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News Briefs featuring R. Crumb
( back )
Calgary Herald likes R. Crumb and Michel Rabagliati
Updated August 27, 2003
It's official: The Calgary Herald has reported on June 7th, 2003 that "Comics [are] not only for kids". Oh well, at least the article itself was well-written. Click here for a PDF of 2 of the reviews that appeared that day...
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click here to download the PDF (186.49 KB)
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New Crumb Placemat Book: In Stores Now!
Updated March 24, 2003
"It’s not my fault I’m unfit for normal social life"
R.Crumb
So declares the tense angry picture that greets the viewer: a guy screwed up, gripping a knife and fork in a restaurant, radiating rage.
This is a collection of sketches by one of the masters of American cartooning and in even his most casual linework R. Crumb, the American iconoclast, has something to say.
These sketches were made on placemats in restaurants across Frances, where Crumb and his family have lived since the mid-1990s and themes of over-consumption, pop-consumerism and alienation pervade the drawings.
Literally, bug-eyed aliens creep through the thick glossy pages, peering out behind portraits of women and blues musicians and old men, looking ill at ease. They signal Crumb’s dread of the mindless consumption of pop culture and the unpleasant overweight American tourists in France. He’s clearly searching for something, something authentic. Crumb finds solace in the round faces of old forgotten musicians, French girls, and lovers sitting together.
"I, Robert Crumb, declare my intent to enter the warrior’s path."
Heroes, thinkers, spiritual gurus and medieval blazons remind Crumb to Be Bold, Be Brave. But the self-portrait that accompanies this dauntless declaration is ironic; he’s a Don Quixote, feebly holding aloft a trembling sword.
Interior covers of this beautiful hardcover book feature black and white photos of chefs butchering turtles and of a 1950s couple eating at a drive in. Kitchy and distressing, they enfold the reader in Crumb’s imaginative world of dissatisfaction, fear, and anxiety. But the book never gets bogged down in self-pity or despair. They crackle with satire, humor and wit. Crumb’s wife, the esteemed artist, Aline Crumb-Kominsky, pokes her head into the pages and cackles to a hapless Crumb, "Bon Apetite, tout le monde!"
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copyright ©2010 drawn & quarterly
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