R. Crumb and the Women

R. Crumb gets called a womanizer a lot. In fact, cartoonists Aline Kaminsky-Crumb and Trina Robbins eventually parted ways because Robbins was so angry that Aline was dating Robert. I’ve read a lot of Crumb, and I’d be lying if I said some of it didn’t get me aggravated, but I think that to dismiss him as a shallow womanizer would be to dismiss an incredible, complicated, and (at moments) unexpectedly subtle artist.

The Crumb comic in McSweeney’s, “The Unbearable Tediousness of Being,” showcases Crumb’s depth beautifully. In it, two characters have been set up on a blind date by mutual friends. It does not end well. The female character, Megan, is the more developed of the two characters, and comes across more sympathetically than the male. Though both characters’ lives seem rather small and sad, Megan at least seems to have a sense of humor and perspective about hers. It is her thoughts that we hear throughout the story; only at the very end do we get to read a thought bubble from the male character.

Crumb seems to be parodying himself in the male character, who remains nameless. Perhaps he is picturing a female reader’s reaction to his comic? The male character’s dialogue on the first page (page 14) seems to be a parody of what Crumb was saying in many of his early comics:
“You see, I’m…well, I’m not like other guys…”
“Um…Jesus, this is hard to talk about…. Heh heh.”
“These things are so…awkward…oh god, this is ridiculous… Chuckle snicker”
Then on the second page, the male character embarks into a story from his adolescence, which perhaps explains his current sexual fantasies. This too is classic Crumb, who has made mo secret of his love for curvy women in big black boots:
“She was wearing these big platform black boots…big heels, y’know…giggle…”

The reader can’t help but sympathize with Megan for having to put up with this guy. And it is she who gets the last panel—the final word:
“Whew…goddamn! That’s what I get for being such a total slut the last couple of years! I end up having to fight off every weirdo and pervert in town…I do like to get porked, but usually it’s not very satisfying…sigh…perhaps true love is not the cards for me…I’m just turning into a cheap whore…and soon I’ll be an old hag and no one will want me anymore… Fucking men, I hate them!”

This monologue, by turns both sad and humorous (and with a delightful degree of melodrama) reads an awful lot like something out of Aline Kaminsky-Crumb’s “Bunch” comics. And indeed, Megan is drawn in a way that is a little reminiscent of that character as well. Crumb wrote “The Unbearable Tediousness of Being” in 2003—many years into his marriage with Aline. Perhaps marriage has changed his perspective on women? Or perhaps, happily married, he no longer feels the same degree of bitterness toward them? Or is it possible that, 30 or 40 years since the days of “underground comix,” when Crumb’s comics first gained popularity, there has been some real progress for the union between women and comics? I want to say yes, but I couldn’t help but notice that in this whole anthology, there are only three women artists: Lynda Barry, Julie Doucet, and Debbie Drechsler. To me, that seems like a more glaring instance of sexism than anything in a Crumb comic.