Robert Crumb
by Jim Gianpetro
Fall 2004

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Robert Crumb was born in Philadelphia, PA on August 30, 1943. Though he never studied art or had any formal teaching, he began drawing at an early age. While still in his early teens, he and his brother drew comic book characters for fun. One of these comics was "Fritz the Cat", a character that Crumb would use throughout his career.

In 1962, Crumb's family moved to Cleveland, and Robert went to work for the American Greeting Card Company. In 1964 he began working for Help Magazine, a satire magazine started by Harvey Kurtzman, who was also co-creator of MAD Magazine. During this period Crumb began to experiment with drugs, including LSD. This led to some "bad trips" which ultimately inspired some of Robert's most popular characters, including "Mr. Natural".

He moved to San Francisco in 1966 and began interacting with many other artists including Rick Griffin, Spain Rodriguez, S. Clay Wilson and Victor Moscoso. These artists collaborated and created Zap Comix #0, which was published in 1967. In no time the comic became extremely popular, and Crumb along with the other artists began gaining recognition.

Crumb's comics have been described as, "...infused with overt sexual release in contrast with his own self-repression have in them an insightful view of the American psyche of the late fifties and early sixties era". He is considered by many to be one of the forefathers of underground and alternative comics.

Web Links:
http://www.deniskitchen.com/docs/bios/bio_r_crumb.html
http://www.lambiek.net/crumb.htm
http://www.budplant.com/bio.itml/icOid/8259

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