Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life

by Dan Nadel

The first biography of Robert Crumb—one of the most profound and influential artists of the 20th century—whose iconic, radically frank and meticulously rendered cartoons and comics inspired generations of readers and cartoonists, from Art Spiegelman to Alison Bechdel.

Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic, as iconic as Walt Disney or Charles Schulz. Now, for the first time, Dan Nadel, a curator and writer specializing in comics and art, shares how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact.

More than just a biography of an iconic cartoonist, Crumb is the story of a richly complex life at the forefront of both the underground and popular cultures of post-war America. Including forty-five stunning black-and-white images throughout and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure, Crumb spans the pressures of 1950s suburban America and Crumb’s highly dysfunctional early family life; the history of comics and graphic satire; 20th century popular music; the world of the counterculture; the birth of underground comic books in 1960s San Francisco with Crumb’s Zap Comix; the economic challenges and dissolution of the hippie dream; and the path Robert Crumb blazed through it all.

Written with Crumb’s cooperation, this fascinating, rollicking book takes in seven decades of Crumb’s iconic works, including Fritz the Cat, Weirdo, and his final book-length comic of The Book of Genesis; capturing, in the process, the essence of an extraordinary artist and his times.

Genres: Biography, Art, Nonfiction, Comics, Biography Memoir, Graphic Novels, Audiobook

458 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2025

About the author

Dan Nadel is the owner of PictureBox, Inc. (http://www.pictureboxinc.com), a Grammy Award-winning publishing company.

Dan has authored books including Art Out of Time: Unknown Visionary Cartoonists, 1900-1969 and Art in Time: Unknown Comic Book Adventures, 1940-1980. He has edited books including Gary Panter, We All Die Alone, and Where Demented Wented: The Art and Comics of Rory Hayes.
He has also co-edited Comics Comics and is currently the co-editor of The Comics Journal.

He has curated exhibitions in Tokyo, Paris, L.A. and NYC, including the first major Jack Kirby retrospective, The House that Jack Built (Lucerne, 2010) and Karl Wirsum: Drawings 1967-1970 at Derek Eller Gallery.

He lives in Brooklyn with his beloved Rachel, their dog, Mr. Fatty Pants and their boy Henry.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A STRANGE, ENTIRELY SELF-CREATED LIFE

He went from being a 22 year old incel, whose contemptuous father said “He’ll marry the first one that comes along” – and he did! – to a guy with a wife and kid, a girlfriend, another girlfriend, and various other liaisons that popped up wherever he happened to find himself. The trappings of fame. But what a bizarre kind of fame it was, like being on a beach and not realising how quickly the tide was coming in, suddenly it’s up to your knees. From years of pennilessness to lighting his cigars with a hundred dollar note and it all seemed to happen in about 18 months. I exaggerate, but only slightly. It was a scattershot, chaotic kind of fame – those ubiquitous Keep On Truckin’ cartoons were everywhere and he hardly made a dime off them. He hated the Fritz the Cat movie. Actually he was a genius-level hater.

ATTITUDE PROBLEM

He was the guy who proclaimed long and loudly how much he detested the hippies whilst living the most hippy life ever. He had not one but two open marriages and yes, his wives had their boyfriends while he had his girlfriends, and some of these gfs and bfs and exes became semi-permanent and all lived on and off in a sort of commune way out in California. Before that he lived in Haight Ashbury in 65 to 68 and gobbled a great deal of acid. But yes, he hated the hippies, and all things modern (rock music, television, long hair). Instead, he was in love with the style, the music, the look and the feel of the 20s and 30s.
He was a contrarian.



MY PARAPHILIA AND ME

But he invented a big chunk of modern art, and not just some of the most recognisable features of his time but the very concept of his art – comics - being art at all. And not being for children but for adults! Well… when I say he created comics for adults I mean comics for men who have a sniggering salacious puerile obsession about sex. He spent years making cutesy friendly cartoons about femicide, incest, paraphilias, that kind of thing. That was a big chunk of it, but not all. He also did careful and beautifully realised comics of Boswell’s London Journal, Kafka, Bukowski and Philip K Dick’s life.

He was a sweet gentle guy whose art revealed a whole series of ugly misogynistic and racist fantasies. This is not me doing the fingerwagging, this is the author’s verdict. Often, says Dan Nadel, his art

offers the ugliest vision of white male heterosexuality

Ugliest? I could add in here a few panels to prove the point but they’d kick me off Goodreads in five minutes. Some of his stuff is really shocking. Should you require proof you could google Crumb “A Bitchin’ Bod” and that will be all you need.

And it’s the kind of shocking where he would have said well, I just let my id flow out of my skull onto the page, with no filters, I’m totally honest, I don’t apologise, there it is, you don’t have to buy it.

Trina Robbins (cartoonist from the East Village Other)

The guys (and some of their gfs) continued to think Crumb was hilarious, but, suddenly, I didn’t get it. Rape and humiliation – and later, torturing and murdering women – don’t seem funny to me.

Cute, endearing and vile. That’s Crumb.



EFFECTS OF FAME

Robert formed an acoustic string band to play old timey music. It was called the Cheap Suit Serenaders. (Lasted a few years too).

So, it’s 1974, at a Suits gig.

Aline attended, looked around, and realized that Robert was sleeping with at least three other women in the audience, all also dressed as “Crumb girls” in plaid skirts, white shirts and knee-high socks.

CRUMB KEPT IT REAL

Now it’s 1977 :

He refused plenty of other offers that year, including $10,000 from the Rolling Stones for an album cover. Robert just hated the music – noisy, full of faux authenticity, and corporate – too much to even consider it.

TIMOTHY LEARY WAS NOT A FAN

For almost two decades Crumb has put out more aesthetic pollutants, more glorification of ugliness, pessimism, derogation of the human spirit than anyone I can think of. He is more of a menace than nuclear plants.

IN LATER YEARS

As vast sums rolled in from the hifalutin art galleries of the western world (yes, he was "taken up") Dan Nadel will say stuff like

The original drawings…were sold to the Lucas Museum of Narrative art for $2.9 million

(in 2011)

But also, he began to turn from curmudgeon to full-on crank, with an it’s-really-true plunge into astral projection, (Dan says with a straight face Robert achieved his last projection in 2005) and full on anti vax madness. At the same time as apparently truly believing the anti-vax conspiracy theories, he would draw a comic strip satirising his idiocy in believing this stuff. That's how he rolled.

CRUMBLAND

I can recommend

The Robert Crumb Handbook
The R Crumb Coffee Table Book
Crumb (a brilliant documentary from 1993 – if you think this biography will be too much go with the doc)

And

Robert Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders albums (there are three – music is nice but his voice is not good!)

I LOVE BIOGRAPHY

When you get a juicy psychological weirdo like Crumb a solid biography like this one is better than a novel. Andrea Dworkin, Jean Rhys, George Gissing, Elijah Mohammed – and how could I forget Dostoyevsky – all amazing characters, amazing lives.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/2/25: I doidn't think I'd read this whole thing, but Crumb is one of the greats, and this would appear to be the "definitive" biography by Dan Nadel. I can say I got it from the library and sat down and read the foreword and was absorbed. I recall seeing Terry Zwigoff's 1995 documentary, Crumb, when it came out. I own very little of Crumb's collected works as they mostly seem to be out of print, and our library system has almost nothing, but over the years I have read a lot of his work. Certainly in the top five of most influential cartoonists in history, imho. A very weird and complicated and sometimes downright disturbing man associated with alt comix, the sixties.

7/6/25: So it had to go back to the library and I let it go, but then happened on Paul Bryant's 5 star review! (Paul Bryant rarely five-stars a book!) so had to read it to the end. Such a messed-up sad family, so many weirdos, and then this complicated brilliance emerges out of all that. I like the story of his early comics work with the whole family, especially Charles, their collecting the work of Carl Barks, Walt Kelly, and then you can see how the story of American pop culture and of Mad Magazine fed into his own cynical humor, making fun of shallow tv shows, shallow movie stars, shallow pop culture, and (as they saw it) mostly vapid superhero comics. Those folks liked EC comics--gory horror, especially, with social critiques foremost.

7/14: 2/3 finished, and we are finally up to Crumb's living with Aline, with whom he still lives in the south of France. One crazy acid-fueled, dysfunctional trip back and forth across the country. This book does not avoid looking into Crumb's occasional misogyny in his work--"I was an asshole! I admit it!"--catalogued in his collection, My Trouble With Women, even as he is adoring of women and hypersexualizing them and working with them and on and on. Let the reader beware. You might be offended. Crumb didn't for a time have lines he wouldn't cross. He decried misogyny and racism and made comics that both identify his racism and condemn it. No one wrote comics about himself in the same way until Crumb, and this opened the door for so many during and after his time.

7/116/25: Finished, and what a story, well told, not hiding how weird and sometimes disturbing and in so many ways complicated--I keep using that word!--he was, but coming out of that family, whew. He was nevertheless one of rhe geniuses of comics, keep on truckin', changing the face of comics forever, alt-comix underground, and if you want the tone, look to Bukowski, Hunter Thompson, fear and loathing and self-loathing. Closer to punk aesthetic than hippie, but he was also a chronicler (and record collector) of the blues and black culture. Close to the end Aline dies, and Crumb, at 80, goes on the road in the US, leaving his home in France to see his friends and grieve. One close friend was Bill Griffith, Zippy the Pinhead. Harvey Pekar. This book chronicles a generation of underground comics. No one can read this and unequivocally celebrate everything he did. Crumb and Nadel sure do not. But the end result is impressive. One of the best books I read this year. This is a terrible review, so I will clean this up and improve it at some point. Or maybe just admit it is flawed and let it go.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

So how interesting would this book be to someone unfamiliar with Crumb and his work? I don't know. Surely most folks of a certain age will recognize Keep On Truckin’, a meme from way back before there was widespread internet on which to share it? Or maybe that album cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company before Janis Joplin went solo? Mr. Natural? Fritz the Cat?

Me, I've known of his work for so long that I honestly don't recall when and where I first saw it. It was probably around the time I first got into collecting comics–as opposed to just buying random comics off the spinner rack on my weekly trips to the store with my dad. So late 70's, early 80's, something like that.

So, having read his comics for years, with all of the autobiographical work that he's done, and having watched the Crumb movie back when it was in theaters, this book was somewhat familiar territory. What Nadel brings to the table is an outsider's perspective, and the time and patience to do the necessary research. Crumb tends to exaggerate his own worst qualities in his work, so it's refreshing to hear from those who know him well.

It's also wonderful to have a timeline that isn't just a checklist of his work, but that talks about the circumstances under which everything was created and published. I, for one, now have a clearer understanding of what some of the works in The Complete Crumb Comics (published by Fantagraphics, and sadly out of print as I write this) actually are.

For Crumb fans, this book is indispensable. I gained a deeper understanding of the man and his work, and could not put it down. For anyone else, well, it's a biography of one of the more interesting and idiosyncratic artists of our time. His impact on the world of non-superhero comics has been considerable. If any of that sounds intriguing, check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Andrew Cutler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting,well written and slightly disturbing bio of R.Crumb. Thanks to NetGalley,the author, and the publisher for the ARC.
While now considered the grand old man of underground comics, Crumb’s subject matter hasn’t aged well. He’s like an artifact of a time gone by, when it was ok to publish his weird compulsions. I enjoyed the book ,especially Aline, who grounded him.

[Rod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic; the best book I’ve read in a good while. If you have even a passing interest in Crumb and his art, this is a must-read.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rec. by: MCL's Lucky Day shelf, and previous exposure to its subject
Rec. for: Anyone who's interested in the parallel genesis (heh) and flowering of graphic novels, of underground comix, of sequential art that does not involve superheroes...

This book was written with the permission and support of Robert Crumb.
—"A Note on Sources," p.407

By the time you get to this assertion, near the end of Dan Nadel's Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life, you'll know it's true—and that Crumb's support was indeed absolutely crucial to the success of Nadel's work. Many of the people in Robert Crumb's life have already passed away, and others declined to participate in this project, so Nadel's biography would have been much shorter, and much less detailed, and much worse, had Crumb not made himself and his collections freely available. The result was amazing; Crumb is a monumental work, incredibly detailed both in research and in execution... but it's also a fascinating, compelling, propulsive read, one that I could not put down for long, one that I finished reading in fewer than 48 hours.

I've taken rather longer than that to put together this review.

Crumb covers Robert Dennis Crumb's entire life to date, from before his birth in 1943 up through his current residence in Sauve, France, as a widower in his 80s. For yes, as of this writing the man's still alive, and even now and then still drawing... Crumb's had an incredible career. And an incredible life.

Dan Nadel's biography is not simply a worshipful recounting of Crumb's many achievements, though. To be absolutely clear: Crumb is not for the kiddies; it's not some charming fable of a greeting-card artist churning out cute content for spinner racks in grocery stores (although Crumb has been that, too!)... No, at Crumb's own insistence, this book portrays him and his often quite raw and explicit work (and life!) without flinching from the parts of his personality that contribute to his being a loner, that are questionable, that are—quite frankly—repugnant. Nadel really digs into the dirt, confirming yet again that great talent is not correlated very well with being an admirable person. Which is, of course, one of the things that makes this book so fascinating...

I think it might be very hard to stay friends with Robert Crumb—although many, many people have been his friends, over the years, so maybe that part's just my interpretation.

*

Many of the events in Crumb's life do tie in well both with my own recent reading (of the novel Fame & Love in New York) and my own long-lasting interests—for example:

{...} the Fugs, which teamed poet Ed Sanders with performer Tuli Kupferberg and drummer Ken Weaver, were practically a house band.
—p.94

There are many subsequent mentions of the Fugs, whose story became for many years rather intertwined with Crumb's.

I have been running across Crumb's own artwork all my own life, of course. For example, I do own the obligatory copy of Big Brother and the Holding Company's second LP Cheap Thrills (1968), for which Crumb drew the cover, although I don't remember now where I picked up that record—it was long after 1968, though.

That fantastic cover art was Crumb's first big break—as Nadel notes,

"R. Crumb," unmistakably the same head and hand responsible for Zap, was now in bedrooms and living rooms around the country.
—p.161

I don't have any of Crumb's collections or solo work on my own shelves, but I do possess one oddity, a large-format paperback called The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, which is backed with another anthology, The Best of Bijou Funnies in tête-bêche format, like an Ace Double write large—the only time I've seen that topsy-turvy format used for a book this size. The book features some of Crumb's early work, presented in context along with pieces from many of the other underground artists who get mentioned in Nadel's biography.

And although the only Harvey Pekar book I happen to own was drawn by someone else, I have long been aware of Pekar's long association with Crumb as well.

The eponymous biopic (1994), by Crumb's longtime friend and collaborator Terry Zwigoff, is also very much worth mentioning, and viewing.

*

It should be noted that Crumb has been on the right side of history at least once...

For Hup 3, in 1989, he drew "Point the Finger," in which Robert, in a Johnny Carson-like talk show format, presciently lambastes "one of the most evil men alive": Donald Trump. Trump is dragged onto the stage/comic by two strong women and held in place while Robert paces back and forth ranting about the eviction notices and the greed. By page 3, Donald has successfully turned his audience against his negative, no-fun interlocutor. By the following page, Donald has left with the women and Robert is being arrested. Here, Stan Shooter emerges to tell the cartoonist to tack on a different ending. In this one, the girls aren't impressed, and instead they dunk Trump's head in the toilet and then eagerly submit to Robert's sexual fantasies. Robert pops up to say, "And isn't this a nutty kinda country where you can draw any irreverent, degrading thing you want about th' most powerful people and nobody cares! You don't get jailed, you're not persecuted... they just ice you out of th' market place."
—p.345

*

Now, there aren't nearly enough pictures in Crumb (although more than in this review, which contains none)... but then, how could there be enough? Robert Crumb is and always has been primarily a visual artist (well, mostly, apart from his musical career, which also receives quite a bit of Nadel's attention). Crumb's collected works span dozens of volumes (and his uncollected works would doubtless fill dozens more). Nonetheless, Nadel's biography does contain quite a few reproduced pages, mostly from Crumb's career in underground comix, as well as a dozen pages or so in color, of family snapshots and reproductions of his work—which was not nearly enough to satisfy me, but enough (I think) to give the reader at least a taste for Crumb's distinctive style.

Crumb is a portrait of the whole man, in other words, warts and all. And it's an exquisitely vivid portrait... of that, there can be no doubt.

[Reid Chancellor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Well researched and well done. I listened to the audiobook and my only criticism is that someone should step in and inform narrators when they are mispronouncing a person's name. I laughed out loud every time Harvey Pekar's name was pronounced "Pecker". no judgement, just took me out of it a little. but maybe with a book about Crumb it's fitting. Soft 4 stars.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was disappointed (but not surprised) to hear that the current crop of young cartoonists have no use for Crumb on account of his racy & racial material. This is a shame.
It’s fascinating that Crumb has a reputation as a crazy person when compared to everyone with whom he grew up (a strong strain of mental illness runs in the family) and most of the artists he worked with he’s lead a productive, normal life.

[Mai M Ibrahim]

الكتاب عن فنان الكارتون crumb
كان نفسي يكون ف رسومات وصور اكتر ف كنت بفر ف الصفحات وخلاص لأن الكلام كتير وهو أصلًا رسام كارتون ف كان لازم الرسومات تكون اكتر
ع العموم عندي فيلم وثائقي عنه هنزله قريب اوي ع قناة جرافيميديا ع تليجرام لو حد مهتم 👇👇
graphimedia@

[Victor The Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

(MY 5TH FAVORITE BOOK OF 2025)

Nadel’s book about the life and career of underground comic legend Robert Crumb is one of the most eye catching and harrowing stories I’ve ever picked up. We learn about his very hairy childhood growing up with a pretty unstable family and how comics became his escape. Looking into his time with comics (with samples of his work included), we see how he used his grotesquely fascinating art style to share his views of topics that include his own personal life, politics and the way of the American life from the late 1950s to the early 2020s.

I never stopped being so surprised and engaged at Crumb’s life as it’s full of honest and ugly emotions, while giving us a different and unorthodox side of the comics industry. It’ll also have you wanting to read more of his work and how bizarrely catching it is. An honestly brilliant and twisted mind. A (100%/Outstanding)

[Jessica Tengco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, there’s so much to know and understand about R. Crumb. Dan Nadel has beautifully written this well researched biography of the cartoonist, Robert Crumb. It’s quite lengthy but does include 116 images of Robert’s work. He was involved and fact checked the content.

Robert’s experienced quite a bit through his life which helps understand his mindset. He is a self-made cartoonist but there have been many influential people in his life. His comics became a medium for him to acknowledge common plight in being human. This book details him and his family’s entire life and the climate of the time. There are depictions of sex, drugs, abuse, and polyamorous relationships.

It’s admirable that Robert was able to only work as an artist throughout his life which is something not many have been able to do. From greeting cards, fanzines, and magazine graphics, to underground comics, Robert has expressed his fascination and queries about the world we live in.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I have to admit that I do not like Crumb's art nor do I like his lifestyle. Still, this biography mostly held my interest by the way that it describes the disturbing counterculture life of people like him.

[EuroHackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came into this not knowing very much about Robert Crumb. I found it to be a pretty even-handed, even-tempered treatment of Crumb, both the private and public personas, as well as his place in the history of underground/independent comics. I found Crumb himself to be pretty fascinating; one of the fortunate two that escaped from his truly dysfunctional childhood and family life somewhat intact. He holds some views I personally find pretty abhorrent (such as being anti-vax and supporting some truly dangerous modes of medical thinking), and I know I couldn't have tolerated his personal life of simultaneous wives, girlfriends, and flings, but there was just enough narrative distance to make it interesting instead of rage-inducing. He was plenty awful to plenty of people in his life, and this book makes something of an argument about it being a maladapted coping skill. Frankly, the fact that he's made it relatively unscathed to the ripe age of 88 is something of a miracle given his background.

There isn't a lot of rumination on his personal life, for better or worse. After childhood we're hitting the high points, as it were. His relationships with his ex-wife and son are extremely glossed over, so if you're here for dirt, you're not really going to find it. What you will find it a compelling read about his career and the fame that followed him; the good things and questionable things he's done, and his own unique drive to continue creating. The author had access not only to the published material about Crumb, but also the absolute wealth of material that Crumb himself has archived for the greater part of 7 decades, as well as voluminous correspondence. He's talked with the people in Crumb's circle who are still alive, and gotten some rather unique perspectives from the outside about what makes Crumb tick.

Even if you're not much for his art, his fetishes, or his personal opinions, if you've ever felt like The Weird Kid or the outsider looking in, I think you will enjoy this. I'm curious as to how well it will align with the 1994 documentary about Crumb's family.

[Oliver Bateman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is it as far as Crumb bios go. The documentary served its purpose and is detailed at length in here. Crumb collaborated with Nadel and gave him full access to his extensive/obsessive records, so this is basically the warts and all story of the guy — minus the bizarre interviews with Jacques Hyazagi (https://observer.com/2015/10/robert-c... etc — I wonder what happened to Hyazagi, who really was notorious for trashing his subjects). Recommended if you want a complete story. Crumb has always invited critique of his “problematic” work, so Nadel offers the standard views and his defenses here too. Truly a strange life, though I’d start with the Zwigoff film first and then go to this book first. Does what it says on the tin, in other words. Recommended

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive, warts-and-all, biography of the cartoonist, Robert Crumb. It is a dense tome, giving in-depth attention to periods of his life 1914-2024 (he was born in 1943). Much of the information is gleaned from Crumb’s own writings and drawings. I now have a more intimate understanding about him and his family than I have of my own.

There are a few examples of his drawings (my ARC was blurry; maybe the actual book will be easier to see/read). I think this is the book for aficionados of him and his work.

I would like to thank Scribner and Goodreads for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Dorai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it is about a graphic artist and was mentioned in the drawing channels on YouTube. I had — strangely perhaps for someone interested in drawing, but not a comics reader — never heard of R. Crumb before. I don't think I have even seen his work in the wild, so there was no a-ha recognition when I saw the excerpted work.

But he does seem to be a big deal in the comics world, and while I can't imagine ever warming to his signature style, I can certainly see why he is lionized.

This is a warts-and-all biography, but with Crumb's authorization. The ruthless honesty can be both moving and repugnant, often in the same sentence. Crumb is clearly a genius who held on to his independence of vision. There is a lot of family tragedy, and other tribulations that he went through, a lot of it frankly self-inflicted, but he seems to have weathered it with something approaching grace. It is pleasing to think that his art may have helped him, where so many others not as lucky would have been crushed.

His linework is both masterful and tedious, as he chose to achieve tonal variation solely by hatching. This must have been torture physically, panel after panel after panel, so his obsessive drive is obvious. It also shows a very anti-modern bias against losing oneself in more and more tools. He appears to have used a single mark maker throughout his career: a rather mundane fineliner or a crow quill, but never together. Hatching is the go-to method of the single-tool artist who has no time or inclination to tool-switch, and prefers to simulate an effect with what is already at hand rather than learn a different, special-purpose utensil.

Lettering is obviously a fairly important component of comics, even if it must play second fiddle to the drawing. Crumb's display lettering is superb; his text lettering, in contrast, looks a bit rushed and not the same standard. It is possible that sketchy lettering is expected in his genre in order to lend it a natural, unfinished look, although I feel like sticking faithfully to a mindlessly bog-standard, Comic-Sans type lettering would have been less fatiguing to the reader. (The elsewhere vilified Comic Sans is ideal for comics, hence its name.) Perhaps the comics excerpts in the book are smaller than real-size, thus reducing legibility. I tried looking at the words with a magnifying glass, and it wasn't fun.

If you want answers to the big questions of what art is, why or if it is needed, and why some people do it, you may not get the answers here, but the bio does make you ponder the questions for yourself, in relation to the finiteness of your own time. Crumb steadfastly refuses to blow hi-falutin' smoke.

[Chet Makoski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Crumb, now 81 years old, is a genius underground illustrator who captured and defined the spirit of the hipster counterculture movement in the 1960s, ‘70s and beyond. Crumb is quoted on page 114: “My drawings are my personal attack on the absurd, sick, ridiculous world that we live in. I attempt to mildly shock you out of the euphoric life-process you are now being controlled by, and to pull you into my world so that I can take over your mind! But don’t worry, it won’t hurt, in fact you will, I hope, feel better when it is over. Love, Robert Crumb.”

On page 118, Dan Nadel states: “By 1967…His imagery defined the look of the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendricks, and shifted psychedelic art away from Art Nouveau and Edwardian nostalgia and into densely imagined inner space.”

Crumb’s first job was with American Greetings in Cleveland, Ohio. He married Dana Morgan who was from an upper-middle-class Cleveland Heights family. Crumb worked in Cleveland and lived in University Circle at the same time I was studying in University Circle at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He describes, in this book, going to art events and hip places like La Cave night club to see Joan Baez, who I also saw there. I like the thought of possibly bumping into Crumb before he became rich and famous.

[Solomon Yeoh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really well-written biography about perhaps the most important artist of the 20th century. Nadel refuses to shy away from the warts of Crumb's life (there are many) but always manages to remain sympathetic. Even I felt like shedding a few tears when I was reading about the past 5 years of Robert's life which are simply heartrending. Overall, a fantastic biography about a deeply troubled man.

[Donna Charlevoix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty long book but interesting. I didn’t know this guy at all so it was interesting to listen to how he shaped comics. Partly interested because it’s very recent history, partly because he lived in an area that I lived and so it was relatable.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily my favorite book that I have read/will read this year

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was such a fan of the Zwigoff doc (see it: “Crumb”) that it made me a Crumb fan. So I was interested in the broader scope a biography could deliver, and I thought Nadel delivered an honest, skilled, unflinching telling of this complicated, flawed but brilliant man’s life.

[Eliza Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

i am mostly interested in crumbs relationship to women and his crazy family, so the waffling about san Francisco comic book culture didn't interest me heaps. still a good read and i love the guys art

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ironically enough, I think a memoir by Crumb would have been far more objective than this biography.

[Books For Decaying Millennials · Rating 5 out of 5]

All views and opinions in this review are my own. Thanks to my local Public Library, for carrying this book. Do yourself a favor and stop by your local library, there's always something new to read. Or go ahead to checkout an old favorite.
-All views and opinions in this review are my own. Thanks to my local Public Library, for carrying this book. Do yourself a favor and stop by your local library, there's always something new to read. Or go ahead to checkout an old favorite.
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I'm picky, dare I say even cautious, when it comes to reading biographies. Even more so, when it was something during the lifetime of the subject. I think many of us are familiar with the eponymous "unofficial biographies" that tend to sprout up, like toadstools, in the presence of any figure of note.
I don't want a biography that is going to tell me a clean, easy to digest story. I'm in it to expand my understanding about the person, the delightful bits, and the ugly aspects of life, that none of us can hide.
While I often make it a point to go into a book with an open mind, in the case of Dan Nadel's biography of Robert Crumb, I knew that I had a benchmark I expected to to meet. David Michaelis' 2007 biography of Charles Schultz, for me was that benchmark. It was something thought back to at various times throughout Nadel's book. It was something I did unconsciously, but realizing it made me chuckle at the Irony. Two very different men, different generations and lived experiences, who both had a profound on the lives of so many, and still do....Okay, Okay, that's enough comparing Crumbs and Peanuts.
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What is the line separating the artist from their art? How can we see past a pen name, a public persona shielding the person from the world? Like many I was introduced to the work of Robert Crumb through his comics, and stand alone drawings, and the documentary by Terry Zweigoff.
My father, a boomer and Viet Nam Vet, was the first to show me Crumb's art, during trips to book stores, peppered in amongst issues Heavy Metal Magazine, Comic Books and SCiFi paperbacks.
Zweigoff's film showed adolescent me a peak at the life of the artist himself, but even then it was clear that there was more going on.
Dan Nadel's extensive biography is something very special for those of us who never stopped drawing, doodling, stressing, creating. Forget glimpses at the human mind behind the art, this book, takes us each on a tour of the heart soul, perhaps even the DNA of this gifted, complex and fascinating person.
Something that Nadel returns to throughout the book is Roberts struggle to maintain a sense of self, of personality and privacy in the shadow of the "R. CRUMB, the ARTIST". It's this struggle, this journey that fans of his work will, themselves, also be drawn to. We cannot help but try to catch glimpses, glean messages from the man behind the extensive body of work. Yet, consumers of his art, or his presented self, in Zweigoff's film, are privy to only a snap shot, an echo of the man himself, left in amber, for public viewing.
The true beauty of Nadel's book is that the reader is brought yet again to these snapshots, but they are presented as sign posts in the journey, the growth and true transformation of Robert Crumb. The Son, The Artist, the Partner, The Parent, the Grandparent. Robert Crumb, The Human.
Whatever opinion or views you have on Robert and his work, be prepared to re-examine everything about this man and his lifetime of work, that continues to leave an impact on the world.
I'm picky, dare I say even cautious, when it comes to reading biographies. Even more so, when it was something during the lifetime of the subject. I think many of us are familiar with the eponymous "unofficial biographies" that tend to sprout up, like toadstools, in the presence of any figure of note.
I don't want a biography that is going to tell me a clean, easy to digest story. I'm in it to expand my understanding about the person, the delightful bits, and the ugly aspects of life, that none of us can hide.
While I often make it a point to go into a book with an open mind, in the case of Dan Nadel's biography of Robert Crumb, I knew that I had a benchmark I expected to to meet. David Michaelis' 2007 biography of Charles Schultz, for me was that benchmark. It was something thought back to at various times throughout Nadel's book. It was something I did unconsciously, but realizing it made me chuckle at the Irony. Two very different men, different generations and lived experiences, who both had a profound on the lives of so many, and still do....Okay, Okay, that's enough comparing Crumbs and Peanuts.
-
What is the line separating the artist from their art? How can we see past a pen name, a public persona shielding the person from the world? Like many I was introduced to the work of Robert Crumb through his comics, and stand alone drawings, and the documentary by Terry Zweigoff.
My father, a boomer and Viet Nam Vet, was the first to show me Crumb's art, during trips to book stores, peppered in amongst issues Heavy Metal Magazine, Comic Books and SCiFi paperbacks.
Zweigoff's film showed adolescent me a peak at the life of the artist himself, but even then it was clear that there was more going on.
Dan Nadel's extensive biography is something very special for those of us who never stopped drawing, doodling, stressing, creating. Forget glimpses at the human mind behind the art, this book, takes us each on a tour of the heart soul, perhaps even the DNA of this gifted, complex and fascinating person.
Something that Nadel returns to throughout the book is Roberts struggle to maintain a sense of self, of personality and privacy in the shadow of the "R. CRUMB, the ARTIST". It's this struggle, this journey that fans of his work will, themselves, also be drawn to. We cannot help but try to catch glimpses, glean messages from the man behind the extensive body of work. Yet, consumers of his art, or his presented self, in Zweigoff's film, are privy to only a snap shot, an echo of the man himself, left in amber, for public viewing.
The true beauty of Nadel's book is that the reader is brought yet again to these snapshots, but they are presented as sign posts in the journey, the growth and true transformation of Robert Crumb. The Son, The Artist, the Partner, The Parent, the Grandparent. Robert Crumb, The Human.
Whatever opinion or views you have on Robert and his work, be prepared to re-examine everything about this man and his lifetime of work, that continues to leave an impact on the world.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think a lot of reviewers are conflating the book and the subject. Crumb is a (tortured) genius, no question about that. Stories of his dysfunctional family are legendary (and under-represented in this book). But the book itself is overly and unnecessarily detailed. Do we really need bios of all his sex partners (and many of their sex partners), summaries of all his comics (there were a lot over, what, 70 years?), details of every house he lived in and every gig he played? I assume the author was worried about leaving anybody or any phase of the artist's life out, but as a result, the book doesn't bring Crumb to life, which I think is what a good biography does. It's like the author was writing solely for Crumb's circle of confederates or other comics aficionados. And there weren't enough comics in the book!

[Edmund Roughpuppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just think of how transient [rockstars’] existence must be. It's like the second someone decides to be an artist, successful, or not, they stop evolving with the rest of society. They are trapped in a state of suspended impermanence. —Patric Gagne, PhD, Sociopath: A memoir

Why we’re reading this
In 1994, Terry Zwigoff directed a documentary film about underground cartoonist Robert Crumb. Not everyone liked it, but those of us who did received brilliant, lasting impressions. This book exists to satisfy our urge to learn more about this man, who carved out a living and made himself a legend, at the fraying margins of culture.



Beyond attaining the summit of the Nerd Pyramid, Robert pole-vaulted over it. I’m talking about the socially-awkward boys in high school who sat in the back of the classroom drawing. Either you saw them or you were them. That’s a well-worn niche in adolescent society, and some guys are born for it, fall straight into it.

But Robert transcended all that. He never had to get an actual job [the greeting card company doesn’t count]; the world let him live, making his own sarcastic doodles and selling them. He never had to incorporate anyone else’s sensibilities into his work, he never had to learn to drive, and he never had to grow up. He enjoys a special kind of fame, the kind all nerds dream of. He’s famous for never compromising, for doing exactly what he wanted for sixty years and somehow getting a living from it. He transformed being a loser with women into something sexy and irresistible. He’s an alchemist, a miracle worker!

No wonder Dan Nadel worships the ground Robert walks on and collects his used Kleenex. He documents Robert’s life in excruciating detail. I can’t really blame him. This is a remarkable life, and who knows which minor detail may turn out to be the secret of Robert’s superpowers?

What Dan has to say
There wasn’t much to do but get weird.
The writing is competent, in a ‘for the record,’ impersonal way. Dan gets deep in the weeds when discussing Robert’s business dealings. Comic book enthusiasts are wounded people. They resent the lack of respect their adored medium carries, and they take every opportunity to educate the unaware about its ‘true’ value. It has a long history, it’s harder to produce than you think, publishing it is a delicate undertaking, etc. This is too much information for those uninterested in that struggle for respect.

So what happened, before and after the documentary?
Robert stayed true to himself. Sometimes his stubborn insistence on drawing—and nothing else—led him and his consorts near to starvation, but he never wavered. I somewhat admire and envy him in that regard. There’s a merciless dictator in every artist, who needs to rule his work the way Adolf Hitler crushed Europe. If you must let other people make the big decisions, the act of making art is ruined. This may sound childish, but think of it this way: Art is probably the only thing in life that can exist without compromise. We can’t create the perfect job or city or lover, but within the limits of his ability, every artist is God in his studio. It’s just that ability that makes art worth doing. Now bring in an agent, a presenter, a director. That ruins it. It’s like getting to own an expensive sports car, but you can’t drive it. Someone else drives, you just own it. That makes the car not worth having.

Also, a tremendous amount of drug-taking and indiscriminate sex happened. I do not admire or envy him those experiences. Both of his children became addicts, and it seems never to have occurred to their caregivers to “just say no,” to themselves or anyone else.

[During their first LSD trip, Robert’s first wife,] Dana felt she was passing through the birth canal. Unfortunately, what she thought was amniotic fluid was Robert vomiting on her.



As for the sex, Dan describes it less in terms of penthouses and champagne, rather more trailer parks and shotguns. Robert could relate to the world indirectly, through art and music, but his principal reaction to human connection was to run away from it.

Robert had absolutely no model for how to be an adult in the world, let alone a parent. But he had developed, as a lot of artists do, a survival instinct, which didn’t always extend to those around him. In those days he was still escaping—from home, from Dana, from bourgeois expectations, even from his own kid. He needed to do things his way and needed to pursue himself. That he couldn’t leave Dana, and thus couldn’t prevent having a child, is typical of his own internal confusion—he wanted a mommy but not a wife. A sexual partner but not a relationship. He wanted a home but no responsibilities.

Robert managed to get and keep these contradictory rewards, to a surprising extent. From Dan’s excellent book, the journey nearly killed him and everyone around him, but he preferred death to conventionality. Now Robert and daughter Sophie are the only survivors of that wild ‘underground’ society.

[Gerard de Bruin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een groot kunstenaar, een groot mens. Ook, tegelijkertijd een griezel, een mysogiene hufter. Is allebei waar
Nadel windt er geen doekjes om en beschrijft uiterst precies en nauwgezet zowel het wordingsproces van de kunstenaar, als de totale ontsporing van de sexist Crumb.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this biography on a true pioneer in art, changing the way comic books were, viewed, helping other artists get noticed and a man who has lived his life the way he was wanted it, no matter the cost.

I have loved comic books since I started reading, but came to the world of underground comics late in my childhood. There were really no comic book stories around, so my Dad would take my brother and I on road trips to other towns, usually down a long flight of stairs into dim little basements, loaded with wonders. My brother was quick with his money, but I was someone who was well a little more picky. I would look for issues to complete certain runs, things I had heard of, then splurge in the bargain bins. And what wonders I found. Between bargain bins and flea markets I had comics that I knew had never seen a comic code. Nor in some places a good editor. Some were amazing, some were not. They were different, odd, personal, angry, mean, dark, funny, made a young man feel funny, and weird. It was love at first sight in many case to me. All this I owe to Robert Crumb. Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life by curator and comic historian Dan Nadel is a look at the life of this exceptional man, with exceptionally off the beaten paths taste, and incredible talent.

The book begins with a look at the world of comics and the backgrounds of the parents of the artist Robert Crumb. Even from their beginnings Crumb had a lot to get past to become the man he became. Their traumas later affected Robert and his many siblings, limiting and scarring them all for life, with only Robert and his sister Carol seeming to get free. The Crumb siblings shared a love of comics, creating entire runs of funny animal stories, with detailed art, stories, and even subscriptions. Robert escaped to Cleveland after high school, finding a job at American Greetings card company drawing cards, and soon designing, as others could see his skill. Robert also found something else. Women. Soon Robert was married, after a long courtship, and travelling the world, working on his art, selling his stories, and honing his craft. San Francisco opened him to more opportunities, as well as LSD, which helped him deal with, and be more open about himself, which he began to put into his art. Art that took comics into strange new places. Places that are still being discusses to this day.

A wonderful biography, done with permission and with the assistance of Crumb, family and friends. I remember years ago watching the documentary, Crumb, and thinking why aren't we talking more about the art, and stop making his family seem like a freak show. Nadel handles all facets of Crumbs life with aplomb. As a comic historian Nadel can explain Crumb's style, and what he has done for comic history. As a writer he can portray Crumb honestly, like Crumbs asks, as a man who has failed at being a father in some ways, a husband in others, but has more than succeeded at being an artist. Nadel is really good at breaking one's heart. There is a lot of sadness, so much wasted potential, lost to drugs, illness, past trauma, and just in many cases bad luck.

Nadel really soars at explaining the art. The book has quite a lot of examples an Nadel an explain why this works, why this doesn't, as well as give brief summaries of Crumb's fellow creators. One learns about publishing, the history of comic books, the underground and much more. Some of the stories are great, some are again quite sad. All make for compelling reading.

One of the best biographies I have read. I learned so much. This is the perfect book for comic fans, comic historians, artists, want-to-be artists and dreamers.

[Leah Weyandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Having something unreachable in his [Crumb’s] mind is an irresistible itch for him. A topic of fascination…an unknowable mental area that must be investigated. That is the crux. For Robert, it all must be known. Whatever the cost, there is always more to know and understand about himself and all of us.” —Dan Nadal

“I’m such a negative person, and always have been. Was I born that way? I don’t know. I am constantly disgusted by reality, horrified and afraid. I cling desperately to the few things that give me some solace, that make me feel good.

I hate most of humanity. Though I might be very fond of particular individuals, humanity in general fills me with contempt and despair. I hate most of what passes for civilization. I hate the modern world. For one thing there are just too Goddamn many people. I hate the hordes, the crowds in their vast cities, with all their hateful vehicles, their noise and their constant meaningless comings and goings. I hate cars. I hate modern architecture. Every building built after 1955 should be torn down!

I despise modern music. Words cannot express how much it gets on my nerves – the false, pretentious, smug assertiveness of it. I hate business, having to deal with money. Money is one of the most hateful inventions of the human race. I hate the commodity culture, in which everything is bought and sold. No stone is left unturned. I hate the mass media, and how passively people suck up to it.

I hate having to get up in the morning and face another day of this insanity. I hate having to eat, shit, maintain the body – I hate my body. The thought of my internal functions, the organs, digestion, the brain, the nervous system, horrify me.

Nature is horrible. It’s not cute and loveable. It’s kill or be killed. It’s very dangerous out there. The natural world is filled with scary, murderous creatures and forces. I hate the whole way that nature functions. Sex is especially hateful and horrifying, the male penetrating the female, his dick goes into her hole, she’s impregnated, another being grows inside her, and then she must go through a painful ordeal as the new being pushes out of her, only to repeat the whole process in time.

Reproduction – what could be more existentially repulsive?

How I hate the courting ritual. I was always repelled by my own sex drive, which in my youth never left me alone. I was constantly driven by frustrated desires to do bizarre and unacceptable things with and to women. My soul was in constant conflict about it. I never was able to resolve it.

Old age is the only relief.

I hate the way the human psyche works, the way we are traumatized and stupidly imprinted in early childhood and have to spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome these infantile mental fixations. And we never ever fully succeed in this endeavor.

I hate organized religions. I hate governments. It’s all a lot of power games played out by ambition-driven people, and foisted on the weak, the poor, and on children.

Most humans are bullies. Adults pick on children. Older children pick on younger children. Men bully women. The rich bully the poor. People love to dominate.

I hate the way humans worship power – one of the most disgusting of all human traits.

I hate the human tendency towards revenge and vindictiveness. I hate the way humans are constantly trying to trick and deceive one another, to swindle, to cheat, and take unfair advantage of the innocent, the naïve and the ignorant.

I hate the vacuous, false, banal conversation that goes on among people.

Sometimes I feel suffocated; I want to flee from it.

For me, to be human is, for the most part, to hate what I am. When I suddenly realize that I am one of them, I want to scream in horror.” —Robert Crumb

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography is totally from primary sources. Throughout his (ongoing as of this writing) life, Robert Crumb drew and wrote incessantly. In doing this author, Dan Nadel, says Crumb basically created his own biography. Nadel seems to have read every scrap. He interviewed and read the work of Crumb’s also prolific family and friends. To this he added informed commentary on how Crumb fit (and didn’t fit) the social and cultural forces of the times. Lots of biographies have gaps from a lack of sources; this biography is seamless.

This biography is stunning.

Nadel sees Crumb’s artistic and social orientation as being formed in the pre-TV years when he and,his older brother drew comics. They were influenced by the comics of the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and the brothers used their graphic techniques (such shady backgrounds). Regarding content, there were no superheroes. These comics, be they strips or magazines, were not an “industry” then. They were not often commercially distributed and many (like Crumb's early work) sold on the street or door to door.

Nadel shows how Crumb built on the new formats and content that were ushered in by “Mad Magazine” in the 1950’s. His work became so influential that Nadel says, without Crumb there would be no "Persepolis" or "Maus".

While his comics were embraced by the counterculture and he lived a lifestyle that was more hippy than most hippies, he was not a hippy. He used marijuana and LSD, but did not deal or make a life of them. For music, Crumb preferred early blues, jazz and big bands to The Jefferson Airplane or The Grateful Dead. His hair (a clear symbol at the time) and clothes (no beads, tie dye, or bell bottoms for Crumb) were of the working class .

His pre-TV world view, as shown in his work, included unexamined misogyny and racism.

Crumb (physically) covers a lot of ground and Nadel takes you there with him. He moves across the country and back. He has family and friends all over and there is lots of visiting/“crashing”. He finally settles in France where he now lives.

As his comics get more exposure, he gets paid. He could have been paid much more, but he shied away from corporate work (especially after a bad experience with Viking that wanted major edits), most film/animation deals, and product licensing. For most of his life, he was able earn/barter enough for down payments to buy a home (or acres) … (which was affordable then) but there was always financial pressure. Finally, in the 2000+ years he was able to command a $250K+ advance for creating a graphic version of “Genesis”.

Crumb had two marriages, both to women who accepted his extramarital affairs, and had them too. Both women contributed to the shaky finances. He had a son (who died in a car accident) with the first wife and a daughter with the second. His second wife, Aline Kominsty Crumb, was a cartoonist in her own right.

Examples of Crumb’s B & W panels and cover work appear throughout. They are shown as examples of styles and content. There are color “snaps” of his family, friends, locations and some of color work (i.e. “Cheap Thrills” album cover for which he was paid $600.)

The Index (I used it to remind me who some minor, but recurring, characters were) was very helpful.

When it came out, I saw the movie “Crumb” and came away sad and stunned. The making of the movie is covered in this book. It’s hard to remember details after 25 or so years, but, I think the movie made Crumb’s family a spectacle. This book is a respectful presentation of the family’s problems.

I just counted (Goodreads helps you with this), and see that I’ve read 20 biographies this year. Some of them were very good, but this one is tops all of them by far. While Nadel’s research undoubtedly benefited from Crumb’s writings, the family sources and the author’s knowledge of the periods, it is the author's ability to tie it together makes you page turn throughout. Despite Crumb’s challenges, I hated to end the book and leave this world behind.

The bio I read this year that comes closest in quality research and a reader friendly approach is Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue. Like Nadel, author Sonia Purnell had the foundation of other material to build upon and living participants and observers to interview. She also brought perspective from her knowledge of the social and political trends of the times. Both writers, of course, had incredibly interesting (shall we say, unusual) subjects to profile.

Highly recommended...