The Greatest American Artist of the 20th Century: Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb is one of my all-time favorite artists, and I know he had an odd upbringing and a weird life, so I was excited to see that explored more in Terry Zwigoff’s 1994 documentary, Crumb. One of the most glaring things early on in the documentary is that R. Crumb is truly a savant when it comes to drawing. He obsessively draws on everything, and it is ALL he has ever done non-stop, to the point where his wife’s mom thought he was retarded when they first met since he would only draw in a notebook when he was around others. His cartooning and artwork is so beautiful and creative, not quite to the level of Dr. Seuss but in his own bizarre and satirical way.

Charles Crumb, one of Robert’s brothers, appears throughout the documentary, and he was incredibly talented as well. If it wasn’t for his mental health problems that started to appear towards the end of high school, he could have been as great as Robert. It is a massive shame and loss that their mother, who couldn’t give less of a shit about their artwork, threw out their early childhood comics.

They had created so much work as kids, and she just trashed it all. She saw no value in the artwork despite the fact that Robert had already been famous for about 30 years at that point. Robert literally traded a few notebooks/sketchbooks of his art for a home in the French countryside.

It’s fascinating to see what massively overbearing and tyrannical parents can lead to. In this case, you get Robert, who uses art as his form of escape, Charles, who was never able to leave his parent’s house and was clinically insane and spent his life on tranquilizers and SSRIs until his suicide a year after the documentary was filmed, and the youngest brother Max, who ends up as a beggar in San Francisco after a shitty life of living in squalor and sexually assaulting random women. It is just baffling to see that all three of the brothers were talented artists, but life took them all in very different directions. For instance, Charles Crumb’s Famous Artist School exam is so cool to look at, yet the grader wouldn’t even talk to Charles since he saw it as a mockery of the exam even though what he drew was incredibly creative, even if it was dark and different. Yet, Max made interesting psychedelic-like paintings even though he was begging on the streets and meditating on a bed of nails for many hours every single day.

Example of Charles Crumb art as his mental health declined.

Robert Crumb is interesting because, as a teen, he tried conforming and fitting in but wasn’t able to connect with others, so he stopped trying, because of this decision, he was able to reach so many others, and it changed everything for him. It was also fascinating to learn that he did not like hippies and the psychedelic scene of the 1960s despite being a central figure in the hippie comix scene.

It’s cool to see Crumb actually stands for something and isn’t just all talk like most progressives and socialists these days. He did not want to be seen as a sell-out and gave ownership of his company to all the artists and writers, and he also left many massive offers on the table from major corporations. Additionally, he left the USA and had enough and thought the government was too evil. So many celebrities are so full of shit, you saw this particularly in 2016 when everyone said they would leave if Trump got elected, but all they do is pander. They have no real morals they just want to be seen as virtuous, unlike Crumb.

There is a point in the documentary where Crumb mentions that he hates that everyone wears brands and sports logos on their clothes, and he thinks they are walking billboards that are all bought and brainwashed. This is kind of pretentious, but he is not wrong. Most people are giant shills and slaves for corporations, shit, that’s me included.

The best thing about R. Crumb and his art is that he doesn’t censor himself. His art can be crude, sadistic, sexual, etc., and always feels genuine, unique, and creative. He is very much an influence on adult animation, like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park.

A woman was interviewing him, and she mentioned that her and her brother were reading Zap Comix when they were ten years old. She was deeply disturbed and offended, and he said something pretty insightful. Crumb said, “Not everything is for children. Not everything is for everybody.” No kid should ever be reading Zap Comix, which is arguably worse than giving them a Playboy or Penthouse. Crumb has been known infamously to use racist caricatures, stereotypes, and misogyny in his comics, and when asked about this, he said it’s only ever white liberals that get offended at this stuff. That is pretty funny and arguably still true now, 30 years later.

Zap Comix is not for children.

LSD seems to have played an important role in Crumb’s art. He said it changed his mindset and let him become much more free-flowing with a stream-of-consciousness drawing process, leading to a significant increase in his creativity.

The documentary ends at it explains where everyone is in life around a year later, and Charles’ story is insanely sad. He was stuck with his overbearing mother and eventually committed suicide. Early on, no one cared about his mental health because it wasn’t important in society in the late 50s and early 60s. R. Crumb has had many peaks throughout his career, and his most successful work, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, didn’t even come out till years after this documentary was released. Crumb is still alive today and resides in his home in the countryside of Southern France, though his long-time wife Aline passed away recently in 2022.