Review by Solomon Yeoh

Robert Crumb is one of America’s most influential artists, with his work in the mid twentieth century spawning a whole new genre of comics. Perhaps his most famous creation is the roguish, sex-crazed Fritz the Cat appearing in Crumb’s comics from 1965 to his final appearance in 1972.  The stories exude the feel of a genius cartoonist attempting stream of consciousness writing. The second major strip ‘Fritz Bugs Out’ takes the reader through a few days of this pseudo-hippie’s college life, detailing his sexual exploits and academic stresses. Crumb flexes his muscles of characterisation and pacing, two qualities that would make his work prominent. His rhythmic use of the twelve panel grid allows him to ground us in daily routines, insisting that Fritz’s adventures are the norm.

These stories are firmly placed within the time period in which they were made. The strips often concern themselves with topics such as the hippie movement of the 1960s and the ‘Red Scare’ of the 1950s. The highlight is the vitriolic ‘Fritz the Cat: Superstar’. A response to the Fritz the Cat film, notoriously disliked by Crumb himself. It’s a scathing satire of the film industry and reveals Crumb’s honesty, his ultimate strength as an artist. Crumb divulges some frankly heinous parts of himself in this collection including his first sexual encounter involving his sister and his overpowering resentment towards women. Fritz mostly functions as a self-insert for Crumb, allowing him to act out his darkest thoughts and fantasies whilst maintaining a guise of acceptability.

Fritz the Cat is a noteworthy snapshot into some of Crumb’s earlier work, allowing the reader to witness the formative years of the maestro, from rough pencil sketches to the recognisable detailed, scratchy style of his later work. Earlier iterations of some of Crumb’s most famous tics and ideas are also present including his rampant misogyny, unflinching response to taboo topics and sharp satire. This is a superb time capsule of the sixties and seventies through the eyes of one of the most important artists of the twentieth century.