Other women state that they find it empowering. Many women find some of Crumb’s work offensive and demeaning to women in a some ways. Much of Crumbs work is erotic or pornographic by some standards but it has a satirical ring of truth as it represents much in modern life through the filter of the relationship between men and women. Through Crumb’s eyes, life experience, apparently dysfunctional family, and his drawing, the filmmakers explore America from the sixties to the present. Of the three brothers, Robert appears to be the only one who has been able to function in the real world. He also visits his other brother Maxon. What emerges is an exploration of the apparently abnormal family life that shaped Robert Crumb and influenced his art. Crumb talks about how Charles was obsessed with comics as a boy and this led him to drawing comics. Finally Crumb visits his apparently reclusive brother Charles who hasn’t left their Mother’s house in many years. He talks about his childhood in Philadelphia and the influences there. His first wife, and their son, are also interviewed at different points in the film Later many of his drawings are shown revealing some of the workings of his mind. He also talks about his involvement in the Adult Cartoon film Fritz The Cat.Ĭrumb’s second wife Aline Crumb is interviewed at their home in Winters, California furnishing more insight into Crumb’s life. It sold millions of copies but Crumb earned only $600 from CBS records for drawing it in 1968. Another icon is the cover for Janis Joplin’s Cheap Thrills album. Natural “Keep On Trucking” drawings that became a well-known cultural icons in the sixties.

Both sisters declined to be interviewed for the film.Įarly in the film Robert does a presentation for art school students in Philadelphia where he talks and shows slides about his early successes, like the Mr. Brothers George and Maxon both seem to have mental problems that prevent normal functioning an apparent result of childhood experiences. Robert is one of five children, two girls and three boys. He mentions the influence his brother Charles had on him, but when he calls his Mother to visit her and Charles in Philadelphia, to possibly have Charles interviewed for the documentary, his Mother tells him that Charles doesn’t want to do it. I get depressed and suicidal,” Crumb says, voice over while he’s seen creating a pen and ink drawing. Crumb seems isolated in his own world. “If I don’t draw for a while I get really crazy. The lighting in the room is subjective and high contrast. The documentary opens with a slow pan across the living/working space in Crumb’s home in California, where Robert Crumb is found sitting on the floor, knees to his chest, rocking back and forth. As a documentary film, Crumb explores the gray area of erotic art, fantasy, dysfunction, and reality of Robert Crumb at one point in his life. It is an intimate portrait of a talented artist. Crumb (Robert Crumb) and his often-bizarre, at times sexually obsessed, world. (Accessed: ).Crumb looks at the life and work of R. Now I’ve come to understand the importance that text has within my work I need to find out why I need words and what it might mean for myself and my art. I don’t know how creating artwork that always includes text has come about, but it has been present in my work for a few years now without my even realising. My writing changes each time I write, I can’t control it it has to happen automatically through chance. I cannot be constant with the way I write it has to alter according to how I feel compelled to write, but this all depends on the way I am on a particular day. When experimenting with creating written outcomes I am being automatic, sporadic, aggressive, calm, controlled, and all of these things merge and alter as I work through the emotions I’m feeling in that time of writing.

When I write it’s always with a speediness and a lot of the letters join together which make some letters difficult to read because I don’t connect them correctly. In Crumb’s sketchbooks he remains very controlled with writing in neat lines, similar size and similar markings too. My sketchbook does have some sketches, but it’s mostly filled with words. I rarely think with imagery, I write words instead to make sense of my ideas. I want to research into this compulsion for writing more because I feel that I can relate to feeling compelled to write. A short section shows one of his sketchbooks become overtaken with words as his comic strip gets fuller with words and eventually becomes text only with no pictures. My research into graphomania is proving difficult, but one source that mentions it is within a YouTube documentary about Robert Crumb.

Robert crumb documentary youtube