Cranium Comics

Attending this event at the University of Texas at Austin’s, Bass concert Hall was a last minute decision for me. Although both are highly revered in the industry, I hadn’t read any of Art Spiegelman’s work and my only experience of R. Crumb was from his portrayals in the movie Crumb and American Splendor. After purchasing a ticket online an hour before the show, I was contemplating whether or not throwing down the $35 was going to be worth it.

The show started late at approximately 8:20. I arrived close to 8:00 which made the wait less excruciating. My original ticket had me on the second balcony, but due to the size of Bass Concert Hall they had me sitting on the first floor in the very back of the theater. I snapped a quick pic with by digital camera of the stage, but was promptly told that no flash photography was allowed. According to the program and the people around me, the show was scheduled for an hour with a half hour for questions.

From the announcer’s voice, R. Crumb’s work “shattered boundaries, high, low, and in between.” To me, the eloquent way in which the voice pitched him was an interesting contrast to the trippy, exaggerated style Crumb seems to be depicting in the majority of his work. It was obvious he was promoting his new work at the talk. His latest piece, “The book of Genesis” faithfully renders the entire peice of the bible in his now familiar style.

Both Art and Robert were asked many questions about their early work, their experiences working for Tops Bubble Gum company (Art) and American Greetings (Robert), then ventured into topics ranging from early influences to where they saw their work headed in the future.

A man in the audience asked what Crumb’s favorite music was, and he responded by saying jazz vocalist Geeshie Wiley, who produced two records in the twenties. Another visitor shared with the crowd that he drove five hours to get an autograph and pressured both of them into signing his comic by standing up during the entire Q&A section. Crumb was the first to cave, then Art followed. Art was asked about what he thought about the idea of doing comics on the web. His answer was that he loves paper and the process of printing.

“The same way comics were strips printed in the newspaper then brought over to the traditinal comic format, the comics on screen will eventially lead to their own grammer that will eventually take over on the web.” - Art Spiegelman

Crumb revealed that he is a self-taught musician. He started playing ukulele at an early age. Someone commented that Noah’s sons look like Moe, Larry, and Curly in his most recent work and asked if was that intentional. His response was that he didn’t want people looking for little jokes in his work, therefore no, he didn’t intend for there to be any hidden meaning. He went on to say that his goal was to not alter or edit the language from the original in the comic, which made for a longer than expected piece.

The talk went on past the allotted time. It was very interesting to hear each artist convey their take on the power of comics as a medium. I learned quite a bit about each artist’s influences and how forbidden images can open the eyes of the viewer. Upon reflection, I was pleased I chose to attend the event and felt there were some good lessons learned from these two that can be applied to my current work.