The name Robert Crumb has become synonymous with the drug addled hippy culture of the nineteen sixties in which he made his name. He is one of the originators of the “Underground Comix” genre. By his own admission, the work that Crumb made during this time, which he was to become most known for, was often LSD inspired.1 There is no doubt that he and his ilk broke new ground in the world of comics, using the format to explore the unconscious mind as well as taboo subjects ranging from drugs to sex (at least taboo in comics!). Crumb, and his cast of bizarre characters, such as the wise old perverted sage “Mr. Natural,” became icons of the bohemian sub culture. Ironically, the peace and love associated with the flower children of the sixties, was for crumb a twisted and compulsive enterprise. The pages of his comics are filled with violent sexual anxiety. In stories like, “My Troubles With Women,” he gives voice to the need to compensate and retaliate, through sex, for an isolated childhood, in which he was constantly bullied and spurned by the fairer sex. In addition to his problems outside of his house, his home-life was a mess. It is this life that most interests me, and also fits nicely into the autobiographical theme of this blog. Crumb’s chronicles of his childhood, family dysfunction and abuse tell an honest story of his evolution as an artist and a human. In contrast to the highly experimental and shocking work of his early career, his biographical comics relate stories which reveal the origins of deep psychological wounds he was to carry with him into maturity. In Crumb’s memoirs, the cast of fantastic surrogate characters; perverted gurus and devil women, are abandoned and replaced by the real people in his life. In the following comics we find a hateful and drug addicted mother, an overbearingly macho and insensitive father and their misanthropic and alienated children.
“Treasure Island Days,” is a two-page comic about the creative imaginings of adolescent boys escaping life through the emulation of their favorite television show. In it, we are witness to the camaraderie and innocent pleasure of the Crumb siblings as they navigate the world of Oceanside, California in nineteen-fifty five.
Unlike so much of Crumb’s tortured stories and fantasies, this one is, well…sweet. It almost hurts to say that about his work, as if I’m stealing his misogynistic mojo. The honesty that comes through in his comics of early childhood are often sweet, or at least have sweet moments. True to Crumb’s repertoire, there must be moments of sadness and alienation peppered throughout. He depicts his older brother, Charles, as the stalwart leader of the group, as they look for materials to build their own version of “Treasure Island.” Charles did take the helm in their early life, forcing Crumb to draw comics as a child, just as he manically takes control of the imaginative game in this story. In an interview with Deirde Hanna, Crumb spoke of his brother, who had just committed suicide, “ If it wasn’t for my older brother’s burning obsession, I don’t know what I would be doing now. I always liked to draw, but he always insisted that I draw comics. I never really had much choice.” He goes on to speak about Charles mental illness, “ But while I made a career, my brother never left home. He just stayed home and wrote thousands and thousands of pages in very tiny, light-pencil, hand printed script.”2 At the end of the comic we get a taste of the bitter as opposed to the sweet when Robert and Charles are bullied, which was a common experienced for them as kids. Seen in the larger context of Crumb’s repertoire, one realizes that this beat-down isn't a single occurrence, but one of many humiliating and damaging life experiences.
A letter Crumb's older brother Charles wrote to him later in life sheds an entirely different, although more disturbing, light on this comic, revealing the many layers of meaning that can be interpreted through these very personal accounts of his life. Charles's writing comes by way of Terry Zwigoff, the creator of the famous “Crumb” documentary, which takes a look into the inner lives of the Crumb family. This documentary inspired a book entitled “The Whole Family is Crazy!” wherein the letters are published. They reveal an entirely different level of alienation that Charles was going through around the time this comic took place. In these letters he candidly discloses his homosexuality and romantic affection towards young boys. Specifically, he talks of his fondness of Bobby Driscoll, the child actor whom played the pirate, “Jim Hawkins,” in Disney’s “Treasure Island.” Charles letter states, “It was in the autumn of 1959…when I first realized it was a romantic infatuation, my thing with Driscoll.” He goes on to speak of the shame and fear around his infatuation, “I didn’t want anyone to know that I was a homosexual pedophiliac with a hopeless crush on a little boy.”3One can only imagine the torture Charles was going through in hiding these secrets from the world. They may have had a lot to do with his the depression that eventually caused him to take his own life. Charles' confessions put an even further twist on the seemingly innocent play depicted in, "Treasure Island Days," revealing a psychological inner world that existed beneath the surface of playful childhood entertainment.
“Walkin’ the streets,” is a five page autobiographical story that takes place in Crumb’s early teens, wherein he describes the dysfunctional nature of his parent’s relationship and how that affected the himself and the rest of his siblings.
He portrays his mother as a loose cannon, who was verbally abusive and sometimes physically violent. Their father appears deeply depressed and apathetic to his wife's rage, while she tears into him day and night, literally. While trying to achieve some semblance of a normal life, the children quietly watch the horror that is called matrimony. Crumb’s depictions of his father and mother are deeply disturbing. One can get a sense of the disharmony in which Robert and his siblings were forced to grow up. The look of anxiety on Robert’s young face as he watches his father leave for work covered in band-aids, speaks of the pain and sorrow felt around these memories. Through these stories we start to get a sense of what makes R.Crumb the highly compulsive and neurotic man he later becomes.
Crumb’s ability as an artist is expansive. He is able to relate accurately, the craziness as well as the wonder of his childhood. Working in the confessional vein of Justin Green’s, “Binky Brown,” Crumb takes us into the psychological drama of his family and upbringing. Through these stories one can experience a different side of the artist, one of real vulnerability recorded through actual experience. The work that made him famous was hyper-charged with sexuality and fantasy. In contrast, his autobiographical work is grounded in reality, and so becomes something completely different.
ENDNOTES
1. D.K. Holm, “R.Crumb Conversations,” (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi,2004)30.
2. D.K. Holm, “R.Crumb Conversations,” (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi,2004)172-173.
3. Maxon Crumb, “The Whole Family is Crazy!” (San Fransisco: Last Gasp,1998)30.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Holm, D.K. R.Crumb Conversations. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2004.
Crumb, Maxon. The Whole Family is Crazy! San Fransisco: Last Gasp, 1998.
Crumb, Robert. “Walkin’ the Streets” Zap(2004)
