As hinted earlier, I'm going on tour for a couple of weeks. I still don't have ALL the dates, but things are starting to fall into place. I'll be in Angouleme from Thursday Jan 26 till Sunday Jan 29.I'll be interviewed onstage by Paul Gravett somewhere in there. Then you can find me in Paris, where I'm supposed to be doing a signing between Monday Jan 30 and Weds Feb 1. Then it's off to London where I'll be appearing at Gosh on Friday 3rd Feb. But Phone up and book a seat as they will be limited. I'll do a version of the stand-up picture show I did in one of the studio stages of the Sydney Opera House back in August. Here's a photo from it that may not have been online before. Obviously it won't be a huge big cinema-size screen at Gosh, but I'll make up for it in other ways. Well, you know what I mean. I tried something similar in Spain recently and the sound wouldn't work for a short film I had (nothing works in Spain- I had the nerve to say that and everybody applauded. 'Yeh, you tell em, they won't listen to us!'), so I had to improvise a voice over, which turned out to be funnier that the original anyway. You never know.

More details later.

The interview that Gary Groth was going to do with Robert Crumb at the Graphic festival in Sydney, has been done by phone and put online instead. Groth was a guest of Graphic the previous year.

GARY GROTH: Do you have any regrets about not going to Australia?

R. CRUMB: Well, I didn’t until you told me that the streets were full of Crumb girls. [Laughter.]

Groth: Which they are.

Crumb: That’s when I started regretting it. [Groth laughs.] That’s about it. Otherwise, I didn’t want to go that badly. I wouldn’t have even thought of going at all if Jordan Verzar had just asked me outright, but when he sent me those photos — that was it.

Jordan showed me those photos on his iphone in Tasmania in January when we took the Neil reading down to the Mona Foma festival. I laughed very hard. He had hired a number of models in the shape of the girls that Crumb likes to draw and did a photo-shoot to persuade the artist to come over. It was all very witty and done just right.

Since I wasn't blogging in January, here's a photo from Mona Foma (more here):

Great official gallery of photos of the Graphic festival, including this one of me doing my wealth investment seminar. This is the point at which all the money is blowing out the window. You can see the anguish on my strained visage.


They've fixed it so you mustn't steal them, so I figure I can only get away with stealing one of myself, but there are good shots of Jim Woodring and Scott McCloud and some of those great musicians we met over the weekend. There's a superb one of Gotye and Kimbra singing onstage. With his Somebody that I used to know already number one in the singles charts here in Australia, Gotye's Making Mirrors went straight into the album charts at Number one. I've been listening to it here today. The track titled State of the art has a great little animated video in a retro fifties style.

I've been so wrapped up in a piece of work that I didn't notice that photo gallery was online. More posts on less conceited topics coming up.

I've been easing back to normal after the weekend at the Sydney opera House. I'd say this year's Graphic was even better than last year's. I didn't think that was possible as there are not too many people in the comics biz with enough charisma to fill up a 2000-seat concert hall. This year Jordan Verzar went in the other direction. He signed up rising music star Gotye (Wally de Backer) and had animations created to accompany all the tracks form his brand new album, which was coordinated for a release on Friday last. By Monday Gotye was number ONE in the singles charts here with Somebody that I Used to Know. Now, You can't predict stuff like that coming to pass, but It sure as hell takes some special kind of insight. That part of the show was balanced on the Sunday by a preceding set of silent comics, by Woodring, Crumb, Kuper, Hunt Emerson (his moving and classic 'Buster Keaton and the city mouths' - i confess to a tear in my eye when I saw it come up), Nathan Jurevicius' amazing Scarygirl and more, set to specially composed music by Gotye, Fourplay, Plaid, Captain Matchbox and others. Included in the prodeedings was a screening of Shaun Tan's Oscar winning animated short The Lost Thing (With Live musical accompaniment!). A Great night out!

Faster-louder has a good review of the night with 25 great photos.


Here's Gotye's official video for the single. The gorgeous Kimbra appears with him in this duet. She stepped up for this number at the opera house. My pal Breach was down by the stage and held her cardigan.



And here is Kimbra's own single. I hear she's coming up for the Brisbane festival in September.



Jim Woodring, Scott McCloud and Peter Kuper all gave excellent presentations. I emptied out my camera when I got home but all I seem to have is a load of shots of fancy bathroom taps for future picture reference. It's a good job Breach had a passer-by take this one of me and him otherwise there would be no evidence that I was ever there.


Except for this shot by Karen Beilharz, in which I am just about to start my blatherings, a comedy routine based around stuff from my next book and other sources.


A bloody great event, and the absolute best there currently is in the whole comics-related field. The thing about other shows is that they are all about selling stuff, whether that's old comics, or the next tv show or movie coming down the pike. Graphic is about celebration, on-the-spot live entertainment, art and music, and going home with a grand and glorious feeling. I'd say they have established it well and truly as a permanent event. Mark it in your calendar.

And if anybody else has pictures, send us your links.

Robert Crumb explains what forced him to cancel his trip.
Sydney Morning herald August 13

After I told a journalist who sent me the article that I might not go to Australia because of this, he took it on himself to call and talk to Hetty Johnston, who told him she was contacted by ''the media'', sent links to some of my more ''offensive'' images, and asked to comment on the fact that the Sydney Opera House was exhibiting my work.
From this it is evident The Sunday Telegraph was looking for ways to discredit me and the City of Sydney by using people like Hetty Johnston. Who's going to put down an anti-child abuse campaigner? If this person hates my work, I must be a child abuser myself. And the Sydney Opera House is condoning child abusers.
The Sunday Telegraph, after contacting these groups and showing them apparently offensive images extracted from my work, can then say, as they did in their article, ''Cartoonist Robert Crumb's visit, funded by the Opera House and endorsed by the City of Sydney, has sparked outrage with sexual assault groups describing the France-based American artist as 'sick and deranged'.''
One can see in this example how skilled media professionals with low standards of integrity are able to mould and manipulate public opinion, popular beliefs and, ultimately, the direction of politics. read more

It's plain rude to call someone a pervert
Imre Salusinszky From: The Australian August 10, 2011 1

The Sunday Telegraph story was the first I'd heard of Crumb's work not being allowed to be shown in Australia. In any event, you won't have to try very hard to view Crumb, as he is a regular in The New Yorker.

His work has also been included in the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh (the oldest annual exhibition of popular American art) and he has had career retrospectives at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany, and New York's Institute of Contemporary Art.

The New York Times described Crumb as "a draftsman of transcendent skill, inventiveness and versatility, a fearlessly irreverent, excruciatingly funny satirist of all things modern and progressively high-minded, and an intrepid explorer of his own twisted psyche".
Yesterday, The Australian reported Crumb has cancelled his Sydney visit. Apparently he didn't like being described as a pervert. more

A toxic turn and safety fears soured cartoonist on visit
Sydney Morning Herald Aug 10

Crumb had said of the article: ''Where's all this come from? … This hasn't happened since the '70s.''

oh fuck
Cartoonist miffed by negative newspaper article
The Australian Aug 9 2011

WORLD renowned American cartoonist Robert Crumb has pulled out of his headline appearance at the Graphic arts festival in Sydney later this month.

He made the decision after being described in a Sydney newspaper as a "self-confessed sex pervert" and a "very warped human being".

Crumb, 67, who was among the founders of the underground comix movement in the 1960s and whose characters include Mr Natural and Fritz the Cat, was to be the main attraction at the second annual Graphic festival to be held at Sydney Opera House on August 20 and 21.

The artist, who is based in France, told The Australian yesterday he had withdrawn from making his first appearance in Australia because of the nasty nature of an article in The Sunday Telegraph, owned by News Limited, publisher of The Australian.

The newspaper's story on July 31 featured the headline "Cult genius or filthy weirdo". In it, anti-child abuse campaigner Hetty Johnston described Crumb's work as "crude and perverted images emanating from what is clearly a sick mind".

I'll keep you up to date as I figure out what's happening. The festival is still holding up, so I'll be there!

UPDATE:
the article that caused the problem:

Smutty show a comic outrage
Telegraph July 31, 2011

A SELF-CONFESSED sex pervert whose explicit comic drawings cannot be shown in Australia is to deliver a talk and hold a special exhibition at the Sydney Opera House.

Cartoonist Robert Crumb's visit, funded by the Opera House and endorsed by the City of Sydney, has sparked outrage with sexual assault crisis groups describing the France-based American artist as "sick and deranged".

Crumb, a "seminal" cult comic cartoonist from the 1960s regarded by fans - including the City of Sydney - as legendary, and a genius, is renowned for extreme drug-fuelled drawings, depicting incest, rape, paedophilia and bestiality.

The Sydney Opera House's publicity for the art festival event next month warns: "Some patrons may find parts of this event's content disturbing. Event may not be suitable for persons 15 or under."

A spokesman for the federal Attorney General's department told The Sunday Telegraph that Crumb's work cannot be shown in Australia unless he submits his illustrations for classification. The spokesman said his work would almost certainly be refused classification.

In one drawing, of the character Mr Natural, Crumb, now 67, depicts a sex act between an oversized baby and a man. Anti-child abuse campaigner Hetty Johnston said the Opera House event was endorsing the "depraved thought processes of this very warped human being".

"These cartoons are not funny or artistic - they are just crude and perverted images emanating from what is clearly a sick mind," she said. "Of all the brilliant artists, cartoonists and writers the Opera House and council could have supported, you have to wonder why they chose Robert Crumb."

I can't say well, this is Australia, as every country has numbskulls who can't tell the difference between satire and evil. However, when From Hell was temporarily banned from importation here, I got the customs guy on the phone and said (not identifying myself as co-author, but as publisher) "but this book has won awards in the USA, Paris and London", he replied "Well it could well pass in those other places, but this is Australia."

If you're around Sydney this month, don't forget this. I don't want to be standing up there with my arse hanging out and nobody in the audience. My part is a free event, but go and book your seat now (link below).

* M * O * N * E * Y *.




EDDIE CAMPBELL ON THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF

It possible to make money out of comics?

The subject is money. As explained with no authority whatsoever by a man who draws pictures for a living. Featuring unpublished illustrations, histrionics, humorous asides and totally useless information, including how Campbell became incorporated just so he could write and draw Batman, and what went wrong with that; how his accountant goes to work in a sarong and bare feet because he fancies himself as an artist. As well as Campbell's weeklong visit to the mysterious tropical island of Yap, to get the inside story of the ancient stone money for his next book.
Venue: Studio
Dates: Sun 21 Aug
Time: 12pm
Register Now!

Also on the bill:

ROBERT CRUMB’S OLD TIME JUKEBOX: a selection of old-time tunes chosen by RC will be played by Mic Conway and his Captain Matchbox band with Crumb on mandolin. I think this event is 45 bucks.

STUDIO / FRI 19 AUG / 8.30PM FRI 19 AUG

And on Sunday, Crumb is interviewed on the concert stage by Gary Groth.
complete program.

It's not every day you get a Scotsman
to share all of
his knowledge
on the subject
of

* M * O * N * E * Y *.

We usually like to keep it all to ourselves.


EDDIE CAMPBELL ON THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF

It possible to make money out of comics?

The subject is money. As explained with no authority whatsoever by a man who draws pictures for a living. Featuring unpublished illustrations, histrionics, humorous asides and totally useless information, including how Campbell became incorporated just so he could write and draw Batman, and what went wrong with that; how his accountant goes to work in a sarong and bare feet because he fancies himself as an artist. As well as Campbell's weeklong visit to the mysterious tropical island of Yap, to get the inside story of the ancient stone money for his next book.
Venue: Studio
Dates: Sun 21 Aug
Time: 12pm
Register Now!

Other guests include the immortal Robert Crumb
and also Jim Woodring, Peter Kuper and Scott McCloud.


Hayley campbel''s funniest piece ever, just posted
In which you'll excuse my ebonics.

Following the resounding success last August, the Graphic festival is on at the Sydney Opera house again this year. I wasn't blogging during that period, so here's a reminder of that marvelous event:


Neil Gaiman read his story Truth is a cave in the black Mountain with an accompaniment of music specially composed by string quartet Fourplay as well as a projection of my painted illustrations on a huge screen behind him. The above photo shows the scale of the thing, and was taken at the same-day rehearsal, if I recall correctly, by Peter Hollo of Fourplay. The show was performed again in Tasmania in January 2011 at the Mona Foma festival, and there is talk of taking it on the road. More news as it develops.

Meanwhile, I'm appearing at Graphic again this year, performing an entertainment in one of the studios. This is a FREE event, so everybody in the neighbourhood, or in town for Graphic, is expected to be there.



EDDIE CAMPBELL ON THE LOVELY HORRIBLE STUFF

It possible to make money out of comics?

The subject is money. As explained with no authority whatsoever by a man who draws pictures for a living. Featuring unpublished illustrations, histrionics, humorous asides and totally useless information, including how Campbell became incorporated just so he could write and draw Batman, and what went wrong with that; how his accountant goes to work in a sarong and bare feet because he fancies himself as an artist. As well as his weeklong visit to the mysterious tropical island of Yap, to get the inside story of the ancient stone money for his next book.
Venue: Studio
Dates: Sun 21 Aug
Time: 12pm
Register Now!


Other guests include the immortal Robert Crumb

Now it’s time for Australia to meet the man behind the myth in his first Australian appearance when he discusses his life and work with co-founder of Fantagraphics Books, Gary Groth.
Crumb is one of the most celebrated comic book artists in the world and has been hailed as a genius and a revolutionary. Though he never studied art nor had any formal teaching, he began drawing at an early age and became the founder of the Underground Comix movement and is now a highly collectable artist.


and also Jim Woodring, Peter Kuper and Scott McCloud.