Who is Robert Crumb?
Am I aging myself, now? PEKAR: No. I don’t know what you’re doing. PHILLIPS: Tell us who Robert Crumb is. PEKAR: Robert Crumb is one of the creators of the alternative or underground comic book movement. And I knew Crumb in the early 1960s, before his career had started. And he was living in Cleveland in a neighborhood, in the same neighborhood as I was. And I saw some of his work and, you know, it wasn’t typical superhero stuff or talking animal stuff or things like that that people normally expect from comics and the reason that a lot of people think comics are intrinsically limited. They think that comics can’t do anything but that. So I decided — when I saw Crumb’s work which was quite unusual and dealt with other aspects of life, that comics could deal with just about anything, and it was as good an art form as any other. It could do the same as movies could do, pretty much. So I just decided I would try and write comics like this. And it took me a pretty long time to do it. I ke
Robert Crumb is world famous within the realm of art and illustration. Born in 1943 in Philadelphia, he is known for his subversive and counter culture comic books. His work takes a swipe at mainstream America by using satirical methods. His cartoon strips have become pop-culture icons since gaining worldwide recognition in the 1970s. Crumb began his career by designing greeting cards in Ohio. He became a friend of Mad Magazine creator Harvey Kurtzman. Through this friendship, he contributed many cartoons, including Fritz the Cat. Crumb became a staple feature of many underground magazines, and his cartoons were soon steadily gaining recognition. In 1967, Crumb moved to San Francisco, which at the time was the center of the underground and counter culture movement. He produced his own comic, Zap Comix, in 1968 to great success. From then, Crumb’s work became synonymous with underground comics and subversive cartoons. The content of Crumb’s comics was seen by many as sexually and politi
