Category: Cartooning

Books are seen in many if not most of the scenes in Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse. I spotted some that I have here at home, along with an album box set that’s seen in Bill Griffith’s studio.

Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, and Bill Griffith — the three leading names in what used to be called Underground Cartooning — each had a difficult childhood in dysfunctional families, with Griffith’s being the closest to normal.

I can state this with some confidence, because they have been unflinchingly autobiographical in their work. It’s perhaps no surprise that Griffith achieved the most conventional level of success, in the form of a syndicated comic strip.

I’m starting to watch last night’s American Masters. In an early scene, Robert Crumb appears with his wife Aline, who died in November, 2022.

This song seems appropriate here.

Art Spiegelman is featured tonight on PBS American Masters.

Bill Griffith makes an appearance in the documentary. In what is perhaps not coincidental timing, Robert Crumb is featured in this week’s issue of The New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/r-crumb-looks-back