Line #23 Creator/RobertCrumb


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/r-crumb_l_671.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Crumb, with a pair of female fans.]]
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4	Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943) is an UndergroundComics creator best known for ''Zap Comix'', "Keep on Truckin", ''ComicBook/FritzTheCat'', ''Mr. Natural'' and the album cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company's ''Music/CheapThrills (1968)''. He began his career working for Topps and the American Greetings corporation; there, he drew several of the earliest ''Fritz the Cat'' comics and the graphic novel ''Oggie and the Beanstalk''. He had some work published by Harvey Kurtzman in ''Help!'' magazine, but experiences with LSD led him to create some of his best-known comics, which he either published himself or submitted to other underground publications.
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6	Some of this work earned him a lot of criticism from other underground cartoonists and social commentators. Works depicting {{Blackface}}-inspired imagery and use of the N-word earned Crumb false accusations of racism, even though the comics were actually a ''satire'' of racism, not racist work in of itself. Harder to deny, however, was the misogyny: his comics frequently featured women being beaten up and raped, and even enjoying being sexually assaulted. Crumb commentators have associated this viewpoint with Crumb's then-unhappy marriage, noting that after remarrying and having a daughter, Crumb has drawn significantly more feminist-themed material since the 1980s.
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8	Became famous again in the 1990s as the subject of the critically-acclaimed biopic ''Crumb'', which is similar in many ways to ''ComicBook/AmericanSplendor'', the semi-autobiographical adaptation of the life of fellow underground cartoonist Harvey Pekar, which Crumb also contributed to. Crumb is a character in the movie adaptation of ''American Splendor'', played by James Urbaniak. Other artists heavily influenced by Crumb include [[ComicStrip/ZippyThePinhead Bill Griffith]], [[ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse Larry Gonick]], and (early) [[ComicBook/{{Maus}} Art Spiegelman]].
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10	Crumb's earliest comics could also be considered an early example of UsefulNotes/FurryFandom, being that he and his brother mostly enjoyed reading FunnyAnimal comics and drew these kinds of comics as children.
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12	He also illustrated album covers, the most noteworthy example being ''Music/CheapThrills'' ([[Music/JanisJoplin Big Brother and the Holding Company]]).
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14	Most recently, Crumb illustrated a comic book adaptation of the Book of Genesis. In his notes in the back of the volume, the agnostic Crumb points out with some pride that his comic book version of the Book of Genesis contains the whole Book, while most Christian comic book versions heavily abridge it.
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17	!!R. Crumb provides examples of these tropes:
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19	* AmazonianBeauty : One of his many specific fetishes
20	* ArtEvolution: Crumb's art style has become more realistic over time.
21	* ArtShift: After Crumb began using [[EverybodyMustGetStoned LSD]].
22	* AuthorAppeal:
23	** Crumb explains his ideal female body type [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fu0OW5tLy0 here.]]
24	** Crumb's work is highly personal and deals with many of his own interests, including his love for 1920s and 1930s music and his own sexual fantasies.
25	** Crumb draws a lot of pornographic scenes, but he does it mostly to please himself, so many scenes will feature huge women with heavy thighs and thick legs and/or furry cartoon characters.
26	** Among his non-sexual interests include classic cartoons and comics, blues and jazz music.
27	* BatmanGambit: Mr. Natural uses this, making people even angrier because they realize how predictable they are.
28	* BigBeautifulWoman: One of his many specific fetishes.
29	* BlackComedy: His comics frequently utilize this type of humor, most notably in ''Fritz the Cat''.
30	* {{Blackface}}: This imagery is frequently satirized in Crumb's work, which was ironically accused of being racist itself, even though the intent was actually to ''mock'' racism. Considering ''ComicBook/AmericanSplendor'' and his more realistic portrayals of African-Americans (including portraits of blues musicians he admired), Crumb did not use blackface imagery outside of his satires (including "Angelfood [=McSpade=]" and the parody ad for "Nigger Hearts").
31	* BlackJezebelStereotype: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelfood_McSpade Angelfood McSpade]], one of his most notorious creations, may be the trope codifier, being a black woman with large exposed breasts, large buttocks, and almost no clothing save for some jewelry and a skirt made from palm leaves. The narration regularly describes her voracious sexual appetite, and claims that she has to be confined to "the wilds of darkest Africa" because civilization would collapse if she were allowed to run free. Crump had a ParodyRetcon in 2004 claiming she was a criticism of the stereotype, but the fact that he retired her in the 1970s really didn't help.
32	* BornInTheWrongCentury: Crumb is very fond of the 1920s and 1930s, generally hating most aspects of pop culture after the 1940s. a theme that can be found in his work as well. Music of the 1950s onward is the biggest example, recounting that he "fell asleep" at Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/JimiHendrix concerts, and thought that certain modern blues musicians would be more appealing to him if they played ''acoustic'' guitars, finding the sound of the electric guitar to be intolerable. The love for the early 20th century didn't stop him from [[{{Irony}} making comics that probably would have gotten him arrested then however]].
33	* ButtMonkey:
34	** Flakey Foont
35	** Angelfood Mcspade too, hell, most women in his work.
36	** And let's not forget Crumb himself.
37	* ComicBookAdaptation: Crumb has drawn comics about a variety of topics, including biopics of Creator/FranzKafka, blues singer Charlie Patton and the Book of Genesis.
38	* CreatorBacklash: With "Keep On Truckin'", and later ''ComicBook/FritzTheCat''.
39	** Though one of his most famous works is the album cover to ''Cheap Thrills'' by Music/JanisJoplin's band Big Brother & the Holding Company, Crumb dislikes the band's music, and rock music in general.
40	** He wasn't particularly thrilled with the ''Crumb'' documentary either, despite its enormous acclaim.
41	* HeAlsoDid: Crumb also founded a retro-based band, the Cheap Suit Serenaders, which plays 1920s jazz, blues, country, Hawaiian and pop songs, although he hasn't played with them since the late 70s. (Another known member of the band, Creator/TerryZwigoff, later directed the documentary ''Crumb'', and some mainstream films like ''Film/GhostWorld'', ''Film/ArtSchoolConfidential'', and ''Film/BadSanta''.)
42	* DarkerAndEdgier: His work in the late 50's and early 60's certainly wasn't family friendly, but it wasn't nearly as confessional, perverse, unsettling and graphic as what he drew into the late 60's and 70's.
43	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Most of his work is in black-and-white.
44	* DirtyOldMan: He still was pretty horny throughout most of his senior years, although he's tried to be less so recently.
45	* DudeShesLikeInAComa: A recurring theme in many of his ''funny'' comics, where the male often takes advantage of sleeping women to get his away. In most cases they don't even notice or care.
46	* DysfunctionalFamily: As seen in the documentary ''Crumb'', Robert Crumb is easily the most normal, socially gifted, and level-headed of the Crumb brothers. Think about that for a moment.
47	* EverybodyHasLotsOfSex: In Crumb's comics, AllMenArePerverts and AllWomenAreLustful.
48	* EverybodyMustGetStoned: Many of his best-known UndergroundComics were created under the influence of LSD use, which significantly affected his art style.
49	* FanDisservice: Some pornographic scenes he draws are examples of BlackComedyRape and even ILoveTheDead, all done more to shock his audience than anything else. It's a wonder whether anyone except himself ever got aroused reading this stuff. He's openly admitted to illustrating it mainly because he had incredibly disturbing desires that he was afraid to discuss with other people.
50	* FollowTheLeader: Though not the first adult comic strip artist, nor even the first underground comics cartoonist, Crumb did become the most famous one in his field, inspiring countless graphic artists and cartoonists to draw whatever they damn well pleased. An entire industry of sex comics, politically subversive counterculture comics and autobiographical graphic novels can be directly attributed to them.
51	* FurriesAreEasierToDraw: Mostly enjoyed and drew only FunnyAnimal comics when he was younger, and claimed that ''Fritz'' allowed him a certain degree of separation from reality that he couldn't get with humans. He eventually lost interest in this and rarely, if ever, drawn anthropomorphic characters these days.
52	* HeManWomanHater: Many of Crumb's comics were blatantly misogynistic, depicting abuse, assault and rape of women. His portrayals of women got better in the 1980s, however.
53	* HermitGuru: ''Mr. Natural''.
54	* HonorBeforeReason: Crumb has refused many commercial offers, despite sometimes needing the money, because he detested "selling out" and only took illustrating jobs he personally liked.
55	* IconicOutfit: If Crumb as a person shows up in another cartoonist's work, he is usually depicted as wearing his straw hat, his round glasses and carrying around a banjo.
56	* IfItsYouItsOkay: Despite otherwise being ''very'' heterosexual, he referenced being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NaQRyc6BkI sexually attracted to Bugs Bunny when he was younger.]]
57	* JesusWasWayCool: "Cheezis K. Reist in: Hamburger Hi-Jinx", in which an AngelUnaware learns about the Circle of Life from a talking hamburger and relish.
58	* JournalComic: ''Dirty Laundry'', which he co-wrote with his wife.
59	* KickedOutOfHeaven: He once drew a comic strip where Mr. Natural is hit by a car and then goes to Heaven where he meets God. Natural is however not very impressed and finds the whole concept "corny". Thus God lets one of his angels kick Natural back down to Earth.
60	* LighterAndSofter: Crumb's work has been significantly less politically incorrect since his second marriage and especially since the birth of his daughter, featuring far more sympathetic depictions of women and virtually no tongue-in-cheek satires of racism. When he moved to France in the early 90s, many fans complained that Crumb was "too happy" to produce anything interesting any more.
61	* LoveableSexManiac: He openly admitted that he started drawing because he couldn't access pornography.
62	* MaleGaze: Most of his work from the 60s and 70s can be summed up as "all of the sex that R. Crumb wishes he was having."
63	* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: Criticized the U.S.A. several times, most notably in "Why I Hate the U.S.A."
64	%%* MushroomSamba
65	* NewAgeRetroHippie: Mr. Natural and his friends are the ur-example. Especially as they were stereotyped as such in R. Crumb's comics before anyone outside San Francisco knew what a hippie was.
66	* NonstandardCharacterDesign: Aline Kominsky-Crumb would draw herself in ''Dirty Laundry'', while almost everything else was drawn by Robert. This led to an in-comic argument over her art skill. In a few ''Dirty Laundry'' stories, their daughter Sophie drew herself as well. (Also counts as SharedUniverse.)
67	* {{Parody}}:
68	** Often, due to the ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' influence.
69	** The comic ''The Adventures of 'Wichita' the Rat Dancer'' satirizes "[[ComicBook/OmahaTheCatDancer a really nice comic]]" by injecting fetishism into SoapOpera.
70	* PopCulturalOsmosis: Even if you've never heard of his work, you've seen "Mr. Natural" and his famous motto, ''"Keep on Truckin'!!"'' and other big-footed Crumb characters on the mudflaps of hippie truckers and bikers everywhere. Fritz the Cat is also well known to many people, mostly thanks to the movie adaptations which Crumb hates to these day.
71	* RapeAsComedy: Another controversial theme in his comics.
72	* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Outside of his parodies, LSD-inspired comics and FunnyAnimal work, Crumb is best known for autobiographical material drawn people and events in his real life. Crumb also drew some of the artwork for Creator/HarveyPekar's ''ComicBook/AmericanSplendor'', which is in the same vein, although not quite as grotesque as Crumb's often-disturbing depictions of his sexual history and fetishes.
73	* ReclusiveArtist: Moved with his second wife and daughter to a remote village in France in the early 90s, rarely, if ever, returning to the United States or making public appearances.
74	* SignatureStyle: Incredibly detailed and crosshatched, yet somewhat exaggerated art with a lot of obscene content and disgust at modern society.
75	* StrawMisogynist: His earlier comics did not portray strong female characters nor sympathetic portrayals of women. After his second marriage though and especially the birth of his daughter, his comics became much more respectful and sympathetic of women characters.
76	* TheSixties: Icon of the 1960s and 1970s, but broke into mainstream attention again with the movie ''Crumb''.
77	* SurrealHorror: Most of what he drew early on made very little sense, with extremely vulgar content and confusing imagery and plots.
78	* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: He ''[[DisownedAdaptation hated]]'' the animated ''WesternAnimation/FritzTheCat'' film so much he ''killed the character off and refused to use him ever again!'' Didn't stop a sequel happening though...
79	* UndergroundComics: Considered by many to be the TropeCodifier.
80	* WriteWhoYouKnow: Many of the characters in Crumb's comics, particularly his autobiographical work, are drawn from his actual friends and family.
81	* {{Zeerust}}: Many of Crumb's early comics are drawn in a style deliberately imitative of old 1920's-1930's era comics and advertisements, right down to the [[ValuesDissonance racial caricatures]].

Context Creator / RobertCrumb