i was thinking, yes he probably does get a lot of nerds asking him for his autograph, but who cares? i just thought it made him look uptight and definetly made me think he was an ass.
do u think he didn't sign out of his own principles? i do respect him for his art and the fact that he doesn't sell out, but that seems to be about it.
dear dan,
thank you for enjoying my dark, sexually esoteric comics. i really hope you get well soon and send my love to your family.
love,
the lovable anti-social/capitalistic chronic masturbator/artist, R. Crumb
p.s. i hope this lands you fame and fortune as you are the only person i have yet to give an autograph to. thanks again!!!
...
come on man...seriously...
sorry this was horribly saracstic; BUT...COME ON!?!
HE DOESNT REALLY HAVE ANYONE TO SELL OUT TO. HE IS UNDERGROUND AND DOESNT HAVE ALOT OF FANS AND THEYRE GOING TO DWINDLE WITH HIS ATTITUDE. SOME OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL MUSIC ARTISTS OF TODAY AT least GIVE PEOPLE THEIR AUTOGRAPH WHEN THEY CAN AND THEY SIGNED MORE THAN THE FEW PEOPLE ASKING FOR HIS AUTOGRAPH TOTAL. THEN AGAIN. PEOPLE SELL THEM AT FIZIKAL AUCTIONS AND INTERNET AUCTIONS SO I GUESS HE DOESNT WANT TO PLAY PLAYED FOR A FOOL WHICH MAY BE THE SAME REASON HE DOESNT SELL OUT.
share"SOME OF THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL MUSIC ARTISTS OF TODAY AT least GIVE PEOPLE THEIR AUTOGRAPH WHEN THEY CAN AND THEY SIGNED MORE THAN THE FEW PEOPLE ASKING FOR HIS AUTOGRAPH TOTAL."
^^made my day.
dear dan,
thank you for enjoying my dark, sexually esoteric comics. i really hope you get well soon and send my love to your family.
love,
the lovable anti-social/capitalistic chronic masturbator/artist, R. Crumb
p.s. i hope this lands you fame and fortune as you are the only person i have yet to give an autograph to. thanks again!!!
...
come on man...seriously...
sorry this was horribly saracstic; BUT...COME ON!?!
I just saw this movie last night, and it seemed obvious to me by the end of the movie that the guy really is an ass. I was bothered by the obvious hypocracy in his constantly describing people and things that he doesn't like as hateful. He seems like a pretty hateful person to me. And the way he laughed at the suffering of his brothers and former girlfriends made my skin crawl after a while. At the same time he's candid about his own failings, has a certain amount of charm as a person, and is incredibly talented with a pen. Look, you don't have to like the guy to like his art, and you don't even have to like his art to like this movie.
sharei agree with you wholeheartedly. to some, crumb's standoffish demeanor may seem really smug, namely the people who he'll never be able to connect with. also, the man is, to say the least, an outsider, and in my opinion, we owe more to the outsider who sees reality objectively rather than feeling it subjectively. there is a lot of truth to what he is saying, and like dostoevsky said, severe consciousness is a disease, a poison, something the world cannot prescribe to someone they see on the outside. i guess in this regard, i can sympathize with crumb, as i am kinda a depressed person who can sorta appreciate the irony in suicide, the joke of life.
sharejesus...rambling on again about crumb...man...anyways...love or hate...i found it really interesting...
share[deleted]
Crumb should have in our minds but he really didn't have to. No doubt his autograph at the comic store would have brought the salesman/fan some money if he wanted to sell it. Who knows if he wanted the autograph to sell or if he was a genuine fan? I wish someone would ask me for my autograph but I definitely would not want to be famous. Good documentary though.
share"No doubt his autograph at the comic store would have brought the salesman/fan some money if he wanted to sell it."
by - RichBuck on Wed Feb 11 2004 19:37:45
I think this goes some way to explaining his attitude, along with his attitude reflected in the bitterness with which he remembers the cover of "Cheap thrills". He was paid $600 for it and yet the original sold at auction for something like $20,000.
I think he is just sick of people making money off him whilst he sees little of the profits himself.
It also kinda reminds me of that scene from "Don't look back" where a fan is leaning through the limo window demanding Dylans autograph, to which Dylan responds "What do you need my autograph for. If you needed it, I'd give it to you, but you don't need it."
"What's truth got to do with it?"
"What's truth got to do with anything?"
I find it hard to understand why artists refuse to give out autographs, especially since their fans are the very reason why they have a career. Still, I guess Crumb has his reasons. Possibly because of his frustrations with the comic community, the unauthorized use of his 'Fritz the Cat' character in movies, and his financial woes lead to his distain for autographing his work.
Crumb should realize that most fans are on his side and simply love his work.
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I find it hard to understand why people need to get autographs from famous people. They are quite meaningless mementos. Autographs end up turning into something creepy, like a holy relics. They signify nothing more than "x famous artist wrote his name here".
I couldn't agree with you more: this movie is amazing, and it succeeds mostly because the filmmaker doesn't care whether you like Crumb or not...he just presents him as he is. Absolutely fascinating movie!
shareHe made assumptions about other people he knows in his mind are absolutely true. But, they aren't. He just assumes they are to satisfy his sanity. If these awful things he's assuming is true weren't. He'd be filled with regrets. It's easy to just deny and have no regrets. His level of assertion borders on the absurd.
shareI agree he's an ass. At the same time, a firm policy of not giving autographs doesn't necessarily make a person an ass.
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Please put some dashes above your sig line so I won't think it's part of your dumb post.
RC ain't an ass.
I guess he doesn't like the idea of people getting exited over his signature. It's just his name, and he probably would feel like a total sell-out if he were to do it. It's kinda like throwing your food scraps (crumbs :p) down to the little people who aren't famous, and therefore not as good.
I found it a fascinating study of a warped, hypicrital, hateful person. Definately explained the sad mind that creates the work that he is known for. His work is self indulgant and self serving, and serves as a form of therapy for his twisted up bringing. I really feel sorry for him. I never liked his work before, now I like it even less, but at least I understand why he makes it now.
shareI have to agree with most of what Vitamin said. Some people just don't understand the point in giving out autographs. "Why do you need it?" "What do you plan on doing with it?" I have a good friend in 'show biz' who thinks the same way. As a result of Crumbs inhability to communicate his feelings, he also just happened to come off a bit rude for social standards. I don't give him a low grade for it at all.
shareMy friend just rented the film recentlyand I re-watched it with her. Having just seen it again, I would bet a large sum of money that R. would have autographed it, had the autograph seeker been a (hot) female. And to add to the rest of the comments, I too came out of the film disliking him a lot, but admiring the film.
"Connecting to the boards system - wait a few seconds for the page to load."
Maybe if she offered him a piggyback ride in exchange?
The film was outstanding. The man? Debatable. I at least found him refreshingly down-to-earth and he never sugarcoated his work or ideals, such as they were. That still deserves points. I found some things in common with him, only he is more outspoken and honest about himself than I am.
Well its been a few years since i saw it, but i do remember clearly that scene. He didnt come off as an ass to me, i just thought he really is a self hatting person. I mean he hates everything of his that has become incredibly successfull. He really hates his fame since the mayority of his work is a way for him to work on his serious mental problems.
Yeah hes a freak but i mean the guy has some mayor issues, i dont blame him for comming off rude.
Now that snobby little art critic on the other hand......that guy was an ass.
Robert Hughes? No, he's not an arse. Read his book "Shock of the New".
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If he hates fame and success so much, why does he publish his work?
shareAlot of famous people won't give autoghaphs(Bill Russell from the Celtics comes to mind), but if you ask for a handshake they will usually oblige.
Unless they have OCD like Howie Mandel, of course
why should he feel obliged to give an autograph? shouldn't his work be enough? seriously. it's ink on paper and serves no purpose but to sell/brag to your friends about.
i also thought of the scene from don't look back. most (down to earth) celebrities don't view themselves as any better than anyone else, so why should their signature be so reviled? if i were ever to become famous, i wouldn't give autographs either. a hand shake should be plenty.
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Alien6, thanks for the story! That's pretty cool.
He seems to be a kind of socially awkward guy (I would consider myself one of those, I guess, though not nearly as extreme as the Crumbs). It would be tough to sit there and sign autographs for people endlessly, wouldn't it? If I were famous, I'd have trouble doing that, I think.
you watched it, you can’t unwatch it
I like getting autographs so I can tape them to my mirror and look at them every morning. Also, I like seeing what they say. The Naked Cowboy said, "Be Determined!" and Kelly Clarkson said, "God Bless!" (I thought she wrote "mod blues" because her handwriting was so messy). When I met Wesley Snipes I asked him if he was Eddie Murphy, and when he said he was Wesley I was like, "Oh, sorry," and left and didn't get an autograph. I did, however, have paper and a pen in my back pocket--just in case.
share"I asked him if he was Eddie Murphy"
Wow, that's not good
If you are a white person I 'm sure you can't blame him for walking away
You are bolstering the notion that us white folks think black people all look alike. Thanks alot for setting race relations back agian(just kidding)
There's a scene in American Splendor with R in what appears to be an autograph signing, of which he gladly accepts the offer of a large woman giving piggyback rides.
I guess it's really up to the artist. I've always gone with the Howard Stern idea of give one out because it'll take longer to explain why you wouldn't. Just don't be a dick and cut into someone's dinner or in a men's room.
I don't think Crumb was an ass for not givin' the dude his autograph...(Crumb's a FREAK...but not an ass)...if they dude was a true fan, then just meeting Crumb should have been enough. Let's face it, you can LOSE an autograph but memories last forever. We all know that guy would have sold that extremly rare autograph to the highest bidder...remember, Crumb traded some of his sketch-books for a FRENCH VILLA....his autograph alone would have brought in a ton of cash. And Crumb's still a freak.
sharei wondered the same thing when i saw that scene.. i mean i can understand not usually giving out autographs, but if someone asked me ON CAMERA during a documentary ABOUT ME i probably would say yes to at least make myself LOOK like a nice guy, but then i remembered he says something on camera like the only person he's ever loved is his daughter, knowing full well he has a son who idolizes him and who will be watching this movie, so i think he's just incapable of censoring his brutal honesty the way most of us naturally do in certain social situations.. he just wasn't born with that mechanism - it's what makes the documentary fascinating, but it does kinda make him look like a prick..
sharethe only person he's ever loved is his daughter
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I'm sure this guy's not the first to ask for his autograph. These guys would probably sell it on ebay or whatever and make some dough. Crumb probably despises that and also perhaps he despises the obsessive fan boy. Asking for a drawing or an autograph. He seems like the guy to say, hey man, there's more to life than my autograph. I draw the best comics I can, you buy and like and get entertained by the comics, deal's done. Autographing should be at the artist's discretion.
shareIf it were me, I'd have no problem signing an autograph for a fan. Crumb can bitch all he wants about how bad and evil people are, but if it weren't for guys like that guy in the comic shop being fans of his work then he would probably still be living at home with his mom like brother Charles, or homeless or dead.
Great points. Imagine how many times Crumb has been recognized on the streets (especially in Haight Ashbury), and had autograph seekers look over his shoulder as he tried to quietly draw from real life, being interrupted for it, and having to engage in monotonous conversations about Fritz the Cat and his Keep on Truckin' comic. You'd grow tried of it too.
If you guys noticed, he was having a good time browsing other comics, and filming a movie(!). That guy, or cashier or whatever he was in the store, was basically interrupting a candid moment. Yes, he wasn't rude about it, and simply let it go after Crumb refused to sign an autograph, but a person has the choice to be left alone.
Also, notice how Crumb lit up when the guy produced a rare A4-sized rock poster, one of a kind. He was glad to talk about his work, something that is relevant to art, and not the fame, or fatty byproduct of his notoriety.
He relishes in his anonymity and wants his work to speak for itself. Leave the man alone, maybe say hi, "Love your work", and move on. What do you people rather him do? Go to Comic-Con and whore his photos at a signing for $20 a shot, wearing a Zap Comics t-shirt?
Dear Ndugu, how are you? I am fine.
He doesn't GIVE his autograph, but he does SELL it. My husband, who is a fan, said today that there is a man in the village he lives in now who collects the vintage comics and has him sign them so they can be sold at 3 times the price (or more).
Semper Contendere Propter Amoram et Formam
To me that scene seemed like a setup... that the guy knew damn well that Crumb was not going to give him his autograph and that Crumb just wanted to get that message out once and for all.
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