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General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Kaworu on April 24, 2008, 09:31:09 am

Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Kaworu on April 24, 2008, 09:31:09 am
I am going to cover the dreamweavers, the masterminds behind this all, and highlight some select works of theirs. The writers and artists behind comics, behind cartoons etc. I truely want GW to be a better place for discussing comics (includes all countries of origin) and cartoons(likewise... anime are still cartoons and don't you forget it buster!) and such. Hopefully by reading this you might download the recommended reads .

Today we're gunna look at a man who changed the comic landscape, and strode out against the trend of comics at that time.

ROBERT CRUMB

Why him?
Robert Crumb is the founder of the underground comix movement and one of the few americans at that time to realise the potential for comics as an art that could be used for expressing a point. By using overtely sexual themes in his comics, he was going against the grain of the market comics and the then newly created comics code authority, which ensured him being kept out of the mainstream. Rober Crumb pokes at the pretenses towards sex, sexuality, and the absurd ways of life we lead, and hide. His comics can be seen at a look of human nature at it's most basic. His artwork lifted from early 1900's-30's illustrations creates a nice well drawn look to his comics, which contrasts against the linge claire art style which had become the comic standard (indeed check out next time for a feature on the master of linge claire art). Robert Crumb indeed became one of the few comic creators to become a leading name, a powerful voice and a total visionary.

Recommended reading
Motor city comics
Fritz the cat
Zap
Weirdo (think "Raw mgazine")

Career
His first comics were created in his childhood, with his brother. Robert Crumb carried on despite it's little success(none). Crumb would move to Ohio, where he would illustrate greetings cards, it's here that he would meet Harvey Kurtzman, whose Help! magazine would serve as the birth of Fritz the cat. Fritz the cat is the antithesis of the old comic staple, anthromorphic cats. Fritz the cat is a confident womaniser (attributes Crumb himself lacked), with a strange fixation with his sister (indeed the first Fritz the cat comic I've read featured him returning home, going swimming with his sister and then having sex).

Crumb would then go onto create Zap, a counter culture underground comics magazine, steeped in satire. Many of his characters (such as Fritz the cat) would become icons in their own right, indeed Robert Crumb himself would be seen as the leading figure in the underground comix movement. As Robert Crumb found friends, and a life thanks to his comics, Fritz became more of a parody of contemporary life and culture than a vent for Crumb's frustrations. The success of Fritz the cat would inspire a movie based on the character. The "Quality" of the movie would cause Robert Crumb to kill off the character in 1972. Legal and financial troubles arove in the 70's, and Crumb continued to work, this time with another underground comix magazine known as weirdo. A magazine focused heavily in anti-establishment and counter-culture.
Crumb stopped working on Zap comix in 2000, it is now reached it's 16th issue.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: thecatamites on April 26, 2008, 11:20:20 pm
Holy shit, 2 days with no replies... And 'rosario to vampire' got like 6 in just one!
Anyway, Robert Crumb was awesome... He was probably the most interesting of the whole 'underground comix' guys, since he actually challenged his audience instead of just writing the usual 'lol they smoke weed' stuff that the scene mainly produced (cf. Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers). Many of his comics involved hardore pornography, body horror, deranged psychedelica and misanthropic surrealist weirdness, and they gleefully attacked such touchy subjects as paedophilia and racism in the most eyewateringly offensive way possible... Which is especially great now, since a lot of modern 'experimental' comics are just people being as random and obtuse as possible without actually saying anything, so it's refreshing to go back and read something that's smart and innovotive while still being genuinely funny and enjoyable.
I was gonna post some of his stuff as samples here, but I suspect they'd contradict the whole GW 'no porn' policy... Still, anyone interested should check out his autobiography "The R. Crumb Handbook", which comes with a great many samples of his work and is a good read to boot.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Frisky SKeleton on April 27, 2008, 09:21:09 pm
where's my american splendour?

crumb's style kinda grossed me out
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Artis Leon Ivey Jr on April 27, 2008, 10:32:21 pm
I had a great porn one where this dude shoved a woman's head into her body and then put his own head on it, it was awesome.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: ThugTears666 on April 28, 2008, 01:44:44 am
Pics anyone?
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Ghost_Aspergers on April 29, 2008, 07:23:27 am
Ah. So that's Abraxa's real name.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Ragnar on April 30, 2008, 07:03:28 am
http://thegood.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/robert-crumb-janis-joplin-cheap-thrills-2.jpg

he did this cover so he's awesome

also didn't he invent the keep on truckin' guy

Edit: Yes he did
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: ThugTears666 on May 01, 2008, 12:46:47 pm
Quote from: thecatamites on April 26, 2008, 11:20:20 pm

I was gonna post some of his stuff as samples here, but I suspect they'd contradict the whole GW 'no porn' policy..


you can post them in hide tags dude and label them nsfw and its fine.


This guy sounds interesting and I like his drawing style even if all the females seem to have hard nipples heh.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: thecatamites on May 01, 2008, 01:32:18 pm
Cool... All right then, NSFW, and also fairly large images, so I've put them in seperate hide tags:



...And finally, the legendary Joe Blow comic:
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Kaworu on May 01, 2008, 10:00:54 pm
Haha yes. I absolutely love his art style, especially when doing the overexaggerated expressions, It's so great how his comics are basically so casual and upfront about it all, it's something that you never really see even today in this "open minded" age.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: ThugTears666 on May 01, 2008, 10:11:17 pm
Just curious I know he talks alot about sex and stuff cause he never got the experience of being a player blah blah but how come he shows alot of males hurting or dominating women all the time!? I saw heaps of women being spanked, hurt, tied up etc when I searched the net for his stuff. And why  the incest!
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Kaworu on May 01, 2008, 10:24:04 pm
It's just simple believed to be him venting his frustrations. He's not exactly the most physically attractive guy around, so it's easy to say it's his way at getting back at women who'd never ventured beyondg the superficial aspects of him. His revenge. He has denied it though so I dunno, but I tend to think it's that way. also incest... I dunno.
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: thecatamites on May 02, 2008, 04:25:53 pm
I read a comic of his once where he talked about being a complete loser at school before he suddenly became a counterculture icon and had to start beating girls off with a stick (in every sense of the phrase)... So I think that kinda soured him a little on girls...
I'm surprised you got that impression off his stuff, though, because a lot of his comics are about massive thick-legged amazon types beating up and dominating men...
Title: WHO #3-ROBERT CRUMB
Post by: Frisky SKeleton on May 02, 2008, 10:37:56 pm
Quote from: thecatamites on May 02, 2008, 04:25:53 pm
I'm surprised you got that impression off his stuff, though, because a lot of his comics are about massive thick-legged amazon types beating up and dominating men...

yeah this

i think in that krude kut ups he's really making fun of bondage and other such deviations, and in joe blow he's not supporting incest but pointing out family values etc with a typical 50's family