A Short History of America

Robert Crumb. 2009. Print. A Short History of America. Giclee color print. 24 x 20 inches (paper size) 22 x 15 inches (image size). Limited edition. Signed "59/500" in lower right.

Crumb's iconic drawing of the transformation of America. A fair number of reproductions have been made over the years. It has also been transformed into a YouTube video to the music of Joni Mitchell (whose portrait was done by artist Mary Fleener).

☜Robert Crumb. "A Short History of America." CoEvolution Quarterly. Fall 1979. # 23. pp 21-24.

The original came out as a four page black & white spread in the CoEvolution Quarterly. The answer to "WHAT NEXT?!!" in the last panel is answered almost a decade later in a back cover for an issue of The Whole Earth Review.

There's a black and white YouTube version set to piano music.

Need More Love

Aline Kominsky Crumb. 2007. Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir. M Q Publications. Signed "For Michael + Natasha - Aline Kominsky-Crumb 2009" on title page.

Aline Crumb's (Robert Crumb's wife) autobiography. A beautiful honest book, full of her work over the years including cartoons and paintings as well as photos. See Mary Fleener's review. A print was made from the cover.

Aline Kominsky Crumb. 2009. Need More Love. Print. 16 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches. Signed "To Natasha + Michael - Aline Kominsky Crumb March 2009" and numbered "1/25".

Mary Fleener

Mary Fleener. 2003. Joni Mitchell. Ink on paper. 15 x 11 inches. Signed "FLEENER°03" lower left. © Mary Fleener. Illustration used in Kristine McKenna. 2004. Talk to Her. Fantagraphics. ISBN-10: 1560975709

Mary Fleener, like Crumb, is a cartoonist. Some of their work appears in the same magazines (e.g., Mineshaft). Fleener also reviewed Aline-Kominsky Crumb's Need More Love. The illustration of Joni Mitchell was used in a book of interviews of artists by an LA-based journalist. Mitchell's song "Big Yellow Taxi" music was used in an unofficial YouTube video of Crumb's "Short History of America".