R. Crumb
R. Crumb (b. 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician. His work satirizes current American culture and shows a nostalgia for the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has also been greatly inspired by psychedelics. Crumb is most famous for his work in underground comix, especially Zap Comix. Among the popular characters he created are Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural and the Keep on Truckin’ figures. He has also drawn record album covers, like Cheap Thrills and The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead. After the decline of the comix scene, he drew cartoons based on his own life. In 1991, Crumb was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. He has also played in R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders, Eden and John’s East River String Band and Les Primitifs du Futur.
Sexual themes are always present in Crumb’s work. The women depicted tend to be young and voluptuous and, often, grotesque. The sexual acts are graphic and overt. His explicit cartoons have been published in Snatch, Jiz, Nasty Tales and Bible of Filth. R. Crumb’s Sex Obsessions is a collection.
R. Crumb’s erotic art is troubling. The attitude toward women is frequently violent and misogynistic. It is also often racist. Even so, the cartoons are extraordinary, compared sometimes to Brueghel and Picasso.
A personal experience: I visited San Francisco in the fall of 2019. On the corner of Haight and Ashbury, Crumb territory, as I stood licking an ice cream in front of Ben & Jerry’s, three teenage girls appeared and began rough-housing with each other like kittens. They looked like characters from his cartoons!
S. Gray
May 2025