A short life of the author
Robert Crumb (born 30 August 1943) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and musician who is the single most important figure in the history of underground comics — the artist who demonstrated, more forcefully than anyone else, that comics could be a medium for adult self-expression, social satire, sexual confession, and serious art. His work — raw, obsessive, technically brilliant, frequently obscene, and deeply uncomfortable — emerged from the San Francisco counterculture of the late 1960s and permanently altered the landscape of American cartooning. He has lived in the south of France since 1991, drawing, collecting 78 rpm records, and maintaining a principled distance from the American culture industry.
Life and Career
Crumb was born in Philadelphia and raised in a dysfunctional Catholic family dominated by a violent, overbearing father (a Marine and frustrated writer) and a mother addicted to amphetamines. He and his brothers Charles and Maxon were all obsessed with drawing from childhood; Charles, who may have been the most talented of the three, never published and eventually killed himself.
Crumb worked as a greeting card artist at American Greetings in Cleveland in the early 1960s — a period during which he also experimented with LSD, which he later said permanently altered his visual imagination. In 1967 he moved to San Francisco, and in February 1968 he published Zap Comix #1, selling copies from a baby carriage in the Haight-Ashbury district. The issue — featuring Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade, and the “Keep on Truckin’” image that would become one of the most widely reproduced images of the counterculture — launched the underground comics movement.
Zap continued (eventually running to seventeen issues, the last in 2014) and became the flagship anthology of underground comics, featuring work by Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Spain Rodriguez, and Gilbert Shelton. But Crumb’s influence extended far beyond Zap. Through the 1970s and 1980s he produced a torrent of work — in Arcade, Weirdo (which he edited from 1981 to 1993), Hup, and numerous one-shots — that included savage social satire, hallucinatory fantasy, explicit sexual material that remains controversial, deeply confessional autobiographical strips, and meticulously rendered illustrations of American folk culture and music.
His autobiographical work — in which he unflinchingly depicts his sexual obsessions (particularly his fetish for large, powerful women), his misanthropy, his anxieties, and his conflicted relationships — anticipates the confessional graphic memoir by decades and influenced artists from Harvey Pekar (whose American Splendor Crumb illustrated) to Alison Bechdel to Joe Matt.
Terry Zwigoff’s documentary Crumb (1994) — one of the great American documentaries — brought him to a wider audience and remains the best introduction to his life and work. The film’s portrait of the Crumb family — Robert, the tortured Charles, and the even more troubled Maxon — is unforgettable.
The Book of Genesis Illustrated (2009) — a complete, unabridged, lavishly drawn adaptation of the first book of the Bible — was Crumb’s most ambitious work and a critical and commercial triumph. He spent five years drawing it in his meticulous cross-hatching style, and the result is both a genuine work of biblical scholarship and a masterpiece of graphic art.
Style and Controversy
Crumb’s drawing style — dense cross-hatching, exaggerated figures, obsessive detail, a line quality influenced by Thomas Nast, T.S. Sullivant, and the 1920s cartoonists he collected — is instantly recognisable and technically extraordinary. He is one of the great draughtsmen of the twentieth century, and his sketchbooks (published in numerous volumes) reveal a compulsive, almost pathological commitment to drawing.
His work has always been controversial. The sexual content — including images of violence against women and racial caricatures — has drawn accusations of misogyny and racism. Crumb has alternately defended these elements as honest depictions of his psyche, acknowledged their problematic nature, and refused to censor himself. The tension between his artistic brilliance and his most disturbing imagery remains unresolved and is part of what makes his work significant.
Critical Standing
Crumb is universally acknowledged as one of the great American artists of the twentieth century. His work is in the permanent collections of major museums, and the Complete Crumb Comics (Fantagraphics, 17 volumes) is an essential reference. He remains the towering figure of underground and alternative comics.
Key Works
- Zap Comix (1968–2014)
- The Complete Crumb Comics (Fantagraphics, 17 vols.)
- The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book (1997)
- The Book of Genesis Illustrated (2009)
Collecting Crumb
Zap Comix #1 (1968, first printing) — the holy grail of underground comics collecting — brings $2,000–$10,000 depending on condition. Later Zap issues bring $20–$200. Original Crumb artwork appears at major auction houses and can bring six figures. The Fantagraphics Complete Crumb Comics volumes are essential; early volumes in fine condition are scarce. His sketchbook facsimiles are also highly collected.