What a sweet man. So compassionate, so knowledgable, so hip. I got to hang out with him for a day in San Francisco. We got to pow-wow over our mutual friend the late great Harvey Pekar. So many laughs a few tears. I couldn't believe that he did not know that Harvey credited him for his career taking off. I said to Robert, didn't you at least see the movie American Splendor? Didn't you see the scene where you and Harvey are sitting at the restaurant eating french fries and he shows you his script and you chuckle to yourself about it while you pull out your rapidograph. Then ask him if you can take the script home to illustrate? He said, "Yeah, but I just thought they made up that scene so they could fit me somewhere in the time line." WHAT????? I couldn't believe my ears. I said, I can't believe this? I guess it doesn't matter how famous the artist got, he still remains
somewhat insecure. I told him that Harvey constantly referenced him as "his big break" in the business. Crumb said, "ahh man, I think I'm gonna cry." I felt like some kind of weird underground comix fairy that was floating back and forth passing verbal notes to underground comix legends. One on earth and one in the afterlife. That's just one tiny little story. I'll tell you one more, and then I gotta change a diaper. I said to him while walking across Valencia street, well, nobody can say that you and Harvey didn't deserve your recognition. You guys were some of the hardest working guys in the business. He said to me. "Nobody deserves anything in life." Whoooa.. I was so blown away by that statement. Harvey used to say something similiar.. "It's a total crock of shit the whole fucking thing." he would say. Crumb said to me, "There's billions of artists who put their billions of hours in, and they never got recognized. " Amen brother, nobody deserves anything... more Crumb stories later...
