Instrumental in the formation of the underground comics scene in the 1960s and 1970s, Robert Crumb has helped challenge and expand the boundaries of the graphic arts and redefined comics and cartoons as countercultural art forms. Widely circulated and celebrated, Crumb’s published imagery, such as his comic strips Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, and Keep on Truckin’, offers a mordant satirical critique of modern society.
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. Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life includes forty-five stunning black-and-white images and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure. Written with Crumb’s cooperation, the biography spans the pressures of 1950s suburban America; the history of comics and graphic satire; 20th century popular music; the world of the counter culture; the birth of underground comic books in 1960s San Francisco with Crumb’s Zap Comix; and the economic challenges and dissolution of the hippie dream.
A limited number of tickets include a complimentary copy of Dan Nadel’s Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life