An Evening with R. Crumb

In the late ’60s, R. Crumb’s psychedelic comics—including the characters Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, Devil Girl and the popular Keep on Truckin’ cartoon— propelled him overnight to celebrity status in San Francisco’s burgeoning underground scene. His charming “bigfoot” style fused with overt sexual images were very well received in the free-love capital—but also led to obscenity arrests, copyright ownership lawsuits and years of trouble with the IRS. It wasn’t until the mid-’80s that Crumb began to receive widespread recognition for the importance of his work, which unapologetically unveiled the disturbing side of the American psyche. Now living in France, Robert Crumb makes a very rare public appearance, joining longtime friend and art editor for The New Yorker, Françoise Mouly, for a candid discussion about the controversial artist’s life and his highly anticipated new project, an illustrated version of Genesis. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition “The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis,” on view Oct. 24–Feb. 7 at the Hammer Museum. Information at www.hammer.ucla.edu. -Description and image courtesy of UCLA Live