
P.S. I hope you're cold will go away soon, Eddie!
The comics scene is wayyy to intellectual today, especially fantagraphics (spiegelman, ware etc.) When you look at guys like milt gross you see unbridled creativity and joy, I mean can you imagine Don Marting writing
solemn articles on the semiotics of graphic imagery in contemporary postindustrial culture.. etc?
I once said I thought the farside was hilarious on a comics journal messageboard and was immediately met with derision and ridicule. (one poster even used the phrase, pseudointellectual claptrap)
Those dour intellectual types are supposed to be the people cartoonists make fun of not the people drawing the cartoons!
even though the outlook can be a bit dour sometimes theres still a sense of joy and FUN in his drawings which is sorely lacking in the cartoonists he supposedly influenced
the american eagle wearing polo shirt gelled hair fratboy look is another style that Im surprised todays cartoonists arent making fun of
wonderful insight there edward... quite correct, Crumb is the man. Someone should document our times so well
I read in a book about Crumb that when he was young, he constantly copied old cartoons where the girls all had big, thick ankles...that's where his cankle fetish started.
Not a fan of Crumb. His style is ugly to me, Wolverton does a better job of making alot of stiff details look appealing.
Also, I hate underground comics.
Great post. I too was introduced to Crumb before I even knew who he was from that Janis Joplin LP. I love the turtle on the left with a hat, smoking and reading the paper.
Not only are his pictures fun to look at, but his writing is really interesting too. Crumb would make a great blogger, actually.
Hey great idea Kali! Steve Buscemi in 'The Life Of Robert Crumb' would be awesome.
I read this interview with him not too long ago. Crumb talks about his influences and his love for 30s Fleischer cartoons. In a BBC Documentary I saw about him, I think it was called 'The Confessions of Robert Crumb' he refers to his 'popeye style' in one segment. I think in the interview I linked above he talks about Carl Barks being a big influence on him too. Carl Barks drew the Scrooge McDuck series of Disney comics, which if you can find them are great. 'Lost in the Andes' is permanently burned into my retinas from reading it religiously in elementary school.
I'm drawing conclusions but i think you're implying that emos are inherently harder to parody than thugs and grungies, I just tried tp draw both, and the baggy clothes were way easier to ridicule. probably in comparison (and by definition) emos are so much more meticulous about their image. the best i could come up with is a fat girl squeezing into the tight clothes. I'll work on being the crumb of the emo/glam-rap generation.
ALso...
I think Uncle Eddie is one of the greatest observationists of his time. In any medium.
Furthermore I've never even heard of Peter Max before this post, yet I was actively researching Crumb just hours before reading this post. Barfing rainbows onto otherwise unaltered images is not art. It's preschool.
perhaps the ewww gross reaction girls seem to have to crumbs physical appearance may provide some insight into the mildly misogynistic elements in his cartoons
I think this "Youths dislike Ugliness of Modern Cities" theory is totally without foundation. It is merely Crumbs style and point of view, and its popularity or lack of same seems moot. Or at least something I never have run into.
I always saw Crumb as sentimental and nostalgic, and I have never run into a kid, who was a kid in the past forty years, who disliked Crumb, or the world he portrayed.
Is that what you are saying Eddie, that there are those that really don't like his view of the world (That is, its surface visual style, as opposed to deeper aesthetic issues that many have taken umbrage with, such as apparent sexism and racism)? Are you saying modern kids don't like diners? Or cities that look older than seventy years old? Where are you getting that? Where are these kids?
Or are you just using the opportunity to paint Peter Max as a relatively shallow stylist?
Crumbs latest work? Those sketchbooks? The color seems poorly considered.
I'm going to have to reread your theory. Some underlying assumptions seem a bit cracked tho.
I would say that Crumb's only rival at the time would have been Saul Steinberg. Steinberg's earlier work (his beautiful New Yorker covers and his masterpiece, 'The Passport') were very much a reaction to America in the 1950s - someone once said that 'The Passport' belongs with Nabokov's 'Lolita' as a European-in-America look at the world of motels, highways, juke boxes, etc. It was toward the end of the 60s, when Steinberg's studio was located above Andy Warhol's Factory and he walked through the East Village to work everyday that he took notice of the work of underground comic artists like Crumb and the influence is obvious in his work from the late 60s and early 70s (though still distinctively Steinberg's).
Eddie, two questions: why do you think that suddenly there is an interest on the part of academia in certain cartoonists? Crumb, Steinberg and now Wolverton have had major shows in the last few years. Do you think there are reasons why these figures have been chosen, and others not, for the patina of 'respectability' these kind of things give?
Also, thinking about Crumb in the 60s, another great thing about him was his creation of a 'gallery' of characters: the Snoid, Mr Natural, Flakey Foont, Fritz the Cat, etc. Every studio in the 30s and 40s had a gallery of characters emulating the 'stars' of live action, with Warner Brothers being acknowledged as the richest and most varied. The 60s may have seen the last great groups: (I know you're ambivalent about them but)Hanna Barbera's early TV gallery (Huckleberry Hound, Yogi & Boo Boo, The Flinstones); the Marvel Comics universe (Spider Man, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, etc.), and Crumb's. Any thoughts on whether successful cartoons need a gallery of characters like this?
i'm not too familiar with robert crumb, i'm more of a harvey kurtzman fan :P
he does draw well, it's fun and cartoony
his fat(ish) girls scare me cuz i look like that ... o.o
i'm not very familiar with robert crumb, i'm more or a harvey kurtzman fan ;P
his fat girls scare me cuz they remind me of me :o
i can't believe i missed the chance to draw the'baggy pants check out ma boxers' look
i'm such a loser
Wow, there's a lot of content here...
I like Crumb's work also because He recognized the dark side or th3e dark potential of the sixties counterculture, although maybe that's more explicitly evident in his retrospective biographical work.
There was that dual thing of understanding the reacting against the establishment or the parent generation, but at the same time, his artistic influences and the music he loved came from a different time entirely, an earlier time with excellent craftsmanship and men wearing hats.
It's interesting that he didn't actually LIKE psychedelic music.. he was all the time an outsider, or at least he felt like one. Which I guess made him a more objective observer, he wasn't just swept up and rendered stupid by the tides of fashion.
From a few angles it looks to me like 60s doctrines of inclusivity holding hands and all that were nice and had some glorious high points culturally and sorta had to happen, but they also contributed to the subsequent eroding of the very idea of standards of excellence. But we know all this. But the Crumb thing keys right into that. The sixties thing seems to be key to understanding everything good and bad and bad we've been left with.
Natebear: You've never seen Peter Max stuff? I grew up with all psychedelic art all around me- and I equated Max with Lisa Frank. Hahahhahah....
Not only did Crumb hate psychadelic stuff he hated bob dylan and the beatles too, he considered pop music to be the death rattle of culture
Stephen: I know what you mean. It's hard to understand why academics are interested in artists like Wolverton and Crumb.
I didn't know Steinberg lived above Warhol. Fascinating!
Ha, Kali, I lurve Buscemi, are you kidding? He's "ugly", sure but what charisma! ; D
As for ol' Crumb: I have a love/not love thing with him--no, not his looks but his work. As a kid I kind of hated all that stuff--it looked ugly and sloppy and just...well, cheap to me(mind you, I was a stadard young kid, and the stuff I didn't like & saw everywhere was "Keep on truckin'!" and Mr. Natural, etc). Well, people thankfully evolve and by the time I was 21 or so I discovered "Weirdo",the great anthology magazine he edited & contributed to, and I got hooked on his great, brilliant writing and his art. I felt then & do now slightly conflicted because honestly, I can't "defend" some of his stuff at all, yet it doesn't bother me...perhaps because of his totally honest attitude about it all. He's like the most open, frank, no-BS popular artist I've ever known of.
Perhaps it's just how much of a sitting duck he makes himself that I just can't hate on him for all his plain misogyny and whatnot...and damn, he's funny, and terribly smart. Besides--like all the great satirists/observers of society that can get away with murder, he first & foremost is merciless to himself, too. That's probably the key to why I don't dislike him personally: he's so naked(no pun intended)and frank about how screwed up he is. Not to mention his sterling taste in music, old comics, 20s culture, etc,etc all of which I share(I've got a 1920 Orthophonic cabinet player myself with old old records). It's pretty much all there in "Crumb".
As for his art, I can readily see why many don't like his style, but I've grown to admire it tremendously...and damn, the guy sure does walk the walk as far as sketching on a compulsive/daily basis, and doing it just the way all the modern adherents of sketchbooking advocate. To me those are priceless, those sketchbooks. And apparently they really are, as he traded a decade or two of the orginals to a collector in exchange for a house in France! Keep drawing, people. ; ) I see Katie doing the same one day.
I LOVE Crumbs work it is satisfying on so many levels!!! I used to obsess over that album cover as a kid analyzing all the details. So amazing, it sucks that they sold his art work for that album.
Further thoughts:
Kali-even though I'm betting that you do NOT have big muscular legs, I'm 100% sure Crumb would do a killer portrait of you(he'd love your face esp.)...there's a very talented girl, Jenny Nixon, who's about your age(she's married to Angry Youth Comix guy Johnny Ryan); Crumb did a drop-dead portait of her, from life...gah, was I jealous when I saw that. I have a link to her site on mine but I don't know if she still has the link up.
Part of Crumb's likeability to me is that he was THE MOST UN-HIP guy by any mainstream standards of his heyday--not cute, not "cool" a la Dylan or Morrison or John Phillips or even David Crosby(circa 1970), etc. yet he became famous and after that it didn't matter a damn what he looked like or how ridiculous he thought hippie culture was...he mainly dug the SF scene for the "free love". ; ) Again, dead honest!
Totally disagree about Peter Max in history; don't know where you draw those broad conculisions, Eddie. He was a HUGE hit and huge influence on that scene--his style is much more in evidence than Crumb's was, or you might argue it was at least 50-50 back in '69-70(I lived in SF then, even if I was a tiny kid I recall
the Haight--I thought(seriously)--it was an annex of Disneyland).
I liked Max for a brief while-I had a notebook with a Peter Max cover, I remember...but it didn't take long til I disliked him: colors and style too gooey/bubbly/empty. But nevertheless it wasn't for nothing that 7UP had a major TV animated/liveaction campaign designed by him. He took psychedelia mainstream.
Anon: Crumb's notebook drawings are mainly B/W; I agree that his printed color is less than terrific, but some of his self-colored stuff is muted and nicely done.
Eddie did Ralph Bakshi ever talk about his time working with Crumb?
Im sick of all this revenge of the nerds nonsense. How about cartoons by athletic good looking popular people that are well adjusted and hold positions of power in our society?
Oooh i was awkward in highshool waah piss off
Crumbs alright but i prefer cartoonists that gently poke fun at the foibles of the cultured and wealthy rather than document the dreary urban lives of the workaday plebian masses
Crumb is fascinating. I've always wondered if the ugliness of his city streets would give way to the beauty of nature if he lived on a tropical island. Or, if he would find ugliness in the sandy beaches and palm trees? You know what I mean? Is he pointing out the ugliness of the city scape or in Crumb's hands, does everything become disturbing? Thanks for the post Eddie.
what do you think of shel silverstein?
Hi Uncle Eddie,
Thanks again for another great post!
You reminded me about a documentary I saw years ago which I could only vaguely remember was about cartoonists or some such thing. I looked "crumb" up on google video, and I found it again, the same brilliant documentary! Thanks so much for reminding me. This is a brilliant documentary about Robert Crumb, everyone should look at it!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5256654485379198946&q=crumb&total=1511&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3
here is a tiny url version incase this full length url doesnt work:
http://tinyurl.com/2kypsl
enjoy!
keep up the good work!
shouldnt artists be striving to recreate the pure beauty of gods creations and the ideal forms of nature and virtue rather than focusing on mans baser impulses which this blasphemer has devoted his shameful career to?
Who shall continue where Michaelangelo left off?
My favourite of his work is the 80's Weirdo period.
I think that stuff is just genius. The hippy stuff
isn't as interesting to me tho I love the fact that
he was an angry, acid taking misanthrope!
And an fantastic draughtsman.
I'm sure if he lived in the 20's he'd find lots
of people to hate. I don't think he'd be swinging with
F Scott Fitzerald.
Im sick of all this revenge of the nerds nonsense. How about cartoons by athletic good looking popular people that are well adjusted and hold positions of power in our society?
You mean cartoons by people who are as funny as the last season of Welcome Back Kotter?
Josh: Possibly. Let me know when you get here.
Kali: I was going to answer what you said about Buscemi but a zillion people beat me to the punch.
Anon: Did I say I didn't like Crumb a while back? I've always liked him, but like every other artist he has bad days.
William (and all other non-Crumb fans): I understand why you think he's ugly. In a way he is sometimes. Some good fine artists are like that, Reginald Marshall for example. Don't you think Crumb has compensating virtues?
Jenny: Peter Max has his good points. I kind of like some of the stuff in the recent coffee book on him. I don't think anyone would say that he's deep or profound but at his best he's fun and cheery.
I like what you said about Crumb getting away with stuff because he so hard on himself.
Anon: I forgot to Ask Ralph about Crumb. My guess is that he's a big fan. Crumb did a comic page where he roasted Ralph and Steve Krantz for talking him into OKing the Fritz the Cat film.
Adam: Thanks, I'll watch it when I can.
Nate: Emos are hard to parody but we better gear up for it because there's so many of them.
Eddie, do you really think emos are hard to parody? I think it's pretty easy! They're millions of youtube clips making fun of them.
Maybe the hard part is their tendency to ironically embrace any criticism of them, as well as their general teenage bull-headedness. God, I hate teenagers.
Awesome.
Great to hear to a perspective from someone who grew up during those times. Gives a great background to Crumbs that can be so easily lost.
Thanks a lot
Some very eye-opening stuff here Eddie! Definitely a lot to think about for those of us who really want to say something with our art.
Good job. One of your most accurate and unique essays.
My biggest influences on my style are Spumco and R. Crumb. Shit, when I was 12 I was the black R. Crumb!!! Oh yea, Tales of Worm Paranoia was and still is one of my fave cartoon shorts
Thanks for the post. It's interesting to note how many times Basil Wolverton is mentioned in the comments.
I'm getting back into doing comix, and Crumb was always a big influence. Which is a problem, because i've been wanting to have my own style. Your tips on the rest of the blog are very helpful, also.
These modern times are hilarious. Kids are wearing fanny packs and look like little pirates and gypsies.
And yes, the Crumb aesthetic of women still lives on today, especially in San Francisco. God bless 'em.
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