Okay, I’m going to step in a minefield here. I’ve always been a fan of… Robert Crumb! There, I said it.
He’s better known as R. Crumb, the former American Greetings artist who moved from Cleveland to San Francisco, did the cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company’s “Cheap Thrills” LP and became a pioneer in the underground comics scene.
His earliest sketches, including a drawing of WEWS-TV’s Dorothy Fuldheim, have been collected into high-priced hardback collections. But his work over the years has gone far beyond comic strips, with something to impress or offend just about anyone.
Crumb is a complex character. He seems fascinated with the 1930s, has produced an illustrated version of the Bible’s Book of Genesis, but also has illustrated stories with titles that can’t be repeated in polite company.
Crumb cannot only deeply impress, but also disgust and horrify in just a few panels. He asks for and certainly deserves his privacy, but his work offers many opportunities for study.
A Life, Examined
So, how many people are dissecting Crumb and his work? Plenty, and two new books from the University Press of Mississippi are a good indication of that. They include a series of thoughtful essays covering everything from the artist’s takes on Kafka, old blues musicians, religion, social satire, Bulgaria and more. David Stephen Calonne edited “R.Crumb – Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self.”
Calonne told me that Crumb has created characters that may or may not be extensions of his own personality.
“There must be 40-60-100 different characters he’s created. The ‘Bearsie Wearsies;’ ‘Flakey Foont;’ ‘Mr. Natural.’ They’re just wonderful. He’s really creating his own little world, but who is he? He’s Flakey Foont because he’s searching for answers, and he makes fun of his own hippie-type search for meaning. He’s using these characters and working out this dialogue with himself,” he says, adding that he was careful to let his own words and work tell his story.
I also spoke to Daniel Worden who had a similar challenge, editing “The Comics of R. Crumb – Underground in the Art Museum.” Yes, Crumb’s work has been showcased in great museums around the world.
“One of the appeals of Crumb’s work is consistently that he is a confessional artist. So, what you’re seeing really is this kind of ‘id’ he often invokes of the little guy inside of his head that he’s kind of unleashing on the page. Because of that, I think the comics are designed to make you uncomfortable and they continue to be successful with it. They continue to be disturbing and controversial and that’s what they were intended to be,” Worden says.
I admire R. Crumb’s artistic style and the way he tells a story, but not every story. Some of his work has made me angry, but in a way, it’s like cable-TV news. We tend to look for the content that reflects our beliefs. We can turn the channel, or in Crumb’s case, simply turn the page.
BOOMER TRIVIA: Last issue, I asked the name of the former Clevelander who was the voice of Prince Charming in “Cinderella.” Originally known by his given name of Michael Dowd, bandleader Kay Kyser renamed him Mike Douglas. He not only voiced the Disney character but later moved to Cleveland to host… what else? “The Mike Douglas Show.”
For next time, who is the one-time host on Akron’s WAKR radio who would gain national attention as a network game-show host?
