Bruce Sweeney has been collecting undergrounds since 1968 and writing about them for almost as long. His work has appeared in such publications as Cascade, City Limits and the Comics Journal. He’s written for such undergrounds as Cocaine Comics, Fire Sale and even Playboy. He has done introductions for such artists as Bryan Talbot, Bruce Bollinger and Skip Williamson.
For the past few years, his regular column "Underground Station" has found a home in the Boston punk magazine, "Lollipop." Now he chooses to pick on us.
Underground Station will be a regular feature on our website and will be updated as often as Bruce has something to say. So bookmark us and come back often!
Funny is Funny
A friend gave me a copy of the November 2005 New Yorker. Knowing how much a stickler collectors can be about condition he was appropriately apologetic for it having flopped into a New England snow drift.
While I can’t peddle this off to folks for a pudgy $8.50, it is nevertheless High Entertainment with a great three page color strip by Aline and R. Crumb, “Saving Face”. We can only hope that this morsel will be collected up ahead and added to a forth-coming project. It is likely, I’d guess.
R. Crumb has come at us with many humorous looks and voices. We all know his Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat. Here, serving up domestic humor with his wife, Aline Kaminsky; they serve up a patter of marital farce that recalls some of the snappiest Mr. & Mrs. Duo’s of television.
Aline has elected to have a face-lift to maintain her youth and physical vitality. “R” has mixed feelings about this indulgence that costs them thousands. The beauty of this three-pager is that it is written in tandem like their Dirty Laundry comics. It is like a back-and-forth conversation that might very well have been where each artist makes their individual observations with clear candor. Juxtaposed against Aline’s hip new look of youth is our own R. Crumb drawing himself slipping past middle age!( Jesus, Robert, don’t take us there!)
Nevertheless, this is laugh-out-loud repartee that bears re-reading. What is further intoxicating is to see this material in color!
Busted! is a new book by M. Chris Fabricant on Drug War Survival Skills for Harper which retails for $13.95. (Available from this website.) This is a glum book and the well-chosen R. Crumb tidbits which adorn it do not make it much more fun.
The author writes from the standpoint of a defense attorney that has seen far too many unhappy endings. As a lawyer, his focus is legitimately and exclusively on the elements of the law and its implication on consuming or dealing drugs. It is a well-written book: factual and well-researched.
Make no mistake, the author has plenty up his sleeve to point out how stacked against you the odds are. The police, the courts and the system are all in lock-step to make your world a Texan nightmare.
Plenty of other books i.e. A Child’s Garden of Grass by Margolis & Clarfene, Snowblind by Robert Sabbat or Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book are fun reads and are informative as well. This item will scare the crap out of anyone. Don’t use drugs and don’t trust your friends are sobering thoughts enough, but now your hard drive? Sheesh..
I begrudgingly recommend it. As a pop cultural item it just about makes it over the wire. There is just enough Crumb in it to make it a collectible Crumb item although there is nothing new here. It is just more well-adorned than fresh.
The interior is again, rather serious and straight ahead. The author clearly has a day job that he’d just as soon keep. As he points out though, if your roommate won’t disappoint you, your own computer might.
Crumb collectors... Bruce has the following available in very limited quantities. You may order this item directly from Bruce at the address given.
1 1/2" x 1 5/8" Bicycle Patch Kit decorated with a unique Mr. Natural cartoon. This appears nowhere else, to my recollection. Robert allegedly did an original art piece for a bike shop owner in trade for a bicycle. It features Mr. Natural pedaling a bike with a pet pig in tow. As far as I know, I’m the only one with these and the supply is truly limited. $20.00 and $1.00 postage from me at 11B Appleton St. Boston, Ma 02116.
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