Sophia Violet "Sophie" Crumb (born September 27, 1981) is an American-French

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary a ...

. She is the daughter of

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

artists

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

and

Aline Kominsky-Crumb Aline Kominsky-Crumb (née Goldsmith; August 1, 1948 – November 29, 2022) was an American underground comics artist. Kominsky-Crumb's work, which is almost exclusively autobiographical, is known for its unvarnished, confessional nature. In 20 ...

. Crumb was born in

Woodland, California Woodland is a city in and the county seat of Yolo County, California, located approximately northwest of Sacramento, and is a part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. The population was 61,032 at the 2020 census. Woodland's origins date to 1 ...

, and lived in the nearby farming town of Winters with her parents until she was nine years old. In 1991, she relocated with her family to Sauve, a village in the

south of France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', A ...

. Her parents reported that they wanted to remove her from the

political conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

s and

Christian fundamentalist Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and ...

s of the United States. In a 2010 interview, Sophie told ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' that her mother was afraid Sophie would "turn into a

Valley girl A valley girl is a socioeconomic, linguistic, and youth subcultural stereotype and stock character originating during the 1980s: any materialistic upper-middle-class young woman, associated with unique vocal and California dialect features, ...

". After this relocation,

Terry Zwigoff Terry Zwigoff (born May 18, 1949) is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheroes, and themes of alienation. He first garnered attention for his work in documentary filmmaking with ''Louie Bluie'' (1985) and '' Crumb'' ( ...

released '' Crumb'' (1994), a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about her father and their family. Zwigoff later commissioned Sophie to prepare some original drawings for inclusion in his 2001 comedy drama '' Ghost World'', an adaptation of

Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes (; born April 14, 1961) is an American cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter. Most of Clowes's work first appeared in '' Eightball'', a solo anthology comic book series. An ''Eightball'' issue typi ...

' comics serial of the same name. After completing her

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

in France, Crumb studied acrobatics and

clowning A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in t ...

at a French circus school. While living in Brooklyn in the mid-2000s, she sold her comics on the street and apprenticed herself to a

tattoo artist A tattoo artist (also tattooer or tattooist) is an individual who applies permanent decorative tattoos, often in an established business called a "tattoo shop", "tattoo studio" or "tattoo parlour". Tattoo artists usually learn their craft via an ...

. At another stage, she earned a living by

teaching English as a foreign language Teaching English as a second language (TESL) or Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are terms that refer to teaching English to students whose first language is not English. The terms TESL, TEFL, and TESOL distinguish betwee ...

. She lives in the south of France with her husband (a construction worker) and their son, Eli, who was born in 2009.

Published work

When Crumb was a child, her parents published some of her drawings in their

comics anthology A comics anthology collects works in the medium of comics, typically from multiple series, and compiles them into an anthology or magazine. The comics in these anthologies range from comic strips that are too short for standalone publication to co ...

, '' Weirdo''; she later contributed to their

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

series ''Dirty Laundry Comics'', originally published from 1977 to 1992. Her artwork as a six-year-old was also featured in ''

Wimmen's Comix ''Wimmen's Comix'', later titled ''Wimmin's Comix'', is an influential all-female underground comics anthology published from 1972 to 1992. Though it covered a wide range of genres and subject matters, ''Wimmen's Comix'' focused more than other ...

'' #11 (Apr. 1987). Crumb illustrated a sketchbook for the American film '' Ghost World'' (2001). Her drawings were meant to reflect the personality and inner life of Enid Coleslaw (

Thora Birch Thora Birch (born March 11, 1982) is an American actress and producer. She made her feature film debut in 1988 with a starring role in ''Purple People Eater'', for which she received a Young Artist Award for "Best Young Actress Under Nine Years ...

), the film's protagonist. In 2002, Fantagraphics Books and

Oog & Blik Oog & Blik was an Amsterdam-based Dutch publisher of comics founded by Joost Swarte and Hansje Joustra in 1985. Oog & Blik offers books mostly for an adult audience. They publish original and translated graphic novels, underground comix, autob ...

published Crumb's first

, ''Belly Button'', followed by ''Belly Button Comix #2'' in 2004. She contributed multiple pieces to installments of '' Mome'' published between 2005 and 2008. Her development as a graphic artist are documented in ''Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist'' (

W.W. Norton W. W. Norton & Company is an American publishing company based in New York City. Established in 1923, it has been owned wholly by its employees since the early 1960s. The company is known for its Norton Anthologies (particularly ''The Norton An ...

, 2010). Her debut solo show, which featured more than 20 drawings and

giclée Giclée ( ) is a neologism, ultimately derived from the French word ''gicleur,'' coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made using inkjet printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on a mo ...

prints, coincided with the book's publication. The show ran from November 4 to December 30, 2010, at DCKT Contemporary, Dennis Christie and Ken Tyburski's

contemporary art gallery A contemporary art gallery is normally a commercial art gallery operated by an art dealer which specializes in displaying for sale contemporary art, usually new works of art by living artists. This approach has been called the "Castelli Method" ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

External links

* *
Sophie Crumb art gallery
at The Official Crumb Site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crumb, Sophie 1981 births American people of English descent American people of Jewish descent American people of Scottish descent Living people Alternative cartoonists American expatriates in France Artists from California Entertainers from California American female comics artists Female comics writers People from Woodland, California

Published work

See also

References

External links