Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist
Sophie Crumb's slender body of published comics so far identifies her as an interesting--but still mostly promising--young cartoonist. Questions about this compilation of childhood and sketchbook drawings are both unavoidable and acknowledged. In their twin introductions, Sophie's parents (and co-editors) Robert and Aline Kominsky-Crumb position this book as something other than "Crumbsploitation," praising their daughter's artwork and suggesting that this chronological, lifelong sketchbook anthology constitutes a unique and fascinating document of personal and artistic development. The book satisfies somewhat on these counts. Sophie's earliest work includes very advanced preschool art, and she remains continuously prolific. However, to distance this work from her family background denies part of the reason for her early, sustained development and one of this book's major narrative threads: her relationship to the legacy of her celebrated parents. Their presence as media guides is evident in her early subjects (the Three Stooges, vintage cartoons). Later she leaves home to join a circus, study tattooing, and live with lowlifes in New York City. The true legacy of her parents' influence is her constant outpouring of uncensored, self-critical, and perceptive drawing. (Nov.) (c)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.