Underground Comic(x)s

The choice of reading I made for the underground comics section of the course was "The Religious Experience of Phillip K. Dick" by Robert Crumb. In choosing this selection, I was quite surprised that Crumb would cover a subject like this in the way he did, as my only previous exposure to Crumb's work was his more graphic, sexual content. I think what surprised me was less the fact that he chose to depict the subject matter in a more realistic and less exaggerated and fetishized way, and more of the selection of the subject matter itself.

I had heard of this supposed experience of Phillip K. Dick's through various autobiographic programs made about him and his life, but for some reason I found the Crumb variation much more appropriate and even more successful in giving some credence to the experience that Dick had. Perhaps its the suspense of disbelief that comics allows the reader through drawing style and sequencing of time, over an over-representational and often cheesy re-enactment that comes with a television program, but for some reason while reading it through the lens of Crumb's drawings I found myself looking at Dick's experience with more respect and weight than I had previously given it. What is interesting about that aspect of it is that all of the weight and sincerity given to the experience has to come entirely from Crumb's drawings as the text is made entirely of the direct quotation of Dick's words about his experience. So there is effectively no direct dialogue happening between characters, other than through the third person narration provided by Dick himself.

What I found particularly striking about his style of drawing was just how much of it's influence I've seen in cartoons and drawing styles of 1990's. I'm well aware that Crumb was apart of many artists that had an influence on the era, but seeing the date that this comic was published (in 1986) made me realize just how far ahead of everyone else he was in terms of depicting this gritty, ugly yet stylish reality we all associate with the early 1990's now. Being a child during that time period and growing up on Nickelodeon's cartoons like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Doug, etc. it seems almost unavoidable that the artists creating those shows were looking a Crumb both in subject matter and style. Even now, with the types of animated shows you see on Adult Swim and Comedy Central, I don't think any of them would have been possible without Crumb breaking down a lot of the taboo barriers he did. So while I don't necessarily enjoy all of Crumbs work, I did particularly enjoy this comic, and do appreciate the talent he had as well as the barriers he broke for artists, and society at large, by holding a crude, ugly mirror to its face.