Anyone Here Like Artist R. Crumb Like I Do?

[DCWilson]

Crumb is a favorite. Liked him then, like him now. Sometimes I get out a crow quill and a bottle of India ink and practice his hatching and shading techniques. The guy is as good as Rembrandt when it comes to putting lines together.

Needless to say, I am not.

 

[Walter Rego]

Interesting how many Forum members were/are Crumb fans. I still have a stack of original Zaps, Freak Bros, Mr. Natural Comics and others from my misspent youth. I was much more worried that my mom would find one of my underground comics than a copy of Playboy, she would have really been worried about me had she seen the comics.
More than 40 years later my friends and I still quote lines from the comics. I have a framed Mr. Natural Does The Dishes comic strip in my kitchen. Occasionally guests ask about it and I say if you have to ask, I can't explain.

 

[blujax01]

One of my favorites was the running gag of Fat Freddie's Cat and Fat Freddy's Headphones.

R. Crumb drew the world as he saw it. Telephone poles and wires tangling up the sunset, trash and debris on the street and junk in people's yards.

Brilliant - and funny!

 

[blujax01]

Ya'll are just a bunch of gun-totin' hippies!

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Interesting how many Forum members were/are Crumb fans. I still have a stack of original Zaps, Freak Bros, Mr. Natural Comics and others from my misspent youth. I was much more worried that my mom would find one of my underground comics than a copy of Playboy, she would have really been worried about me had she seen the comics.
More than 40 years later my friends and I still quote lines from the comics. I have a framed Mr. Natural Does The Dishes comic strip in my kitchen. Occasionally guests ask about it and I say if you have to ask, I can't explain.

I brought this up thinking a couple people might be into this stuff, but I didn't expect this! I don't know if I feel normal now or just glad others are as twisted as me. either way is fine. One artist, Matt Groening maybe, said as a kid he hid the commix from his parents, and now hides them from his kids.
Bluejax, as a longhaired kid and ever since I was in awe of Crumb's drawing of details just in the backgrounds, telephone poles with wires and street scenes in perspective in particular. then in that Crumb movie he showed his scetch book which had drawing of telephone poles, cars, buildings, etc. he did for reference in his drawings. It's great you tripped (groovy man!) on that exact thing.

 

[Marshwheeling]

The Crumb character who sticks with me the most was Boingy Baxter, who wore a pair of spring shoes that allowed him to boing out of trouble, away from any joint that gave him the creeps, or around the world if need be. Another was Lenore Goldberg, Girl Commando, who captured all his angst (or maybe it was mine) about sex and feminism, and who featured the essential Crumb fetish, the shelf-butt. There were a lot of girls in Berkeley who looked like her.

Yeah, I used to spend hours poring over the details in his drawings. Can't remember what would make me do that.

 

[blujax01]

...
Yeah, I used to spend hours poring over the details in his drawings. Can't remember what would make me do that.

I can taste the colors, man!

 

[blujax01]

... I did do lots of beer at the Presidio though and got a tattoo from Lyle Tuttle before he became Tatoo Artist of the Stars. I got my initials "CRS" which probably could have represented a lot of folks from that era. ...

Yeah, after he did the Johnny Carson Show it was all over. As it was told to me his ego absolutely exploded.

I met Lyle at a convention about 15 years ago. He was charging $100 to tattoo his stylized initials/logo on folks. They were lined up!

I passed...

 

[wbraswell]

Here's the funny part. I'd bet some of our older members thought back in the 60s that we were the ones who were bringing down America. Of course that's just life. The older generation always thinks the next one is the end of mankind.

 

[blujax01]

Here's the funny part. I'd bet some of our older members thought back in the 60s that we were the ones who were bringing down America. Of course that's just life. The older generation always thinks the next one is the end of mankind.

I try to keep that in mind...

 

[papajohn428]

I'd completely forgotten about ZAP Comix............does remembering them constitute a flashback?

 

[gaucho1]

I'd completely forgotten about ZAP Comix............does remembering them constitute a flashback?

Yes

Although anything we can remember from those days may qualify

 

[jkc]

Mr. Crumb, so far as I know, is still alive and kickin', having recently seen some spreads in The New Yorker, of all publications. A memorable quote from the Freak Brothers: "Dope in times of no money is better than money in times of no dope." And a memorable detail from a cartoon panel, a view of a bathroom, with a note near the toilet: "Chicks, Easy on the toilet paper!" Mad magazine's Don Martin was witty and funny, Crumb was and still is cerebral and hilarious.

 

[DCWilson]

I should have said this a few dozen posts ago, but the Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat were the creations of Gilbert Shelton, not R. Crumb.

Shelton was good too, but he wasn't the artist that Crumb was and still is.

 

[mike from st pete]

R. Crumb
I did enjoy his work, too. I saw the movie about his life some years ago, quite an interesting family.