Considering the clout that Robert Crumb has had in the comics and pop art illustration scene since his burst in fame during the sixties, he's had amazingly little press. A bit of a recluse, Crumb hasn't done a ton of convention appearances like Todd McFarlane or Jim Lee, nor has been interviewed in many trade magazines, let alone found himself on the cover of Wizard. That being said, he has one of the most instantly recognizable illustrative styles in the history of sequential art and his influence on modern pop art cannot be disputed, nor can his status as a living, breathing pop culture icon – whether he likes it or not.

In 1994, filmmaker Terry Zwigoff (best known as the director of another excellent comic book related movie, Ghost World) convinced Crumb to sit down in front of the camera with him and spill it. The resulting two hour film has since gone on to receive no small amount of critical acclaim and has been praised as not only one of the best documentaries to be made on a single comic book artist but also one of the more intimate and interesting portraits of a single figure to see a wide release (by documentary standards, at least) – the film even took home the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1995.

So who is Robert Crumb? Why should you care about a strange, eccentric, perverted old comic book/art nerd? Because he's the man who created Fritz The Cat, Mr. Natural, and of course, the Keep On Truckin' guy. His work appeared in seminal sixties underground comic books such as Zap! and his own self published Weirdo, Hup, Mystic Funnies as well as, recently at least, more mainstream publications like Premiere Magazine. Crumb was an artist who used his talents to exorcise his own personal demons and in doing so he let the audience get to know him, or at least his kinks and his quirks, through his comics in a strangely intimate way that hadn't really been explored by comic book artists in the past. His work was popular enough to kick start the underground comix movement that sprung out of San Francisco in the sixties and in turn spawned the alternative comics/small press movement that exists and thrives to this day. In the world of funny books, the man is a legend.

Crumb's work was, and still is, something different. As society was changing so too was the comic book world and through underground publishers like Kitchen Sink and the self published small press groups, Crumb was able to tell his strange little stories, which dealt with sex, perversion, bullies, racism, and politics and he was able to stir up the pot a little bit in doing so. His work was funny and very well illustrated but there was something dirty about the pictures he drew even when the content was clean (which was infrequently). He was a talented pervert who wasn't afraid to use his own fixations and frustrations as source material. His material has evolved significantly in the four decades since he broke into the scene, but Crumb's work remains uniquely his own and the man is still a true original.

In Crumb, Zwigoff has made a film that has many of the same qualities as Crumb's earlier and semi-autobiographical work – it's a strange, quirky film that doesn't hold back in revealing the oddities of its subject. Possibly because they were friendly before the film was made, the director manages to get Crumb to really open up about his life and his work and, surprisingly enough, about his family and his childhood. It is through these details and these bizarre little stories that he tells that we're able to really get as good a feel for who Crumb is and why he is that way that is likely possible without knowing the man personally. It's interesting that for most of the film Crumb seems okay with the cameras on him, not as nervous or wigged out as you'd expect from his illustrated persona. The quirks are there but he's mellow enough that they don't over power what he's saying or the stories that he's telling throughout the movie.

The movie does approach the controversy surrounding Crumb's body of work, the sexism and racism specifically, but the focus is more on the artist than the art – the problem being that in the case of Robert Crumb the two are more or less the same, which we learn through interviews with the man himself and with a few other people who know him well including his two brothers (one of whom killed himself shortly after the film was made), both of whom are far stranger than Robert could ever hope to be. The end results are simultaneously hilarious, frightening and completely unnerving but it all makes for very compelling viewing.

Video:

Crumb is presented on this re-mastered DVD in its original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio and there are some slight noticeable improvements in the quality of this release compared to the previous DVD incarnation mainly in terms of color reproduction and picture clarity. The image is pretty clean and quite clear aside from a few scenes that show a little bit of grain. Print damage only ever appears in the form of the odd speck here and there, there's nothing serious here to report in that regard. Some slight edge enhancement shows up but again, it's really quite minor as is the aliasing that you'll see in a few scenes if you're looking for it. Thankfully, mpeg compression artifacts are a non-issue here and skin tones look lifelike and natural. Fine detail remains pretty strong throughout. Not a perfect transfer but certainly a very good one.