In case somebody here is interested in the following events, Robert Crumb (60’s artist/writer, creator of Mr. Natural, the Snoid, glorifier of big-butt/ big-legged women), and Jeff Smith (creator/artist of “Bone”) are both making appearances in town in the next few days.
Crumb will be at the more prestigious of sites: New York Public Library’s main branch, 5th Av and 42nd St, Celeste Bartos Forum (if I remember correctly, that’s the big meeting room on the second floor, but best call to be sure, 1 (212) 930-0571) tomorrow, April 14th, from 7:00 pm; Smith will be at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 4 West 33rd St. (across from ESB), 1 (212) 268-7088 (or www.jhuniverse.com) , Wednesday, April 20th, from noon to 2:00.
Crumb, as is probably obvious to everyone who possesses even a marginal interest in comics by this time, has achieved “Master” status in this country. Kind’ a like Berne Hogarth, or Will Eisner, he has enough history and an established paper-trial (the good kind, for once) to where he could coast on his reputation through the rest of his existence is he so chooses. I’d hope not –I once attended a lecture by Hogarth he gave at Parsons some years back, and the man spent three of the longest hours of my professional life pontificating on nothing. Whereas Eisner, as most of us know, was working on new projects right up to the last days of his life. Crumb has me worried in that area ‘cause in recent interviews, he’s started re-editing the old days, saying essentially that, “(whine!) The DRUGS made me write and draw all that crazy shit!! Really, it DID!”
To which I reply, “What pure, USDA-inspected, grade triple A, horse-dookies.” Like that song that was popular some months back, “’Til I Got High,” points out, drugs PREVENT you from doing any amount of labor, whether with a pen in your hand, or with a shovel. Robert Crumb put his screaming libido AND his anger at the nasty, petty society that raised him, down on the printed page for all the world to see, and he should be proud of the body of work that resulted therefrom; denying any or all of it by claiming “the devil made me do it” is worse than disingenuous. I’m saying all this mostly to admit that attending the NYPL event may be merely ego-stroking a guy who’s already put himself on the back-shelves of graphic storytelling history.
Smith, on the other hand, may be worth a listen, but of course the venue he’ll be at won’t be conducive to actually conversing with the man; glad-handing and selling product is the priority, naturally. Still in all, he deserves a lot of respect for the “Bone” project, just from sheer number of pages generated over –what?—the past ten years? Only other person outside the Marvel/DC pipeline to produce that much work on one subject for so many years is Stan Sakai, creator/artist of “Usagi Yojimbo.” Problem with Sakai, however, is he takes his stuff WAY too seriously …. Ladies and Gents, somebody please tell this guy that it’s a comic book featuring a bunny rabbit wielding a cute, stubby sword, even if the character is decked out in midevelian Japanese Samurai drag. This ain’t Ceiling-of-the-Sistene Chapel important. Back to the point, from what I’ve been told, Smith is a lighter, more accessible person to approach, so maybe it’s worth a stop there next week to see if one can talk with him even for a couple mintues.
I can't make either one myself, so if anyone from here can, please do post back here and let us read what you thought of them, OK?
Crumb will be at the more prestigious of sites: New York Public Library’s main branch, 5th Av and 42nd St, Celeste Bartos Forum (if I remember correctly, that’s the big meeting room on the second floor, but best call to be sure, 1 (212) 930-0571) tomorrow, April 14th, from 7:00 pm; Smith will be at Jim Hanley’s Universe, 4 West 33rd St. (across from ESB), 1 (212) 268-7088 (or www.jhuniverse.com) , Wednesday, April 20th, from noon to 2:00.
Crumb, as is probably obvious to everyone who possesses even a marginal interest in comics by this time, has achieved “Master” status in this country. Kind’ a like Berne Hogarth, or Will Eisner, he has enough history and an established paper-trial (the good kind, for once) to where he could coast on his reputation through the rest of his existence is he so chooses. I’d hope not –I once attended a lecture by Hogarth he gave at Parsons some years back, and the man spent three of the longest hours of my professional life pontificating on nothing. Whereas Eisner, as most of us know, was working on new projects right up to the last days of his life. Crumb has me worried in that area ‘cause in recent interviews, he’s started re-editing the old days, saying essentially that, “(whine!) The DRUGS made me write and draw all that crazy shit!! Really, it DID!”
To which I reply, “What pure, USDA-inspected, grade triple A, horse-dookies.” Like that song that was popular some months back, “’Til I Got High,” points out, drugs PREVENT you from doing any amount of labor, whether with a pen in your hand, or with a shovel. Robert Crumb put his screaming libido AND his anger at the nasty, petty society that raised him, down on the printed page for all the world to see, and he should be proud of the body of work that resulted therefrom; denying any or all of it by claiming “the devil made me do it” is worse than disingenuous. I’m saying all this mostly to admit that attending the NYPL event may be merely ego-stroking a guy who’s already put himself on the back-shelves of graphic storytelling history.
Smith, on the other hand, may be worth a listen, but of course the venue he’ll be at won’t be conducive to actually conversing with the man; glad-handing and selling product is the priority, naturally. Still in all, he deserves a lot of respect for the “Bone” project, just from sheer number of pages generated over –what?—the past ten years? Only other person outside the Marvel/DC pipeline to produce that much work on one subject for so many years is Stan Sakai, creator/artist of “Usagi Yojimbo.” Problem with Sakai, however, is he takes his stuff WAY too seriously …. Ladies and Gents, somebody please tell this guy that it’s a comic book featuring a bunny rabbit wielding a cute, stubby sword, even if the character is decked out in midevelian Japanese Samurai drag. This ain’t Ceiling-of-the-Sistene Chapel important. Back to the point, from what I’ve been told, Smith is a lighter, more accessible person to approach, so maybe it’s worth a stop there next week to see if one can talk with him even for a couple mintues.
I can't make either one myself, so if anyone from here can, please do post back here and let us read what you thought of them, OK?
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Hartford
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