The People’s Comics

    (Golden Gate, 1972)
™ and ©1972 R. Crumb

(From the Slings & Arrows Comic Guide)

A one-shot by a Robert Crumb in transition. By 1972, he’d been the most fêted underground cartoonist for over five years, and was obviously feeling pigeonholed by his standing and his characters. The boorish Fritz the Cat was being adapted, none too successfully, for a movie, and Crumb’s images and catchphrases had propelled him to a public-awareness factor way beyond most counterculture creators. It’s with The People’s Comics that he begins to turn away from the underground, leaving Fritz’s tombstone at the conclusion of a vitriolic strip concerning his perception of Hollywood types. It contains the usual dose of wish-fulfillment sex, as does the remainder of the comic, but what marks this is as turning-point is Crumb producing personal material moving beyond sexual fantasy and distancing himself from his presumed associations. It’s the half-hearted manner in which he does so that makes this inessential Crumb. Always portraying himself as insecure, he seems uncertain about straying too far away from the market he no longer felt in tune with. Originally published by Golden Gate Press, there have been numerous reprints over the years, the most recent being Kitchen Sink’s 1995 edition. ~WJ
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