Article Dedication
In Honor of
Irving Penn & O. Winston Link
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Notes:
1) If an image looks fuzzy click on it to view hi-res version.
2) When this blog was changed into a zine theme the photos lost their original format and spacing. I don’t have time to go back and fix thousands of photos used in hundreds of old posts…but I’m sure you will still get the message.
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I had written a book review for Amazon about a Robert Crumb comix compendium, but they refused to publish it. This post was inspired by Amazon’s censorship. The post started out as a simple review and blew up from there.
Through the years underground comix have showcased the work of many creative artists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_comix
Here are a few standouts…
Justin ‘Binky Brown’ Green
Green was studying painting at the Rhode Island School of Design when in 1967 he discovered the work of Robert Crumb and turned to cartooning, attracted to what he called Crumb’s “harsh drawing stuffed into crookedly-drawn panels”. He experimented with his artwork to find what he called an “inherent and automatic style as a conduit for the chimerical forms in [his] own psyche”. He dropped out of an MFA program at Syracuse University when in 1968 he felt a “call to arms” move to San Francisco, where the nascent underground comix scene was blossoming amid the counterculture there. (Wikipedia)
Brent Boates (cover)
Selection from Bikers’ Mardi Gras artist’s book by Daniel D.Teoli Jr.
Here is my version of Amputee Love…shot candid in a campground at the Bikers’ Mardi Gras.
Image looks fuzzy? Click on it.
Lee Marrs
Aline Kominsky-Crumb (Married to Robert Crumb)
Bill Griffith
Jim Blanchard / Goad
The Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection was very fortunate to acquire the original artwork, preliminaries and related ephemera to Trucker Fags in Denial comic book project.
https://truckerfagsindenial.wordpress.com/
Here is a statement written by Jim Blanchard for a forthcoming artist’s book by Daniel D. Teoli Jr. entitled: Trucker Fags in Denial: A Closer Look.
I first became aware of Jim Goad when I saw his incendiary self-published magazine Answer Me! in the early 1990s. I loved it and sent him a package of my publications. He liked them, so I contributed artwork to Answer Me! numbers 3 and 4, including the Hitler cover to number 3.
In the early 2000s, Jim wrote and asked whether I was game to do a comic story he had envisioned called Trucker Fags In Denial, featuring the exploits of two obese, closeted gay truck drivers. It sounded like a hilarious idea to me, especially with Jim Goad writing it. At first, I was wary of taking on the project, because I knew how much hard work it was to create good “comic” art. Continuity is crucial, and it requires accurately drawing and inking characters, backgrounds, word balloons, and lettering over and over again, something I really hadn’t done before, other than the few, short experimental comics I did in the 80s and 90s. I had served as “inker” for cartoonist Peter Bagge’s popular alternative comic Hate, but never had the responsibility of drawing, inking, and lettering a book-length narrative comic by myself.
If memory serves, it was a year or so after Jim initially asked me that we began work on Trucker Fags In Denial. Jim was hired as managing editor for Portland, Oregon strip club ad-rag Exotic magazine, and had more or less free rein. We would produce one page of Trucker Fags In Denial per month for Exotic mag. Only having to create a page a month allowed me to take my time and dial the art in properly. Jim would send a script each month with very specific visuals for each panel, and dialogue. We produced twenty eight pages in twenty eight consecutive months, and I don’t remember him ever complaining about what I came up with, or asking me to change anything, apart from minor adjustments.
I feel like we made a great collaborative writer/artist team. Seattle comics publisher Fantagraphics Books, whose roster includes everything from Peanuts and Dennis The Menace to Zap, published and quickly sold out of two printings of Trucker Fags In Denial in 2004 and 2005. The thirty two page comic now fetches $40-$50 on Amazon. It would mark the last time I worked in the comic medium.
Manuel ‘Spain’ Rodriguez
He picked up the nickname Spain as a child, when he heard some kids in the neighborhood bragging about their Irish ancestry, and he defiantly claimed Spain was just as good as Ireland (Wikipedia)
‘Spain’
March 2, 1940 – November 28, 2012
John Howard
Various artists.
Various artists
乳房和阴道的中国爱情是传说
Bob Fingerman
Petra Waldron and Jennifer Finch
あなたは猫の上に何の力もありません
Anata wa neko no ue ni nani no chikara mo arimasen
Tits and Clits was an all woman publication with many great contributing artists…Joyce Farmer, Lyn Chevely, Roberta Gregory, Lee Marrs and Trina Robbins.
Mary Wings
Roberta Gregory, Melinda Gebbie, Carol Tyler, Mary Fleener, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Dori Seda, Phoebe Gloeckner, Penny Van Horn, M.K. Brown, Diane Noomin, Phoebe Gloeckner, Carol Lay, Caryn Leschen, Leslie Sternbergh, Dori Seda, Mary Fleener, and Krystine Kryttre
Trina Robbins and Barbara “Willy” Mendes
Trina did a book on The Great Women Cartoonists
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Women-Cartoonists-Trina-Robbins/dp/082302170X
Various artists
Howard Cruse and various artists
S. Clay Wilson
Spain Rodriguez
Kenneth Huey cover
Wes Crum
Frank Kozik, Goad and various artists
Wes Crum
Nano
Dagger
J.H.
Art Spiegelman
Bob Fingerman
Comix have evolved a lot over the years – now there’re called graphic novels!
Rosetta is a collaboration from many artists around the world – Ivan Brunetti, David Choe, Dave Cooper, Renee French, Tom Hart, Michael Kupperman, David Lasky, Lat, Matt Madden, Megan Kelso, James Kochalka, John Porcellino, Ron Regé Jr., Sara Varon and others. Wrapped in a jam cover by Dave Cooper, Marc Bell, Miriam Katin and Ron Regé Jr. (Description from Amazon)
Most of Rosetta does not interest me…but Britney was such a cutie pie I had to buy it just for the cover art!
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But…when all is said and done and history must distill what defines underground comix into one creative genius that is the alpha and the omega of that genre…there can be no argument, dispute or question…that name is CRUMB!!
Robert Crumb is not only the godfather of the underground movement, he is also one of the most prolific, talented and creative cartoon artists ever. His body of work could easily fill a Crumb museum or two.
An excellent interview – Crumbs early years…
Aline and Robert…the early years!
In the old days, when they were broke, I wonder if they ever had any idea Robert’s artwork would someday sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece?
http://www.bidnow.com/2016/04/15/r-crumbs-top-10-most-expensive-works-at-auction/
back-up link…
A nice short of an early comic jam
Photograph by David Levene for the Guardian
クリトリスをマッサージすると、彼女がオーガズムに達するまで直立クリトリスを継続的に刺激することができるように、女性のしっかりと制御を有することが重要です
A short video that give some good insight into topics not normally discussed by Crumb. He even gets a little frisky with Aline! Well worth viewing.
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Crumb did a lot of introspective ‘art therapy’ in his work. That is not anything new with artists. Art is their tool they use to make sense of the world. A poet writes a poem, a photog shoots a photo, a writer types a book, a musician writes a song or lyrics, a sculptor chisels and a choreographer would design dances to work it out.
Here is one from me along the lines of working out what is in my head to make sense of the Japanese photographer Araki.
‘The Birth of Araki’
Concept and Post Processing from found photographs by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
アラーキー
私の乳首は難しいです
I don’t do much with ‘mental masturbation’ photography. I’m mainly a documentarian. But, this ‘Araki popping out of a vagina’ was renting space in my head for some time. I would have preferred it with Araki pulling himself out with his 2 hands by grabbing the labia. Sadly, I have zero talent for drawing or painting, so I made it with what talents I do have.
The photo of ‘The Birth of Araki’ was done as a cutout composite with found photographs. I had written to Araki to make me this photo and send me a low res digital file so I could make a small print to hang up on my wall. But, Araki is too goddamn high and mighty for a reply. That is how it goes with many a famous photog, pretty much all of them. Anyway, it all worked itself out and is no longer renting head space.
私は私にこの写真を確認し、私の壁にハングアップする小さな活字を作ることができるので低解像度デジタル ファイルを送って荒木に書かれていた。しかし、荒木は田舎者の白人野郎も横柄な返事を。それはどのように入るか多くの有名な photog かなりそれらのすべて。とにかく、それはすべてがうまくいった、もはやヘッド スペースを賃借しています。
From the Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
This photo from the turn of the century is what inspired me to work with cutouts for ‘The Birth of Araki’. I tried to hire a Photoshop expert to do it, but they never came through. I’m an old film photog and don’t know how to use Photoshop, I’m strictly Lightroom, so I went old school with the cutouts and did it myself.
Beside an interest in comix, Crumb was responsible for getting me into archival preservation. Something clicked in me once I watched the Crumb movie. I saw Crumb’s work as an archivist and it inspired me.
Crumb with a model of Devil Girl
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One of Crumb’s classic comics is A Bitchin Bod. The story unfolds over a few pages, I’ve only included a small snip.
In it, Mr. Natural has transformed the Devil Girl into a zombie like body sans head. The head has been pushed into the body. Mr. Natural shares his bod with Flakey. When Flakey’s conscience gets the better of him, Mr. Natural reaches in and pulls the head back out by the tongue, restoring Devil Girl. To the delight of the lesbian separatists, once restored, the Devil Girl sets out to kick ass.
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An early influence on Robert’s art was his brother Charles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Crumb
If you want to get the story I highly suggest you get a copy of Crumb from your library.
Charles was a very talented artist. Here are a couple of his pieces. Sadly his mom trashed his artwork after he committed suicide.
A video clip of Charles from the film Crumb
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Robert Crumb – Biography
Robert Crumb was born in Philadelphia on Aug. 30, 1943, to a Marine father and Catholic mother. His family moved frequently during his childhood, and moved to Delaware in 1956 when his father retired after twenty years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Robert’s mother often behaved erratically and was probably manic depressive. Robert was a faithful Catholic until he was sixteen. His biggest influence during his youth was his older brother Charles, who loved comics and who co-wrote many of the comics they produced as children. Crumb was anything but popular in high school and felt alienated.
“I was one of those social rejects, but then, you know, a lot of people were — nothing unusual about being an outcast in high school.”
Edited by D.D.Teoli Jr.
Robert had another brother named Maxon as well as some sisters.
Maxon had artistic talents as well, although mostly what he is known for are his paintings.
Here is a short clip on Maxon telling the ripe peach story! For info on the sisters, see the film Crumb! (end of edit)
After graduating from high school, Robert spent a depressing year at home, mostly drawing, and talking endlessly about the meaning of life with Charles, who never did leave home. He finally left for Cleveland in 1962 to live with his friend Marty Pahls, and soon found work with the American Greetings Corporation as a color separator.
He was promoted within a year to the Hi-Brow Department, and drew hundreds of cards over the next several years. His job as a commercial illustrator would have an effect on his future work. My boss kept telling me my drawings were too grotesque. I was trained to draw ‘cute’ little neuter characters which influenced my technique, and even now my work has this cuteness about it.
In 1964, Crumb lost his virginity with Dana Morgan, who he married later in the year. They honeymooned in Europe for six months, while Crumb continued to mail in his illustrations for American Greetings.
“I started taking L.S.D. in Cleveland in June of ’65. That changed my head around. It made me stop taking cartooning so seriously and showed me a whole other side of myself.”
After a temporary breakup with Dana, Robert traveled to New York, Chicago, and Detroit during this acid-soaked period and created many of his future characters: Mr. Natural, Mr. Snoid and Angelfood McSpade.
In January, 1967, Crumb suddenly left Cleveland. “I escaped to San Francisco when I met two guys in a bar who said they were driving west.” Dana followed him there, and they eventually settled in Haight-Ashbury. Crumb drew “Zap #1” and “Zap #0” in the fall of 1967 and sold them on the street in 1968 (out of Jesse’s baby carriage). So marks the birth of underground comics with Crumb as its most recognizable force. His son Jesse was born at this time, in April, 1968.
Robert continued to draw and travel throughout the rest of the decade.
“I was all over the map in ’69. I didn’t spend much time home. I was chasing women all over the place. I lived for a while in a hotel on Mission Street. That’s where ‘Big Ass’ and ‘Snatch 3’ were done. I was so mixed up. I stayed a couple months with Gilbert Shelton and a gang of Texans in Venice, California. I was in Detroit, Chicago, New York. It’s amazing I managed to turn out so much work in that chaotic time.”
In the last months of 1969, Crumb received a $10,000 advance from Ballantine Books for a “Fritz the Cat” book. He used that money as a down payment on a plot of land north of San Francisco in Potter Valley where he, Dana, and baby Jesse moved. In 1970, Crumb began a five-year, on-again off-again relationship with Kathy Goodell, who lived in San Francisco. In the same year, Crumb’s wife gave permission for Ralph Bakshi to use Fritz the Cat in a full-length feature film. Crumb, entirely dissatisfied with the project, soon after killed Fritz the Cat, a character he had created in adolescence.
In the first few years of the decade, Crumb continued to traverse the country and draw. But by 1974, Crumb moved from what had become a commune in Potter Valley and settled down in Madison, California with his new girlfriend, Aline Kominsky (later to become his second wife). He stopped smoking marijuana at that time. He drew a “Mr. Natural” strip which ran in “The Village Voice” for about a year (later compiled as “Mr. Natural #3”). He also started playing banjo and mandolin in the Cheap Suit Serenaders Band, which usually performed in the Bay area.
His revolutionary character Frosty the Snowman (Arcade comics in the mid-seventies) may have brought the wrong sort of attention from the government, because by 1977 Crumb was embroiled in a legal battle with the IRS.
In 1981, Crumb produced and edited a new comic magazine called “Weirdo” which included the work of other artists. Aline’s and Robert’s daughter Sophie was born at this time. In the mid-eighties, Robert decided to let Peter Bagge (and eventually Aline) take over the job as editor of Weirdo so that he could spend more time doing his own comics. While still contributing to “Weirdo,” he created the “Hup 1-4” series in the late 1980’s and early 90’s.
By the end of the 1980’s, with suburban sprawl increasing, the Crumbs became disgusted with America and, at Aline’s instigation, decided to leave. Robert exchanged some of his sketchbooks for their new house in the south of France. Crumb’s friend, Terry Zwigoff, filmed Robert and his family before they moved and the resulting documentary “Crumb” achieved some success at the box office in America and some countries in Europe.
Except for the occasional expedition to Paris or America, Crumb has nestled himself in the south of France, where he is hard at work on a long-term project illustrating the book of Genesis. He owns almost five thousand 78 RPM records in his collection. His son Jesse lives in Northern California. His daughter Sophie lives 45 minutes away from her parents. Aline is pursuing her interests in comics, painting and sculpting.
Comic Timeline:
http://www.crumbproducts.com/pages/about/time.html
This biography was written by Alexander Wood and was edited by Robert Crumb.
Source: http://www.crumbproducts.com/pages/about/history1.html
A great interview with Crumb and Gilbert Shelton…
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Robert Crumb at home
Photograph by Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian
Post processing for photo as shown: Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
Comic-Con then and now
by Nano
Yes, Crumb has touched the lives and has been an inspiration to many an artist over the years.
とき…その名はクラムは、引数、紛争や質問はあり得ない…アルファとそのジャンルのオメガである1創造的な天才にアンダーグラウンド・コミックスを定義するものを蒸留しなければならない歴史です CRUMB！
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From Girls of the Beat Generation
A forthcoming 6 volume artist’s book series by social documentary photographer Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/girls-of-the-beat-generation-artists-book/
A complete list of artist’s books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.
https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/artists-books-by-daniel-d-teoli-jr-2/
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Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Archival Collection
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. VHS Video Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Audio Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Advertising Archive
Daniel D.Teoli Jr. Social Documentary Photography
Daniel D. Teoli Jr. 