Crumb Page #3

as a young person.

When I was in high school,

I had a few dates with girls.

When you were in high school,

you didn't have any dates with anybody.

You were actually

sort of good-Iooking.

I was a handsome, good-Iooking chap

when I was a teenager.

But there was just something

that was wrong with my personality.

The teachers hated him,

the kids hated him.

High school was an absolute nightmare.

I was the most unpopular kid

in the high school.

People were always picking on me

and beating me up.

And the girls wouldn't

have anything to do with me.

They treated me like I was

the scum of the earth.

In this strip, I'm talking all about

my problems with women...

starting with high school

where I learned a lot about women...

because there was this guy

named Skutch, this guy here...

who was like this mean bully...

but he was also very charming.

All the girls liked him.

He was the dreamboat...

but he was also a bully.

My brother Charles was one of the guys

he singled out for particular attention.

He had this gang of flunkies

that hung around with him, with Skutch.

So I remember this scene...

where Skutch punches out my brother

in the hallway at school.

It was a very sad sight

for me to see.

Charles gave up trying to be popular

or have girlfriends...

after everybody saw he couldn't fight

back, that he was beat up by Skutch.

I've been living at home

since I graduated from high school.

I made a few feeble attempts

along the way.

You're no worse off than people that are

in the world and have to deal with it.

But you got to take into consideration

that I'm taking tranquilizers.

And that makes it a lot easier

than it would otherwise be...

by taking these tranquilizers

and antidepressants.

If it wasn't for them, I'd probably

go completely crazy living with Mother.

I have to walk on eggs

when I'm around her.

Yeah, you do.

You can't tell my mother

the absolute truth.

She's in a heavy state of denial

about a lot of things.

I don't think

we should be talking about this.

- Where's my kitty cats?

- About her mother, she's...

What the hell's going on?

She doesn't like you to talk about

her mother who was a complete monster.

- What?

- Fix that thing in the hallway.

- What thing?

- The window.

What's wrong with it?

- It's some film equipment or something.

- It's some kind of film equipment.

- Where are my kitty cats?

- I don't know.

Don't worry about it. It's all gonna be

out of here and back to normal.

Here it shows these girls talking about

how one of their friends...

got a date with Skutch

and how envious they all are.

This is how I felt about it.

I'm a little bitter about it,

as you can see.

I show here how I thought

that most teenage boys...

are very cruel and aggressive.

And if girls could see that I was more

kind and sensitive, they would like me.

They were kind of impressed

by the fact I could draw.

I couldn't understand why they liked

these cruel, aggressive guys and not me.

I was more kind and sensitive,

more like them.

I didn't realize they didn't want you

to be like them, basically.

I felt very hurt

and cruelly misunderstood...

because I considered myself

talented and intelligent...

and yet I was not

very attractive physically.

I didn't think those things mattered.

It was what's inside that was important.

When I was 13 and 14 and trying to be

a normal teenager, I was really a jerk.

I tried to act

like I thought they were acting.

It came out all wrong and weird,

so then I stopped completely...

and became a shadow,

I wasn't even there.

People weren't aware that I was...

in the same world they were in.

That freed me completely because

I wasn't under pressures to be normal.

So I got interested in old-time music,

and went to the black section of town...

knocking on doors

and looking for old records...

and things like that

that would be unthinkable...

if you were going to be

a normal teenager.

Starting about 17, I started being

driven by that obsession that...

I'll go down in history as

a great artist. That'll be my revenge.

This is my image

celebrating Valentine's Day.

February 13, 1962.

I decided to reject conforming

when society rejected me.

I've heard all about

that 'be yourself' stuff.

When I'm myself,

people think I'm nuts.

Guess I'll have to be satisfied

with cats and old records.

Girls are just utterly

out of my reach.

They won't even let me draw them.

All that changed

after I got famous.

Absolutely, I would love

to pose for you.

Excellent.

Anytime you want to come by and visit,

that'd be really nice.

- Excellent.

- I always wanted to see you again.

Some of the early Weirdo collages...

and also some publications.

We managed to track them down.

I think Crumb...

is basically the Brueghel

of the last half of the 20th century.

There wasn't a Brueghel of the first

half, but there is of the last half.

And that is Robert Crumb...

because he gives you

that tremendous kind of impassion...

of lusting, suffering,

crazed humanity...

in all sorts of bizarre,

gargoyle-like allegorical forms.

He's got this very powerful imagination,

which goes over the top a lot...

but it very seldom lies.

He's Mr. Natural.

He accepts women

how they really are...

and makes them even more beautiful

than they really...

Like that woman.

I mean, she's really...

She's got energy, form and drive.

You can't push these women around.

They're not wimps.

He gives power to women.

He made it okay for me

to have a butt.

He did a drawing of me,

which I really liked a lot. It was neat.

It showed my thighs as they really are.

He helped me change my self-image.

I had felt so inadequate before.

It was like I didn't know...

Believe me, Stevayne,

you're adequate.

Oh, you're so adequate.

I feel Robert's work...

is one of the most pertinent

social portraits...

of an era...

touching issues related to politics...

to sex, to drugs, to religion...

to the fine arts.

And I would say Robert

is the Daumier of our time.

He's a very remarkable artist, indeed.

The tradition that I see him

belonging to is, essentially...

the one of graphic art

as social protest, social criticism...

which, of course,

has extremely long roots.

There are elements of Goya in Crumb.

Goya's sense of monstrosity...

comes out in those menacing bird-headed

women of Crumb's for instance.

Robert! In front of all these people?

The undergrounds are alive and well.

Whole industry sprung up.

They're still reprinting the early ones.

Number two, number four.

God only knows how many of those

have been printed by now.

Puke and Explode. '

It's called Puke and Explode.

That's new. Who put that out?

I don't know about these kids today.

I guess you really started all this.

You created this whole thing.

You're responsible.

I don't like to take credit for that.

Some of this stuff,

I know nobody would.

I'm a really big fan of yours.

I'm wondering if there's any chance

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