| Aline Kominsky-Crumb | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kominsky-Crumb in 2012 | |
| Born | Aline Goldsmith (1948-08-01)August 1, 1948 Long Beach, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 29, 2022(2022-11-29) (aged 74) Sauve, Gard, France |
| Area | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Twisted Sisters Dirty Laundry Comics |
| Collaborators | Robert Crumb |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | Sophie Crumb |
Aline Kominsky-Crumb (néeGoldsmith; August 1, 1948 – November 29, 2022) was an Americanundergroundcomics artist. Kominsky-Crumb's work, which is almost exclusively autobiographical, is known for its unvarnished, confessional nature.[1] In 2016,ComicsAlliance listed Kominsky-Crumb as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.[2] She was married to cartoonistRobert Crumb, with whom she frequently collaborated.[3] Their daughter,Sophie Crumb, is also a cartoonist.
Aline Goldsmith was born to aJewish family in theFive Towns area ofLong Island, New York.[4][5] Her father was a largely unsuccessful businessman andorganized crime associate. As a teenager, she turned to drugs and thecounterculture, and was a hanger-on to New York countercultural musicians such asThe Fugs. Relocating toEast Village during her college years, she began studying art atThe Cooper Union.[4][6]
In 1968, Aline married Carl Kominsky, with whom she relocated toTucson, Arizona. Their marriage did not last long; nonetheless, she retained the surname Kominsky after their split. During this time, she attendedUniversity of Arizona,[6] graduating witha BFA in 1971.[7]
Kominsky-Crumb was introduced to underground cartoonistsSpain Rodriguez andKim Deitch by former Fugs drummerKen Weaver, who was living in Tucson at the same time. Rodriguez and Deitch introduced her to underground comix, inspiring her to begin making underground comics herself and to relocate toSan Francisco.[4][8]
In 1972, soon after arriving in San Francisco, Aline was introduced toRobert Crumb by mutual friends,[3] who had noted an uncanny resemblance between her and the coincidentally-named Crumb character Honeybunch Kaminski[1] (who had been created in 1970).[9] Their relationship soon became serious, and they began living together.[10]
Kominsky-Crumb also fell in with theWimmen's Comix collective, and contributed to the first few issues of that series. After she andDiane Noomin had a falling out withTrina Robbins and other members of the collective, they started their own title,Twisted Sisters.[6] Kominsky-Crumb later claimed that a large part of her break with theWimmen's Comix group was overfeminist issues and particularly over her relationship with Robert Crumb, whom Robbins particularly disliked.[4]
Kominsky-Crumb married Crumb in 1978.[11] Their daughterSophie was born in 1981. Starting in the late 1970s, Aline and Robert produced a series of collaborative comics calledDirty Laundry (also known asAline & Bob's Dirty Laundry), a comic about the Crumb family life. They both drew their own characters for the comic. Around this time, Kominsky-Crumb began calling her comics avatar "The Bunch," a reference to the similarly named Crumb character.[1] Later installments ofDirty Laundry feature contributions by Sophie, who also began producing comics in her teens.[12]
From 1986 to 1993, Kominsky-Crumb was editor ofWeirdo, a leadingalternative comicsanthology of the time, taking over the editorship fromPeter Bagge, who had previously taken over from original editor Robert Crumb. Her editorial reign was known as "Twisted Sisters", reviving that title;[13] Noomin was a frequentWeirdo contributor during this period, which also featured Kominsky-Crumb's own comics.
From 1991, Robert and Aline lived asexpatriates in a small French village in theLanguedoc-Roussillon region.[6] Aline had long been an avowed Francophile, while Robert had become especially disgusted with American culture, and they believed it would be a better environment for their daughter.[14]
Kominsky-Crumb was featured in a number of scenes inCrumb, the 1994 documentary about the Crumb family.[15]
Kominsky-Crumb and her husband had anopen marriage, and Kominsky-Crumb's "second husband", French printmaker Christian Coudurès, lived with the family (as did his daughter, Agathe McCamy, who assisted Kominsky-Crumb in coloring her comics).[14]
In addition to her comics work, Kominsky-Crumb was a painter. After moving to France, she focused more on painting and less on producing comics. In February 2007 she released a memoir entitledNeed More Love: A Graphic Memoir,[6] a collection of her comics and paintings, along with photographs andautobiographical writings.[16]
In 2018, Kominsky-Crumb'sLove That Bunch, which was originally published in 1990,[6] was expanded byDrawn & Quarterly with new comics and an introduction written by Hillary Chute.[17]
Kominsky-Crumb died frompancreatic cancer at her home in France on November 29, 2022, at the age of 74.[18][19][6]
In the 2015 movieThe Diary of a Teenage Girl, set in San Francisco during the mid-1970's, the heroine, an aspiring cartoonist, imagines herself talking with Kominsky, and apparently writes a letter to Kominsky, and receives a response, encouraging her to continue drawing.
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