#PublishTheMotoons: A Cowardly Cartoonist (Not)

I’ve been a fan of R. Crumb’s comics for well over forty years now, ever since I was a dissolute long-haired hippie. He was the most well-known and accomplished of the underground comics artists working in San Francisco in the late 1960s and early ’70s. His most famous works include Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, “Truckin’”, and Zap Comix. I’m also fond of some of his lesser-known characters, such as Whiteman, Schuman the Human, the Snoids, Eggs Ackley and the Vulture Demonesses, and especially Angelfood McSpade (the last could never find a publisher nowadays, but those were different times).

Mr. Crumb now lives in France, and has declared his support for the murdered cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo by drawing his own Motoon. It’s a little more vulgar than what we usually publish, so I’ve placed it below the jump for those who prefer to skip it:

I don’t know where the cartoon was originally published; this copy was sent to me via email. The New York Observer wrote about it, but didn’t actually show the cartoon. Reason blog published a smaller version. A large version is available here.

Hat tips: Charlie Marteau and FB.

18 thoughts on “#PublishTheMotoons: A Cowardly Cartoonist (Not)

  1. I like Robert Crumb too, Baron, but don’t know his work as well as you. The album cover for Big Brother and the Holding Company’s (very clever name if you think about the implications) “Cheap Thrills” was a shock to my innocent young self. We Brits are so culturally deprived.

    • Hello, Mark H.
      Your remarks made me look for the album cover you refer to:
      http://digitalseance.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/cheap_thrills_janis_joplin.gif
      You say “Big Brother and the Holding Company” is a very clever name if you think about the implications. Okay, I give up; I’m not clever enough to figure it out. What are the implications? Please explain the witticism. Is “Big Brother” Orwellian? Does “Holding Company” have some non-obvious meaning?

      • To be “holding” was to be in possession of some quantum of a banned substance, typically cannabis.

      • Well, I thought of Orwell, and shadowy “holding companies”, Mark S, but I’m obliged to Pigasus for the additional implication, which had escaped me. Still, they do say that if you remember the ’60s you weren’t really there!

  2. ……and with warts and all! Love it! Actually thinking about it…..that cartoon is probably more a compliment to Mo than a disparaging illustration, because I imagine Mo must have been one ugly, filthy unwashed SOB!

    I can hear the howls of outrage now when that cartoon gets around!

  3. I have to say, Baron, from hippie to Bismarck is quite an evolution!

    I can’t say I’m as big a fan of R. Crumb as others; but will allow that his technical skill is superb.

    I don’t know how to cartoon in this space, but here goes:

    Muhammad blasphemed against Jesus Christ, misrepresented several prophets of the Old and New Testaments, and was no prophet of God.

    Kepha,
    A Christian

    • ‘Twas the other way around. From Bismarck studies in Yorkshire to hippie in college in Virginia.

      Bismarck turned out to have more staying power…but really his mug shot was just a cover for Jack Vance’s character, Baron Bodissey. Though BB never really shows his face in those novels. Others simply quote his writings across the galaxy.

      Yes, the Baron is a Christian, too. A man of many facets.

  4. Baron, Even though I was a young, Christian girl in the sixties, I did lean more to the left then,( I think a lot of people do, until they grow up.) I did love Fritz the Cat(but of course I couldn’t watch it then!) Is there a place to post the picture on Facebook? I have put some of Charlie’s there.

  5. Well, well……..
    We wuz wondering if he would respond.
    Back in the 80’s we lived in the same rural neighborhood and frequently visited with RC, Aileen and their young daughter.
    Hooray!

  6. Found a rare 78 rpm single of Crumb’s a while back with him and friends playing old time music -with the paper picture sleeve illustrated with two of R.’s zaftig maidens in high boots groovin’ to the tunes. (One song “Duck’s Yas Yas” is worth a listen.)

    You can see the artwork here:

    http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/robert-crumb-tone-records-ducks-yas-128899747

    Copied the music to a cassette and sold the record and sleeve to a Crumb fan in Japan.

    What all of these cartoonists (etc.) fail to grasp is that ANY representations of humans by artists is forbidden by Islam. Once the blasphemers insulting Mohammad (like the Charlie Hebdo and Danish Mo-tooners) are exterminated, then ANY artist who does not abandon representing the human form will be killed next.

    And ALL such art destroyed across the globe.

    They act as if there is an Islam that is not radical.

    And if only we can stop annoying the crazies, Islam will calm down.

    But Islam is a permanent state of hysteria apotheosized.

    And only dead infidels soothe it, finally.

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