Description
Cartooning legend Robert Crumb turns 80 on August 30 of this year. This illustration of Crumb at work, circa 1975, appeared in my recent book Maverix and Lunatix: Icons of Underground Comix (Fantagraphics).
He was born in Philadelphia and inspired by “funny animal comics” of the 1940s & ’50s, such as Pogo, Super Duck, and Coo Coo Comics. When his older brother Charles encouraged Robert to collaborate with him on creating their own comics, Crumb quickly developed into a gifted cartoonist. Discovering the work of Harvey Kurtzman, first in the early Mad comics and then in Trump and Humbug, the Crumb brothers created their own Kurtzman-inspired satire magazine, Foo. In 1962, Robert went to work at the American Greetings Corporation in Cleveland, first as a color separator, then as a greeting cards illustrator. While with the company he contributed Fritz the Cat adventures and sketchbook travelogues to Kurtzman’s magazine Help!, with a bit of sideline cartoon work for Topps Bubblegum cards.
In 1965 he moved to New York for a gig as Kurtzman’s assistant, but Help! soon went under. Encouraged by Kurtzman to “do your own stuff,” Crumb set out to join the late ’60s “psychedelic revolution” in San Francisco. LSD-inspired, he exploded with creativity, introducing his iconic characters Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont, Eggs Ackley, and Angelfood McSpade while repurposing the old blues slogan “Keep On Truckin’,” all within the pages of Zap #1, spearheading the underground comix movement. Crumb created a monumental amount of work during that era, including the cover art for the Janis Joplin-fronted Big Brother & the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills album. In 1981 he debuted his “low brow” humor magazine Weirdo.
Ten years later, Crumb moved to France with his wife, cartoonist Aline Kominsky and their daughter, Sophie. Terry Zwigoff‘s acclaimed documentary, Crumb, chronicling Robert’s oddball family tree, was released in 1994.
After the death of Aline, Crumb revisited America in early 2023, criss-crossing the country by car (with his nephew at the wheel) to see family and old friends. One of his stops along the way was to visit me at my studio and “Jewseum” (my large collection of Jewish comedy ephemera).
Crumb is both the most celebrated and controversial artist of his time. His life continues to be an open book to his fans, warts and all.