Rarely can a couple have laid so much bare over so many years as Robert and Aline Crumb. As a glossy retrospective of their collaborative comic strips is published, we talk to them about their 40-year relationship as partners in both art and life. Among the questions they answer with customary candour are: why is Aline so much smaller in real-life than on the page, how do two so much larger-than-life artists managed to inhabit a single strip, what role did LSD play in their artistic vision, and what does the Book of Genesis mean to them? We're joined by Roger Sabin, a academic at St Martin's, who explains why - despite their irreverence - the the Crumbs have such a unique and important place in the history of 20th century literature.
Then we move forward to consider their successors in the burgeoning comics market. Rachel Cooke talks us through the graphic short stories shortlisted for the Observer/Cape/Comica prize, and proves that - far being a form for boys in comic shops - graphic literature now offers something for everyone.
Reading List
Drawn Together by Robert and Aline Crumb (Knockabout)
A Chinese Life: A Visionary Account of Life in the People's Republic of China, by Li Kunwu and Philippe Otie, translated by Edward Gauvin (Selfmade Hero)
Best of Enemies by David B and Joen-Pierre Filiou (Selfmade Hero)
Days of the Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterhart (Jonathan Cape)
Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, by Guy de Lisle (Jonathan Cape)
Building Stories, by Chris Ware (Jonathan Cape)
