Crumb Page #7

I was abusing the word.

I had this overpowering...

I'm leaving.

I was very fond of you. Ouch!

I was fond of you...

and had this overpowering lust for you

that you could possibly imagine.

But I wouldn't say I was in love.

I just don't have it in me.

- I've never been in love or jealous.

- That's horrible.

The only woman I've ever been in love

with is Sophie, my darling daughter.

You made me mess up.

I did books in the '70s

that were self-deprecating.

My self-hatred was really intense then.

Did you ever see this one?

Twisted Sisters.

Nice cover.

I show myself on the toilet.

It got no recognition.

Nobody bought it.

I asked the publisher how it was doing.

He said he was using it for insulation

in the walls of his barn.

What is the gist of your comics?

What are they like?

About me.

My sex life, my phobias...

what a disgusting human being

I think I am.

Your mother's featured in it

a lot, too.

It's the way I can tolerate my mother,

is by drawing...

really hideous drawings of her.

Like this, for example.

After Sophie was born,

my mother visited me.

She was so irritating and so unhelpful.

It talks about how she couldn't hold the

baby 'cause she'd had her nails wrapped.

My mother yells in the restaurant,

Got any Sweet N' Low, dear?

A quiet fern-bar restaurant

in San Francisco...

and every person

turned around to look.

She came to the airport in an Afro,

dressed up in this trendy outfit.

Robert and I looked like immigrants

just off the boat.

- Is your father on the bottom there?

- That's my mother's husband.

She had him dressed in a leisure suit.

When she first met him,

he wore baggy brown suits...

he had short hair and he was fat.

She put him on a diet,

and put him in safari outfits...

and made him grow sideburns.

But he was still shlubby.

He had shlubby posture.

But he was trendily dressed.

Kind of follows along after her

like that.

- What does she think about your comics?

- She doesn't see them.

- She's not interested.

- She doesn't know you're a cartoonist?

Unconsciously she must know there's

things she doesn't want to know about.

And she doesn't take in very much

about anybody anyway.

She's not too interested.

She saw this painting and a bunch

of other paintings, and she said...

Those are nice. Who did them?

I said, I did.

She said, I didn't know you painted.

I mean, she sent me to art school!

You just change the subject.

What are we having for dinner?

One thing you've learned is

the importance of black. That's good.

Thanks, Pop.

Okay, enough.

Why did you choose this figure

in particular?

I like these photos.

They're powerful for some reason.

This one was easy to draw.

Finally picked attractive ones.

Some of them are ugly, you know.

- She's a mess.

- Yeah, she is.

The text talks about her being

an alcoholic reprobate.

They picked her up off the street.

This one. Oh, God!

Looks like a monster.

In my drawing of her,

I made her cuter than she really is...

because I acquired the cuteness curse

when I worked at American Greetings...

which I can't shake.

You got the tilt of her head right.

That's hard to do.

You have to really...

The proportions of this to this.

Is it the same or shorter?

I did a lot of erasing at first.

You haven't learned how to cheat yet

to get the desired effect you want.

Like what? Draw over the top of a Xerox?

You want to capture a certain thing

about this woman's face.

- A certain defiance you see in there.

- Yeah, I didn't get it.

Exaggerate those little things

that give her that look.

Like the way her teeth slightly show.

She's got a slight sneer.

I try to do that,

but it's hard with pencil.

Just exaggerate, cheat a little.

Like the tilt of the head...

and the sneer, you would emphasize that.

You have to consciously

make a decision...

of what you want to bring out

in the face.

I did that here,

but it still didn't work out.

It's very subtle in that photo.

It's very subtle.

My drawing doesn't capture the hate.

It does in a way. You've got that

open mouth. That's the key to the thing.

- That sneer, you know?

- Baring the teeth.

Yeah. That's key.

They obviously ordered her to sit down

and don't move.

They're going to take her picture,

and just sit there.

You can see she doesn't like it.

It'd be good if you could take

life drawing.

You didn't go to art school,

and look, you're rich and famous.

We're not talking about rich and famous.

Were talking about learning to draw.

A lot of my recent works

appear in this Weirdo magazine.

These are the kind of guys who read my

work. It's an ode to the weirdo reader.

The hurt, sensitive guy who doesn't

fit in with the normal people.

Like these people.

She's saying, I always hated

the Three Stooges.

Of course, he loves the Three Stooges.

This is my source material.

I couldn't find pictures in magazines

of ordinary, modern...

street scenes in America.

So I persuaded this guy in Sacramento

to spend a day with me driving around...

'cause I don't drive

and couldn't do it myself.

Just to take snapshots of ordinary

street corners in modern America.

This has been indispensable to me.

You can't remember these things, to draw

these modern light poles and crap.

All this junk

on every suburban street.

I've used it in a lot of places.

It's background here.

Stuff like that.

In my story here, I used it also.

This whole background, this stuff,

I put it over here.

You can't make up this crap.

It's too complicated.

On this cover I used a bunch of photos

to take that stuff.

In the real world, this stuff is not

created to be visually pleasing.

It's just accumulation

of the modern industrial world.

People don't even notice.

They block it out.

Robert and Sophie, dinner's ready.

Hurry up.

Go sit down. Get out of here.

- Who, me?

- No, her.

She's helping me.

Now she's break-dancing.

Get out of here.

Come over here and get your plate.

How's that?

I'll trade you the gum for the plate.

Gotta have my starch and my fat.

Look at all this food.

It's fun to eat supper with your family.

Especially where there is good food

on the table.

At least you could manage

to be on time.

Your mother goes to all the trouble

to prepare a fine meal.

- It's only common courtesy, Chuck.

- I know.

But I couldn't help it.

I was late home from school.

Once I reached adolescence, it was

the late '50s. Everybody I knew...

their families had nothing to do

with the advertisement for itself...

that the culture was presenting

on the TV screen.

- Why not?

- Do I have to have a reason?

- All your friends will be there.

- I don't care.

Chuck! Don't talk

with your mouth full.

Chew your food well.

Chew and chew.

Doesn't it taste extra good that way?

The whole thing is a big false front...

that was suffocating,

and so dreary and depressing.

They grew up in the depression.

I understand. They went through the war.

They wanted this thing that was

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