My Troubles with Women

Crumb has got to be one of the most confessional artists of all time, and certainly the most confessional artist ever in his chosen genre. In both interviews and art, he not only relates the external facts of his life but also turns his id inside-out. The three passions of his life, he's said, are sex, music, and his art, and all three of them get intertwined in both his personal life and his work. My Troubles with Women is a collection that especially speaks to the first passion. Crumb fans know he's attracted to large, firm women, that he has what might be described as a foot and leg fetish (as a child he would latch himself onto the legs of his mother's friends), and an incredibly creative fantasy life that involves sexual attraction to such extravagances as vulture-women. (The interview in D.K. Holm's R. Crumb: Conversations entitled "Creme de la Crumb," pp. 141-57, is especially instructive.) But fans also know that Crumb's autobiographical art, while honestly portraying sexual fantasies, poke fun at the artist. So in "If I Were King," Crumb goes on a fantasy spree, imagining all the women he could have as a powerful monarch--but the monarch is still nerdy, hollow-chested, creepy Crumb. In "Dirty Laundry Comics," he pokes fun at his aging body and its never-ceasing desire for sex, and also worries about the effects his comics will have on his daughter. In "Memories Are made of This" and "Footsey," Crumb recalls youthful bittersweet sexcapades: his sexual frustrations in high school, his rather predatory dating routines as a young man. And in the eponymous "My Troubles with Women," Crumb recounts more sexual adventures, but also highlights a period of impotence in his mid-30s. As usual, the artwork is fantastic, and the storylines interesting and thoughtful (although the three stories done in collaboration with Aline Kominsky, as other reviewers have pointed out, aren't quite successful). Throughout, Crumb's honesty is both appealing and, for some, off-putting. What I find so fascinating and good about Crumb's work is his uninhibited ability to expose his deepest fantasies to the light of day. All of us have 'em. But almost none of us will own them. Wonder why that is?

In the heart of every man, I suspect, lies at least a bit of adolescent misogyny. I grew up reading Crumb, who hit the scene right as my adolescence was beginning. Crumb gets the alienation that non-jock boys feel in this society of the young, and wraps absolutely wonderful and hilarious stories around these issues. And he graphically portrays sex in the most unsparing terms, verging on the truly grotesque. Then there is his taste for steatopaegic women!! This collection is perhaps his best: his humor, his ongoing anger at women, and his strange (and ultimately supremely satisfied) tastes come through in a way no one else could do it. The first story is the best, long on autobiography and utterly hilarious. From an inhibited and unpopular boy, stardom in the underground comic revolution catapulted Crumb into the rank of superstar counter cultural artists. I believe that he deserves his fame, as his vision is dark and unique and perfectly realized in his work. SO with this fame, he goes about experimenting on the women who now fawn on him, after rejecting him. He loves them and despises them and mistreats them, all while realizing the emptiness of his game. The following stories really don't tell us anything new, but they are still awfully funny and outstandingly worth the read. There are also the comics done in cooperation with his wife, which simply lack the tightness of his writing in the solo pieces. Her drawing style is seriously inferior to his, but there is no question that they share a vision and that this is a new departure in his work, more realistic but also satirical - it covers married life that is strange and "cute as a bug's ear". It is funny and playful, if not quite a 5-star performance. Moreover, some of the material is recycled from older Crumb, which fans would notice. Needless to say, women do not appreciate his deliciously lascivious cynicism about their part of the species. They see him as pathetic and misogynous, and they are right in their own way. But men get what he is saying, in all its cruel detail. Sure, it is pretty adolescent, but as Hughes said in the film, he really is a modern-day Hieronymous Bosch.

I think it is useful to have seen the documentary "Crumb", to enjoy his work. He is an amazingly confessional artist who has turned his own obsessions and fantasies into a an amazing career. It doesn't get any better than that.

This compilation book contains ten previously published R. Crumb comics. It's a soft cover book, but it's sturdy because of its sewn-in binding, thick cover, and thicker-than-normal pages. I found the book to be humorous in how it comments on the social structure of society and it was also funny in a twisted sort of way. Through the course of the book, you will discover some of the reasons behind R. Crumb's bizarre sexual fantasies. If you never really fit in while going to school up through high school, you will be able to relate to Crumb's sense of isolation and jealousy over the "in-crowd."Throughout "My Troubles With Women" you will find Crumb leering at and interacting with his ideal woman which is "built like a brick (out)house." Crumb is literally obsessed with women who have thick thighs and big derrieres. Additionally, there are some pornographic pictures, though I wouldn't really describe the book as a book of pornography.Three of the ten comics are combined efforts between Crumb and his wife, Aline. I didn't like these three as much because I don't like the style of his wife's art and it is more about family and marriage situations which weren't as interesting to me. My favorite comic had to be "Footsy" which I found hilarious and nostalgic. "Footsy" delves into some situations where Crumb got a big thrill from playing footsy in school and later playing footsy in meetings for an underground comic book. Darker depredations are explored midway through the book as Crumb finds that women are attracted to him as an artist and underground figure.The book was definitely an entertaining read; I chuckled and laughed out loud many times. I would have liked it better if the publisher added page numbers and if all the comics were exclusively Crumb's sole work - if the latter were fulfilled I probably would have given it five stars.