Sophie Crumb

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Sophie Crumb bigraphy, stories - American-French comic artist

Sophie Crumb : biography

27 September 1981 –

Sophia Violet "Sophie" Crumb (born September 27, 1981) is an American-French comics artist. She is the daughter of underground comix artists Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

Crumb was born in Woodland, California and lived in the nearby farming town of Winters with her parents until she was nine years old. In 1993, she relocated with her family to Sauve, a village in Southern France. Her parents reported that they wanted to remove her from the political conservatives and Christian fundamentalists of the United States. In a 2010 interview, Sophie told The Philadelphia Inquirer that her mother was afraid Sophie would "turn into a Valley girl".

It was after this relocation that Terry Zwigoff released Crumb (1994), a critically acclaimed documentary film about Sophie’s 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’ comics serial of the same name.

After completing her secondary education in France, Crumb studied acrobatics and clowning 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. At another stage she earned a living by teaching English as a foreign language.

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

Published work

When she was a child, Crumb’s parents published some of her drawings in their comics anthology, Weirdo; she later contributed to their comic book series Dirty Laundry Comics, originally published from 1977 to 1992.

Crumb illustrated a sketchbook for the American film Ghost World (2001). Her drawings were meant to reflect the personality and inner life of Enid (Thora Birch), the film’s protagonist.

In 2002, Fantagraphics Books and Oog & Blik published Crumb’s first comic book, Belly Button, followed by Belly Button Comix #2 in 2004. She contributed multiple pieces to installments of Mome published between 2005 and 2008.

The development of her draftsmanship and sensibilities as a graphic artist are documented in Sophie Crumb: Evolution of a Crazy Artist (W.W. Norton 2010). Her debut solo show, which featured more than 20 drawings and giclée prints, coincided with the book’s publication. The show ran from 4 November through 30 December 2010 at DCKT Contemporary, Dennis Christie and Ken Tyburski’s contemporary art gallery in New York City.