No.38: Robert Crumb
If this list was about cultural icons connected to the medium, Robert Crumb would no doubt have come much higher. With so many books, movies and documentaries celebrating his life and work in the public domain it’s hard to be concise about what matters here – his artwork. Words: Andrew Colman…
Crumb’s career has gone through many stages, while his art, for most of it, has gradually been refined over the decades. Throughout his early key period in the late ‘60s, from Zap 1 onwards, Crumb’s work was looser, more cartoonish and narcotic, his characters inhabiting the same wigged out hippie enclave that was San Francisco that he and his colleagues did. Establishing himself as the cornerstone and icon of the underground comix movement, Crumb’s work very quickly became prolific and dynamic, his bizarre, at times emetic stories underpinned by satire and a unique misanthropy – yet his characters were always human (with one or two exceptions!). From Fritz the Cat to Mr. Natural to the Snoid to Whiteman to Lenore Goldberg and countless others, his storytelling was compulsive and betrayed the desire to both push the envelope and be confessional – his visual language, influenced as it was by Harvey Kurtzman and seminal humour comic Mad, was that of the uninhibited outsider but also the classicist.
And yet there was always quality and depth in his art, the delineation of his characters and indeed their milieu. As Crumb’s work became more focused from the mid-70s onwards, his illustrations evoked not just America but the Americana that had always fascinated him – his stories developing a retro component that had elements and tropes from the early 20th century. From the 80s onwards, when he had started Weirdo, Crumb was still producing satirical work (mainly about himself and his proclivities) but he was also drawing albums about Jazz and Blues musicians and Kafka with brio, detail and muted subtlety.
Crumb, in his lengthy and frequently controversial career has been a uniquely gifted artist who, despite being the sideshow to the mainstream comic industry, is every bit as significant – the corrective to and skewed mirror of Marvel and DC. His work has in no small way embodied the underbelly, id and departed past of American culture, railing at his country’s delusion, hypocrisy and overbearing mythology, as well as the establishment. He has also fostered the careers of many autobiographical cartoonists and comic artists, such as Peter Bagge, Dan Clowes, Seth, Chester Brown, Joe Matt and many others. As much a part of the bedrock of the medium as Kirby and Eisner, he obviously can never be overlooked, and indeed would be of interest even to those who have no genuine interest in comics.
Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.39: Mac Raboy
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.41: Jim Starlin
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.42: Mike Zeck
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.43: Adam Hughes
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.44: Daniel Clowes
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.45: Gene Colan
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.46: George Perez
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.47: Michael William Kaluta
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.48: Cary Nord
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.49: Frank Quitely
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.50: Mike Ploog
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.51: Johnny Craig
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.52: Darwyn Cooke
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.53: Steve Dillon
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.54: Gil Kane
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.55: Michael Zulli
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.56: John Romita
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.57: Joe Maneely
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.58: Marshall Rogers
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale
Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo
https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-100/
https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/tripwires-101-greatest-comic-artists-of-all-time-no-101/
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No.38: Robert Crumb If this list was about cultural icons connected to the medium, Robert Crumb would no doubt have come much higher. With so many books, movies and documentaries celebrating his life and work in the public domain it’s hard to be concise about what matters here – his artwork. Words: Andrew Colman… Crumb’s career
The post Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.38: Robert Crumb appeared first on TRIPWIRE MAGAZINE.Read MoreTRIPWIRE MAGAZINE