Sophie crumb art11/7/2023 ![]() Her voice, a soothing mid-wale corduroy, lilting, confident, and consistent, would roll through the receiver as she insisted I spill the details of the latest drama unfolding in my realm. On any given day, we'd cover a wide range of topics like the good friends we were, although I always considered myself her lesser, as she was comix royalty and I was awestruck, because I came onto the scene later, and I couldn't believe how genuinely she welcomed me into the pen-dippers fold, always so complementary and encouraging of my work, which sometimes left me fumbling for words. Or we might have been going over the plans for our next trip to SF to deliver the artwork to Ron Turner. We're having yet another conversation about all things life, including comics, husbands, and our daughters. Envision our animated words popping along the high-tension wires that stretched across the Central Valley, between my cramped duplex in Sacramento and her adorable Winters cottage. This was back in the day when you'd hold the bakelite telephone receiver between your neck and shoulder and yak for 2 hours while making supper. Imagine the teal and mauve big hair '80s and I'm on the phone with the friendly, generous, concerned Aline Crumb. Kominsky-Crumb talks about her career, and how she met her husband Robert Crumb, at a recent exhibit of Crumb family art (including daughter Sophie), at the David Zwirner Gallery Paris. And now, impossible to bear, both of our Twisted Sisters are gone.Įveryone, now go out and buy Diane's Glitz-2-Go and Aline's Need More Love - and laugh. She was one of a kind as a cartoonist, a master of her own technique, unrelated to any comics tradition, much like Diane. They showed us all the "Dirty Laundry" lurking in our own closets. Both their ids and their egos were in perfect synchronicity. She was the ideal partner for Robert, in life and in art. No one probed deeper into the dark corners of their soul-not even Justin Green, who was a master of the form-than Aline.Īnd she did it with self-deprecating humor of the first order. I remember having one analytic conversation after another with her about comics or relationships or the world in general. We stayed in their tiny Airstream trailer, the kind we always thought we should own some day.Īline was that rare kind of artist she pulled her work from her gut, but she had the smarts of an intellectual. We visited them often in their places in Dixon, Madison and Winters. Aline was the glue that held us together. (cartoonist, husband of "Twisted Sister" Diane Noomin)ĭiane and I were kind of "best friends" of Aline and Robert in the early days of the Undergrounds. Photo courtesy Bill Griffith and used with permission. Aline (left) with Twisted Sisters co-editor Diane Noomin. Her work went straight into my soul and has been there ever since. Her work was the first I'd ever seen that looked just like I felt as a young teen: gnarly, intensely female but not pretty, boy-crazy and hilarious but serious and deep. * * * Self portrait from Morse's Funnies (Albert Morse, 1974). ![]() In the space below, friends and fans of her work share some memories about Kominsky-Crumb's life and legacy. Here's to hoping for a kinder year in 2023. The underground comics community has been hit particularly hard in 2022, with the deaths of a number of its members, including Kominsky-Crumb, Justin Green, Simon Deitch, Tom Veitch and Noomin. As the last continuing editor of Weirdo, the comics anthology started by her husband, Kominsky-Crumb introduced new voices-including many women-to readers. Along with being a founding member of the Wimmen's Comix collective and launching Twisted Sisters Comics with Diane Noomin-who, sadly, died just months ago-she was one of the very first artists to present truly autobiographical work in the comics field. Īs those stories attest, her impact was vast and far-reaching. I also wrote an obituary for her, which was published at here at TCJ. A tribute from Drawn & Quarterly publisher Peggy Burns, who in 2018 reissued-in an expanded hardcover format-Kominsky-Crumb's collection Love That Bunch, can be found here. In the following days, the news of her death was covered by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, the New Yorker, the Nation, Artforum, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Forbes, and many other national media outlets. When cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb died of pancreatic cancer on November 29th at the home in France she shared with her husband, Robert Crumb, social media-or at least my version of social media-exploded with images of her work, photos of her, and sad, shocked reactions to her passing by fans and friends. John Kelly | DecemAline Kominsky-Crumb, 1948-2022. Features Remembering Aline Kominsky-Crumb ![]()
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