Robert Crumb

Robert Dennis Crumb (/krʌm/; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist
Robert Crumb
and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for
American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of
contemporary American culture.

Crumb is a prolific artist and contributed to many of the seminal works of the
underground comix movement in the 1960s, including being a founder of the first
successful underground comix publication, Zap Comix, contributing to all 16 issues.
He was additionally contributing to the East Village Other and many other
publications, including a variety of one-off and anthology comics. During this time,
inspired by psychedelics and cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s, he introduced a
wide variety of characters that became extremely popular, including countercultural
icons Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, and the images from his Keep on Truckin' strip. Crumb in Chestertown, 2010
Sexual themes abounded in all these projects, often shading into scatological and
Born Robert Dennis
pornographic comics. In the mid-1970s, he contributed to the Arcade anthology;
Crumb
following the decline of the underground, he moved towards biographical and
August 30, 1943
autobiographical subjects while refining his drawing style, a heavily crosshatched
Philadelphia,
pen-and-ink style inspired by late 19th- and early 20th-century cartooning. Much of
Pennsylvania, U.S.
his work appeared in a magazine he founded, Weirdo (1981–1993), which was one
of the most prominent publications of the alternative comics era. As his career Nationality American
progressed, his comic work became more autobiographical. Area(s) Cartoonist · Writer ·
Musician
In 1991, Crumb was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic
Pseudonym(s) R. Crumb
Book Hall of Fame. He is married to cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb, with whom
he has frequently collaborated. Their daughter Sophie Crumb has also followed a Notable works Zap Comix
cartooning career. Keep on Truckin'
Fritz the Cat
Mr. Natural
Contents Weirdo
Early life (1943–1966) Spouse(s) Dana Morgan
Career (m. 1964;
Early work (1962–1966) div. 1978)
Zap and underground comix (1967–1979)
Weirdo (1980–1993)
Aline Kominsky-
Later life (1994–present) Crumb (m. 1978)
Professional collaborations Children Sophie Crumb ,
Musical projects Jesse Crumb
Album covers
Relatives Charles Crumb, Jr.
Style
(brother)
Crumb recurring characters
Maxon Crumb
Awards and honors (brother)
In the media Carol DeGennaro
Personal life (sister)[1]
Bibliography (selection) Sandra Colorado
 Comics (sister)[1]
Collections and graphic novels Charles Crumb
See also (father)
References Beatrice Crumb
Works cited (mother)
Further reading rcrumb.com
External links

Early life (1943–1966)

Robert Crumb was born on August 30, 1943, in Philadelphia to a Catholic household[2] of English and Scottish ancestry.[3] His
father, Charles V. Crumb, authored the book Training People Effectively,[2] and was a Combat Illustrator for 20 years in the United
States Marine Corps. His mother Beatrice was a housewife who reportedly abused diet pills and amphetamines. Charles and
Beatrice's marriage was unhappy and the children were frequent witnesses to their parents' arguments.[4] The couple had four other
children: sons Charles Junior (1942–92) and Maxon (b. 1944), both of whom suffered from mental illness; and daughters Carol
(b. 1940) and Sandra (1946-1998).[5][6] The family moved to Milford, Delaware, when Crumb was twelve; there he was an average
[7]
student whose teachers strongly discouraged him from cartooning.

Inspired by the works of Walt Kelly, Fleischer Brothers animation, and others, Crumb and his brothers drew their own comics.[2]
Crumb's cartooning developed as his older brother Charles pushed him and provided him with constant critical feedback on his work.
In 1958 the brothers self-published three issues of Foo in imitation of Harvey Kurtzman's satirical Humbug and Mad. They sold them
door-to-door with little success, souring the young Crumb on the comic-book business.[8] At fifteen, Crumb became obsessed with
[2] At age 16, he abandoned the Catholic faith.
collecting jazz and blues records from the 1920s to the 1940s. [9]

Career

Early work (1962–1966)

Crumb's father gave him $40 when he left home after high school.[9] His first job, in 1962, was drawing novelty greeting cards for
American Greetings[10] in Cleveland, Ohio. He stayed with the company for four years, producing hundreds of cards for the
company's Hi-Brow line; his superiors had him draw in a cuter style that was to leave a footprint on his work throughout his
career.[11] In Cleveland he met a group of young bohemians such as Buzzy Linhart, Liz Johnston, and Harvey Pekar. Dissatisfied
with greeting card work, he tried to sell cartoons to comic book companies, who showed little interest in his work. In 1965, cartoonist
Harvey Kurtzman printed some of Crumb's work in the humor magazine he edited, Help!. Crumb moved to New York, intending to
work with Kurtzman, but Help! ceased publication shortly after. Crumb briefly illustrated bubblegum cards for Topps before
returning to Cleveland and American Greetings.[10]

Crumb married Dana Morgan in 1964. Nearly destitute, the couple traveled in Europe, during which Crumb continued to produce
work for Kurtzman and American Greetings, and Dana stole food.[12] The relationship was unstable as Crumb frequently went his
own way, and he was not close to his son Jesse (b. 1965).[13]

In 1965 and 1966 Crumb had a number of Fritz the Cat strips published in the men's magazine Cavalier. Fritz had appeared in
Crumb's work as early as the late 1950s; he was to become a hipster, scam artist, and bohemian until Crumb abandoned the character
in 1969.[11]

Crumb was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with his job and marriage when in June 1965 he began taking LSD, a psychedelic
drug that was then still legal. He had both good and bad trips. One bad trip left him in a muddled state for half a year, during which
for a time he left Dana; the state ended when the two took a strong dose of the drug together in April 1966.[14] Crumb created a
Mr. Natural, Angelfood McSpade, and the Snoid.[15]
number of his best-known characters during his years of LSD use, including
Zap and underground comix (1967–1979)
In January 1967 Crumb came across two friends in a bar who were about to leave for
San Francisco; Crumb was interested in the work of San Francisco-based
psychedelic poster artists, and on a whim asked if he could join them.[15] There, he
contributed upbeat LSD-inspired countercultural work to underground newspapers.
The work was popular, and Crumb was flooded with requests, including to illustrate
a full issue of Philadelphia's Yarrowstalks.[16]

Independent publisher Don Donahue invited Crumb to make a comic book; Crumb
drew up two issues of Zap Comix, and Donahue published the first[16] in February
1968 under the publisher name Apex Novelties. Crumb had difficulty at first finding
retailers who would stock it, and at first his wife took to selling the first run herself
out of a baby carriage.[17]

Crumb met cartoonist S. Clay Wilson, an art school graduate who saw himself as a Front cover of Fritz the Cat.
rebel against middle-class American values and whose comics were violent and
grotesque. Wilson's attitude inspired Crumb to give up the idea of the cartoonist-as-
entertainer and to focus on comics as open, uncensored self-expression; in particular, his work soon became sexually explicit, as in
the pornographic Snatch he and Wilson produced late in 1968.[17]

The second issue of Zap appeared in June with contributions from Wilson and poster artists Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin. In
December, Donahue published the still-unreleased issue as #0 and a new third issue with Gilbert Shelton joining the roster of
regulars.[17] Zap was financially successful, and developed a market for under
ground comix.

Crumb was a prolific cartoonist in the late 1960s and early 1970s; at his peak point of output he produced 320 pages over two
years.[9] He produced much of his best-known work then,[18] including his Keep on Truckin' strip, and strips featuring characters
such as the bohemian Fritz the Cat, spiritual guru Mr. Natural, and oversexed African-American stereotype Angelfood McSpade.[19]
During this period, he launched a series of solo titles, including Despair, Uneeda (both published by Print Mint in 1969), Big Ass
Comics, R. Crumb's Comics and Stories, Motor City Comics (all published by Rip Off Press in 1969), Home Grown Funnies (Kitchen
Sink Press, 1971) and Hytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971), in addition to founding the pornographic anthologies Jiz and Snatch
(both Apex Novelties, 1969).[20]

Weirdo (1980–1993)
While meditating in 1980 Crumb conceived of a magazine with a lowbrow aesthetic inspired by punk zines, Mad, and men's
magazines of the 1940s and 1950s.[21] From 1981 Crumb edited the first eight issues of the twenty-eight issue run of Weirdo,
published by Last Gasp;[22] his contributions and tastes determined the contents of the later issues as well, edited by Peter Bagge
until #16, and Aline for the remainder of the run.[21] The magazine featured cartoonists new and old, and had a mixed response; Art
Spiegelman, who co-edited the slicker Raw, called it a "piece of shit", and Crumb's fumetti was so unpopular that it has never
appeared in Crumb collections.[23]

Later life (1994–present)

The Crumbs moved into a house in southeastern France in 1991, which is said to have been financed by the sale of six Crumb
sketchbooks.[24] The Terry Zwigoff-directed Crumb documentary appeared in 1994[25] —a project on which Zwigoff had been
working since 1985.[22] The film won several major critical accolades.

From 1987 to 2005 Fantagraphics Books published the seventeen-volume Complete Crumb Comics[26] and ten volumes of sketches.
Crumb (as "R. Crumb") contributes regularly to Mineshaft magazine, which, since 2009, has been serializing "Excerpts From R.
Crumb's Dream Diary".[27]
In 2009, after four years of work, Crumb produced The Book of Genesis, an unabridged illustrated graphic novel version of the
biblical Book of Genesis.[28][29][30][31][32][33]

In January 2015, Crumb was asked to submit a cartoon to the left-wing magazine Libération as a tribute for the Charlie Hebdo
shooting. He sent a drawing titled "A Cowardly Cartoonist," depicting an illustration of the backside of Crumb's friend Mohamid
Bakshi, while referencing the prophetMuhammad, founder of Islam.[34][35]

Professional collaborations
A friend of comic book writer Harvey Pekar, Crumb illustrated over 30 stories of Pekar's in the award-winning comic book series
American Splendor, primarily in the first eight issues (1976-1983).[36] Crumb collaborates with his wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, on
many strips and comics, includingDirty Laundry Comics, Self-Loathing Comics, and work published inThe New Yorker.[37]

Crumb's work also appeared in Nasty Tales, a 1970s British underground comic. The publishers were acquitted in a celebrated 1972
obscenity trial at the Old Bailey in London; the first such case involving a comic. Giving evidence at the trial, one of the defendants
said of Crumb: "He is the most outstanding, certainly the most interesting, artist to appear from the under
ground, and this (Dirty Dog)
is Rabelaisian satire of a very high order. He is using coarseness quite deliberately in order to get across a view of social
hypocrisy."[38][39]

In 1978, Crumb allowed his artwork to be used as pictorial rubber stamp designs by Top Drawer Rubber Stamp Company, a
collaboration between cartoonist Art Spiegelman, publisher Françoise Mouly. and people living at Quarry Hill Creative Center in
Rochester, Vermont. R. Crumb's imagery proved to be some of the most popular designs produced by this avant-garde pictorial stamp
company.[40]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Crumb illustrated a number of writer Charles Bukowski stories, including the collection The Captain Is Out
to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship and the story "Bring Me Your Love."[41]

In 1984-5 Crumb produced a series of illustrations for the tenth anniversary edition of Edward Abbey's environmental themed novel
The Monkey Wrench Gang, published in 1985 by Dream Garden Press of Salt Lake City. Many of these illustrations also appeared in
a 1987 Monkey Wrench Gang calendar, and remain available on T-shirts.

Crumb's collaboration with David Zane Mairowitz, the illustrated, part-comic biography and bibliography Introducing Kafka (1993),
a.k.a. Kafka for Beginners, is one of his less sexual- and satire-oriented, comparably highbrow works. It is well-known and favorably
received, and due to its popularity was republished asR. Crumb's Kafka.

A theatrical production based on his work was produced at Duke University in the early 1990s. Directed by Johnny Simons, and co-
starring Avner Eisenberg and Nicholas de Wolff, the development of the play was supervised by Crumb, who also served as set
designer, drawing larger-than-life representations of some of his most famous characters all over th
e floors and walls of the set.

Musical projects
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 1930s, and they also heavily influenced the soundtrack choices for his band mate
Zwigoff's 1994 Crumb documentary. In 2006, he prepared, compiled and illustrated the book R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz &
Country, with accompanying CD, which derived from three series oftrading cards originally published in the 1980s.[42]

Crumb was the leader of the band R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, for which he sang lead vocals, wrote several songs and
played banjo and other instruments. Crumb often plays mandolin with Eden and John's East River String Band and has drawn three
covers for them: 2009's Drunken Barrel House Blues, 2008's Some Cold Rainy Day, and 2011's Be Kind To A Man When He's Down
on which he plays mandolin. With Dominique Cravic, he founded "Les Primitifs du Futur"—a French-style band based on musette /
folk, jazz and blues—and played on its 2000 albumWorld Musette.[43] He also provided the cover art for this and other albums.
Crumb has released CDs anthologizing old original performances gleaned from collectible 78-rpm phonograph records. His That's
What I Call Sweet Music was released in 1999 and Hot Women: Women Singers from the Torrid Regions in 2009. Crumb drew the
cover art for these CDs as well.

In 2013, Crumb played mandolin with the Eden and John's East River String Band on their album Take A Look at That Baby and also
took part in the accompanyingmusic video.

Album covers
Crumb has illustrated many album covers, including most prominently Cheap
Thrills by Big Brother and the Holding Company and the compilation album The
Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead.

Between 1974 and 1984, Crumb drew at least 17 album covers for Yazoo
Records/Blue Goose Records, including those of the Cheap Suit Serenaders. He also
created the revised logo and record label designs of Blue Goose Records that were
used from 1974 onward.

In 1992 and 1993, Robert Crumb was involved in a project by Dutch formation The
Beau Hunks and provided the cover art for both their albums The Beau Hunks play
the original Laurel & Hardy music 1 and 2. He also illustrated the albums' booklets.
Crumb cover artwork for the 1968
In 2009, Crumb drew the artwork for a 10-CD anthology of French traditional music Big Brother and the Holding
compiled by Guillaume Veillet for Frémeaux & Associés.[44] The following year, he Company album Cheap Thrills.

created three artworks for Christopher King's Aimer Et Perdre: To Love And To Lose
Songs, 1917–1934 [45] and, in 2011, he once again played mandolin on an Eden and
John's East River String Band album B
( e Kind to a Man When He's Down) for which he also created the album cover artwork.

Style
As told by Crumb in his biographical film, his artwork was very conventional and traditional in the beginning. His earlier work
shows this more restrained style. In Crumb's own words, it was a lengthy drug trip on LSD that "left him fuzzy for two months" and
led to him adopting the surrealistic,psychedelic style for which he has become known.

Crumb has been acclaimed for his attention to detail and satirical edge, but has also generated a significant amount of controversy for
his graphic and very disturbing portrayals of sexuality and psychology. There exists a feminist backlash against his comics because
they became more "violently misogynistic, as he graphically poured what were essentially his masturbatory fantasies onto the printed
[46]
page. Women were raped, dismembered, mutilated, and murdered, sometimes all at once."

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."[47] Robert
Crumb's cartooning style has drawn on the work of cartoon artists from earlier generations, including Billy DeBeck (Barney Google),
C. E. Brock (an old story book illustrator), Gene Ahern's comic strips, Basil Wolverton (Powerhouse Pepper), George Baker (Sad
Sack), Ub Iwerks's characters for animation, Isadore Freleng's drawings for the early Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes of the
1930s, Sidney Smith (The Gumps), Rube Goldberg, E. C. Segar (Popeye) and Bud Fisher (Mutt and Jeff). Crumb has cited Carl
Barks, who illustrated Disney's "Donald Duck" comic books and John Stanley (Little Lulu) as formative influences on his narrative
approach, as well as Harvey Kurtzman of Mad Magazine fame.

[48][49]
Crumb has also cited his extensive LSD use as a factor that led him to develop his unique style.
After issues 0 and 1 of Zap, Crumb began working with others, of whom the first was S. Clay Wilson. Crumb said, about when he
first saw Wilson's work "The content was something like I'd never seen before, ... a nightmare vision of hell-on-earth ..." And
"Suddenly my own work seemed insipid ..."[50]

Crumb remains a prominent figure, as both artist and influence, within the alternative comics milieu. He is hailed as a genius by such
comic book 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[49] and in The
Philadelphia Inquirer.[51]

Crumb recurring characters

Angelfood McSpade — large-built black woman drawn as a racist African native caricature. She is usually depicted
being sexually exploited or manipulated by men.
BoBo Bolinski — "burr-headed barfly"
Devil Girl — Amazonian type who is the object of Mr [52]
. Natural's obsession in later comics; real name Cheryl Borck
Eggs Ackley — cheerful young egg salesman
Flakey Floont — Mr. Natural's neurotic disciple
Fritz the Cat — feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades
Honeybunch Kaminski — teenage runaway and girlfriend ofProJunior
Lenore Goldberg — leader of a group of young women revolutionaries
Mr. Natural — unreliable holy man
Shuman the Human — another neurotic male character
The Snoid — diminutive sex fiend and irritating presence

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 Prixin 1999.

With Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Gary Panter, and Chris Ware, Crumb was among the artists honored in the
exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at the Jewish Museum in New York City, from September 16, 2006 to January 28,
2007.[53][54]

In 2017, Crumb's original cover art for the 1969 "Fritz the Cat" collection published by Ballantine sold at auction for $717,000, the
[55]
highest sale price to that point for any piece of American cartoon art.

In the media
In addition to numerous brief television reports, there are at least three television or theatrical documentaries dedicated to Crumb.

Prior to the 1972 release of the film version ofFritz the Cat, Austrian journalist Georg Stefan Troller (de:Georg
Stefan Troller) interviewed Crumb for a thirty-minute documentary entitledComics und Katerideenon Crumb's life
and art – which he describes as "the epitome of contemporary white North America's popular art" – as an episode of
his Personenbeschreibung(literally "Person's description") documentary-format broadcast on the German TV
network ZDF. The documentary also includes a "making-of" look at the [then?] forthcoming Fritz movie, featuring
production background interviews withRalph Bakshi. By the mid-to-late 2000s, it could still be seen on rotation as
part of the Personenbeschreibungseries on the ZDF-owned digital specialty channelZDFdokukanal (in 2009
replaced by the new channelZDFneo).
The Confessions of Robert Crumb(1987)
Crumb (1994), a documentary film byTerry Zwigoff
In the 2003 movie American Splendor, Crumb was portrayed byJames Urbaniak. Crumb's wife Aline was quoted as saying she hated
the interpretation and never would have married Robert if he was like that.

In 2006, Crumb brought legal action against Amazon.com after their Web site used a version of his widely recognizable "Keep on
Truckin'" character. The case was expected to be settled out of court.
Underground rap artist Aesop Rock mentions Crumb several times in his lyrics, including in the songs "Catacomb Kids" from the
album None Shall Pass and "Nickel Plated Pockets" from his EP D
" aylight".

R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions, a collection of his most personally revealing sexually-oriented drawings and comic strips, was released
by TASCHEN publishing in November 2007. In August 2011, following concerns about his safety, Crumb cancelled plans to visit the
Graphic 2011 festival in Sydney, Australia after a tabloid labeled him a "self-confessed sex pervert" in an article headlined "Cult
genius or filthy weirdo?".[56][57]

In 2012, Crumb appeared in five episodes of John's Old Time Radio Show talking about old music, sex, aliens and Bigfoot. He also
played 78-rpm records from his record room in southern France. He has appeared on the show and recorded at least fourteen one-
hour podcasts.

Personal life
Crumb has been married twice: to Dana Morgan in 1964[12] who gave birth to their son Jesse in 1968.[9] Crumb met cartoonistAline
Kominsky in 1972;[58] their relationship soon turned serious and they began living together (on the same property shared by Dana
Crumb).[59] In 1978, Crumb divorced Dana and married Aline, with whom Crumb has frequently collaborated.[18] In September
1981 Aline gave birth to Crumb's second child,Sophie.[22] They moved to a small village nearSauve in southern France in 1991.[60]

Crumb's ex-wife Dana died in 2014.[61] On New Year's Eve, December 31, 2017, Crumb's son Jesse died from injuries he sustained
in a car accident near Phillipsville, California; he was 49 years old.[62] A six-year-old Jesse Crumb had been featured as a character
in Robert and Aline's Dirty Laundry Comics #1 (Cartoonists Co-Op Press, 1974); he also appeared in Terry Zwigoff's 1994
documentary film, Crumb.

Bibliography (selection)

Comics
Zap Comix issues from 1 and 0 (1968) through at least 9 (1978) and several moreApex ( Novelties, Print Mint, Last
Gasp and other transient brand names, generally under Crumb's control, 1968–2016) — #0 and #1 are all drawn by
Crumb, the rest have stories by others also
Snatch Comics issues 1–3 (Apex Novelties/Print Mint, late 1968–Aug. 1969) — #1 by Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, the
rest have stories by others also
R. Crumb's Fritz the Cat(Ballantine Books, New York, 1969) (no ISBN listed) — all Crumb; about half reprints
R. Crumb's Comics and Stories: April 1964(Rip Off Press, 1969) — all Crumb; single 10-pp. story aboutFritz the
Cat and incest (originally produced in 1964)
Despair (Print Mint, 1969) — all Crumb
Motor City Comics #1–2 (Rip Off Press, Apr. 1969–Feb. 1970) — all Crumb
Big Ass Comics #1–2 (Rip Off Press, June 1969–Aug. 1971)— all Crumb
Mr. Natural #1-3 (San Francisco Comic Book Company, Aug. 1970–Kitchen Sink Enterprises, 1977) — all Crumb
Uneeda Comix, "the Artistic Comic!"(Print Mint, Aug. 1970) — several short strips by Crumb. The longest, last and
strongest continues onto the back cover in color
.
Home Grown Funnies (Kitchen Sink Enterprises, Jan. 1971) — all Crumb
Your Hytone Comix (Apex Novelties, 1971) —all Crumb
XYZ Comics (Kitchen Sink Press, June 1972) — all Crumb
The People's Comics (Golden Gate Publishing Company, Sept. 1972) — all Crumb. This contains the strip in which
there is Crumb Land (a black void), and also the strip in which Fritz the Cat is killed.
Artistic Comics (Golden Gate Publishing Company, Mar. 1973) — all Crumb, with illustrations of (amongothers)
Aline Kominsky
Black and White Comics(Apex Novelties, June 1973) — all Crumb
Dirty Laundry Comics #1–2 (Cartoonists Co-Op Press/Last Gasp, July 1974–Dec. 1977) — R. Crumb and Aline
Kominsky
Best Buy Comics (Apex Novelties, 1979) — R. Crumb and Aline Kominsky
Snoid Comics (Kitchen Sink Enterprises, 1980) — all Crumb
 Hup #1–4 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1987–1992) — all Crumb
Self-Loathing Comics (Fantagraphics, Feb. 1995–May 1997) — R. Crumb andAline Kominsky-Crumb
Mystic Funnies #1–3 (Alex Wood, Last Gasp, Fantagraphics, 1997–2002) — all Crumb
Mineshaft #5–present (Dec. 2000–)

Collections and graphic novels

R. Crumb's Head Comix(Viking Press, 1968) — anthology; re-issued byFireside Books in 1988, with a new
introduction by Crumb;ISBN 0-671-66153-1
R. Crumb's The Yum Yum Book (Scrimshaw Press, 1975) — originally created in 1963; later republished asBig Yum
Yum Book: The Story of Oggie and the Beanstalk by Slave Labor Graphics, 1995
R. Crumb Sketchbook series (Zweitausendeins, 1981–1997) — later republished in 10 volumes by Fantagraphics
Bible of Filth (Futuropolis, 1986) — collection of Crumb'serotic comics from over the years
The Complete Crumb Comics(Fantagraphics Books, 1987–2005) — 17 volumes
Introducing Kafka (Totem Books, 1993) ISBN 1-84046-122-5 — with writer David Zane Mairowitz
R. Crumb's America (SCB Distributors, 1995)ISBN 0-86719-430-8
Bob and Harv's Comics(Running Press, 1996)ISBN 978-1568581019 — collaborations withHarvey Pekar
The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book (Little, Brown and Company, 1997) ISBN 0-316-16306-6 — edited and
designed by Peter Poplaski
Odds & Ends (Bloomsbury PublishingUK, 2001) ISBN 978-0-7475-5309-0
R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country(Harry N. Abrams, 2006) ISBN 978-0-81093-086-5
Your Vigour for Life Appalls Me(Turnaround Publisher, 2008) ISBN 978-1-56097-310-2
The Book of Genesis (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009) ISBN 978-0-393-06102-4 OCLC 317919486
The Book of Mr. Natural (Fantagraphics, July 2010)ISBN 978-1-60699-352-1
The Complete Record Cover Collection(W. W. Norton & Company, Nov. 2011) ISBN 978-0-393-08278-4
Sweeter Side of R. Crumb(W. W. Norton, 2011) ISBN 978-0-393-33371-8
Drawn Together: The Collected Works of R. and A. Crumb (Boni & Liveright, Oct. 2012) ISBN 978-0-871-40429-9 —
R. Crumb and Aline Crumb

See also
Charles Addams
Edward Gorey
Gary Larson
Lorin Morgan-Richards
Shel Silverstein
Gahan Wilson
Crumb (film)

References
1. Lovece, Frank (June 2, 1995). "A new documentary focuses on Robert Crumb --Crumb highlights the cartoonist's
dysfunctional family" (http://www.ew.com/article/1995/06/02/new-documentary-focuses-robert-crumb)
. Entertainment
Weekly.
2. Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 158.
3. Crumb, Robert Crumb Family Comics. Last Gasp, 1998. ISBN 0-86719-427-8, where he discusses his ancestry at
length in a hand-written essay.
4. Crumb, Maxon, edited by Maxon Crumb ; (1998).Crumb Family Comics. San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp. pp. 105,
129. ISBN 0867194278.
5. Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 158; Goldstein 2013, p. 517.
6. http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Still-in-the-shadows-an-artist-in-his-own-right-2487551.php#page-3
7. Maremaa 2004, p. 29.
8. Maremaa 2004, pp. 29–30.
 9. Goldstein 2013, p. 517.
10. Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 159.
11. Maremaa 2004, p. 30.
12. Burgess 2000.
13. Goldstein 2013, p. 518.
14. Holm 2005, pp. 46–47.
15. Holm 2005, p. 47.
16. Holm 2005, pp. 47–48.
17. Harvey 1996, p. 195.
18. Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 160.
19. Dowd, Douglas B.; Hignite, Todd (2006). Strips, Toons, And Bluesies: Essays In Comics And Culture. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 76–79.ISBN 978-1-56898-621-0.
20. Sabin, Roger (1996). "Going underground".Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art.London,
United Kingdom: Phaidon Press. p. 92.ISBN 0-7148-3008-9.
21. Holm 2005, p. 83.
22. Holm 2005, p. 82.
23. Holm 2005, pp. 83–85.
24. Holm 2005, p. xx.
25. Holm 2005, p. 97.
26. Holm 2005, p. 85.
27. Palmieri, Gioia. "Update" (http://www.mineshaftmagazine.com/index.html). Mineshaft Magazine. Retrieved
December 11, 2010.
28. Gustines, George Gene(October 23, 2009). "Graphic Books Best-Seller List"(http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/200
9/10/23/graphic-books-best-seller-list-12/?scp=2&sq=Genesis%20Crumb&st=cse) (book review). The New York
Times. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
29. "R. Crumb on Genesis (slide show)"(https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/10/18/arts/20091018-SALK_index.ht
ml?ref=design). Nytimes.com. October 18, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
30. Bloom, H., "Yahweh Meets R. Crumb",The New York Review of Books, 56/19 (December 3, 2009).
31. R. Crumb. "Crumb's 'Genesis,' A Sexy Breasts-And-Knuckles Af
fair" (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?s
toryId=113842476). Npr.org. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
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inprint/016_03/4342), Bookforum, September/October/November 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-04 (access requires
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33. "Robert Crumb" (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/mar/18/robertcrumb.comics)and "Robert Crumb, Part 2"(ht
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Film Theatre appearance), The Guardian (UK), March 18, 2005.Genesis referenced in latter.
34. "Legendary Cartoonist Robert Crumb on the Massacre in Paris,"(http://observer.com/2015/01/legendary-cartoonist-r
obert-crumb-on-the-massacre-in-paris)New York Observer (10 January 2015).
35. "A Kind of Sleaze" The Paris Review 12 January 2015 (http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/01/12/a-kind-of-slea
ze/)
36. McArdle, Terence. "Harvey Pekar dead: American Splendor comic writer was 70"(https://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071202413.html)Washington Post. July 13, 2010.
37. Jones, Jonathan. "Self-Loathing Comics, Robert Crumb (1994)"(https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/aug/19/a
rt.robertcrumb) The Guardian, 19 August 2000. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
38. "Nasty Tales Trial 2" (https://web.archive.org/web/20111008023623/http://www .funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/friend
s/nastytalestrial2.htm). funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. February 9, 1973. Archived fromthe original (http://www.funto
pia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/friends/nastytalestrial2.htm) on October 8, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
39. "International Times" journal, #147, February 9, 1973, pp. 17–20.
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Works cited
Burgess, Steve (2000-05-02)."R. Crumb". Salon''.
Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J. (2013). "Crumb, Robert".Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain
America to Wonder Woman. ABC-CLIO. pp. 158–168. ISBN 978-0-313-39923-7.
 Harvey, Robert C. (1996). The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History
. University Press of Mississippi.
ISBN 978-0-87805-758-0.
Holm, D. K. (2005). Robert Crumb. Pocket Essentials. ISBN 978-1-904048-51-0.
Goldstein, Kalman (2013). "Robert Crumb (1943– )".In Cross, Mary. One Hundred People who Changed 20th-
century America. ABC-CLIO. pp. 516–521.ISBN 978-1-61069-085-0.
Maremaa, Thomas (2004). "Who is this Crumb?".In Holm, D. K. R. Crumb: Conversations. University Press of
Mississippi. pp. 16–33. ISBN 978-1-57806-637-7.
McKenna, Kristine (April 23, 1995)."Creep Show: A new film shines disturbing light on the very dark family secrets
of cartoonist Robert Crumb. There's a lot more there than just Mr
. Natural". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 20,
2012.

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 a Tken 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 and Mineshaft. A brief history, with letters and art, of RobertCrumb's ongoing collaboration withMineshaft
magazine.

External links
Official website
interview on John's Old Time Radio Show 2012
Mineshaft magazine regularly publishing R. Crumb's sketchbook drawings.Currently serializing Excerpts from R.
Crumb's Dream Diary.
Crumb and East River String Band in theWall Street Journal
Kim Deitch reviews Robert Crumb's GENESISfrom Mineshaft magazine, issue #25 (Spring, 2010).
Page Six New York Post
Lovece, Frank. "R. Crumb's Family Circus", Entertainment Weekly #277, June 2, 1995.
"Monsieur Naturel: R. Crumb in France"by Brendan Bernhard,LA Weekly, April 29, 1998.
"Mr. Natural" by Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books 53(6), April 6, 2006. – Review ofThe R. Crumb
Handbook
Crumb plays mandolin in France 2012on YouTube
The Crumbs' Underground ComicsNPR Fresh Air interview with R. Crumb and wife Aline Kominsky Crumb
Biblical Sex Row Over Explicit Illustrated Book of Genesis,The Telegraph, October 18, 2009
Widmer, Ted (Summer 2010). "R. Crumb, The Art of Comics No. 1". Paris Review.
Cult American cartoonist Robert Crumb on show at Paris' Modern Art Museum , RFI English
The New York Times

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