R. Crumb: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent gathering of interviews and profiles
Review: Fans of underground comix art who wish for insights into the counterculture artist and innovator R. Crumb, whose illustrations have received wide distribution both in his own collections and on the faces of records, newspapers, and t-shirts, will find R. Crumb Conversations an excellent gathering of interviews and profiles covering various periods of Crumb's life and works. Comic art jokes, interactions with publishers and the public, and Crumb's influence on the underground comic art world are all revealed in the course of some excellent surveys.


Rating:
Summary: Explains comix with old blues
Review: Freudians should read this book. Crumb has a very modern set of aversions. Instead of doing a pamphlet for Planned Parenthood, he says, "But it's political. I don't know how I feel about all that. It's all so complicated." (p. 68). The topics discussed in this book cover the psychic interior, and the corporate entities have subtle names, as in, "Nevertheless, Last Gasp has gone on to become the second largest underground publisher in the country." [back in 1974, when eight hundred dollars covered printing costs for an underground title] (p. 93). R. CRUMB CONVERSATIONS (2004) has an index (which only has boldface listings for 6 pages showing cartoon characters, and it should've had boldface for Lenore Goldberg on p. 193 and Crumb as character on p. 198) on pages 233-244, and the Chronology on pages xiii-xxii includes such great years as 1993:

"Crumb illustrates INTRODUCING KAFKA. Summer: The last issue of WEIRDO (No. 28) is edited by Aline. June: THE COMPLETE DIRTY LAUNDRY COMICS is published. R. CRUMB SKETCHBOOK, May 1987 to April 1991 is published. Fall: A Crumb wall calendar for 1994 is published. November: R. Crumb Retrospective is shown at Alexander Gallery, New York City. Kitchen Sink issues a Mr. Natural squeeze doll."

Four pages in the index are devoted to Crumb's views and works. For example, on page 235 you can find:

on Fritz the Cat, 120, 212-13; on Fritz the Cat (movie), 12-13, 28, 57-61, 174;

But anyone who is in the part of the index devoted to Crumb's works will notice that Works on page 236 begins with THE ADVENTURES OF FRITZ THE CAT (Cavalier), xvi; and includes eight lines of listings of other Fritz the Cat characters in the second column on page 237, up to "Fritz the Cat Superstar," 174, 213.

Crumb has problems he feels because of his being a celebrity as a result of the documentary movie that was made about his life. `When people asked me if I liked it, I said, "It's a good movie. It completely ruined my life, but it's a good movie!" (Laughs).' (p. 218). I usually feel that Crumb is being most honest when he says things that correspond to my feelings, but my situation has more concerns about sexual harassment in the workplace. Comics is work that takes a tremendous amount of time and energy. I used to subscribe to "Funny Times Magazine" (if you get a subscription and die laughing, it might be my fault, but it's not likely) and see what the more politically observant cartoonists were producing, but I was usually too tired to read each issue. R. CRUMB CONVERSATIONS is more like reading a book. With 18 major selections, mostly interviews, originally published in 1968, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1998, 1999, and 2003 (with an illustration from 1971 on page 11, from 1970 on p. 19, from 1967 "I wish somebody would tell me what `Diddy-Wah-Diddy' means..." on p. 22, from 1968 on p. 25, from 1959 on p. 30, from 1961 on p. 31, from 1972 on p. 32, from 1965 on p. 43, from 1963 on p. 45, a greeting card "I got a German shepherd" from 1967 on p. 46, "Keep on Truckin'..." from 1967 (the hit song "Truckin" by the Grateful Dead was years later, but the idea came from an old blues song) on p. 70, from 1967 on p.86, Whiteman on p. 89, from 1970 on p. 110, from 1985 on p. 124 and p. 139, from 1987 on p. 145, from 1971 on p. 153, from 1967 on p. 173, from 1970 on p. 192, from 1969 on p. 193, from 1982 on p. 198, from 1981 "Excerpts from Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763," on p. 207, and from 2002 on p. 228), the book does not explain that "Diddie Wah Diddie" was an old song until the final interview conducted by mail in April, 2002.

`I don't spend nearly as much time dwelling on items that I "must have" for my collection as I used to. That said, I recently found an old collector willing to sell me an old bunch of fabulous and rare old 1920s blues records, stuff I've been trying to find for decades, such as Blind Blake's "Diddie Wah Diddie" and Memphis Minnie's "Cherry Ball Blues." They're not cheap, but not top dollar either.' (p. 226).

It is easy to find Academy Awards twice in the index, but only because of the Chronology for 1991 "April: Crumb's account of his attendance at the previous year's Oscar ceremony is published in `Premiere' magazine." And for 1994 "September: CRUMB, Terry Zwigoff's documentary about his longtime friend, premieres at the Toronto Film Festival and goes on to become a hit. Controversially, it is not nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary." About his participation in the movie starring his character, Fritz the Cat, he said, "Me and him [Ralph Bakshi] and my wife went out to lunch. After that I said: I'm going to do something, I'll see you later. And I just skipped and didn't come back for a week. I left him with my wife--it was really a bad mistake. He talked her into signing the contract. I never signed anything. I can't blame her, she had my power of attorney." (pp. 105-06). Crumb is not as rich as he deserves to be.

Robert: They gave me ten thousand dollars.
Al: You haven't got any royalty checks or anything?
Robert: Nah. Ten thousand dollars is what I've gotten from them. You know, I ain't poor. I'm probably upper middle class compared to most people I know.
Al: All these products that have been coming out with Mr. Natural on them and Keep on Truckin', that's really pirate stuff.
Robert: Most of it is. (pp. 69-71).

Back in 1972, it was the most famous cartoonist who was getting the most money. "Charles Schulz has the highest salary of anybody in the world." (p. 71).