Aline Kominsky-Crumb (born Aline Goldsmith; August 1, 1948) is an American underground comics artist.

Early life[edit]

Aline Goldsmith was born to a middle class Jewish family in the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York.^[1][2] Her father was a largely unsuccessful businessman and organized crime associate. She later claimed that the social milieu shown in the movie Goodfellas (some of which was set in the Five Towns area) bore some resemblance to her own childhood. As a teenager, she turned to drugs and the counterculture, and was a hanger-on to New York countercultural musicians such as The Fugs. Relocating to East Village during her college years, she began studying art at The Cooper Union.^[1]

In 1968, she married her first husband, Carl Kominsky, with whom she relocated to Tucson, Arizona. Their marriage did not last long. However, she retained the surname Kominsky after their split. During this time, she attended University of Arizona, graduating with a BFA in 1971. She was also introduced to Spain Rodriguez and Kim Deitch by former Fugs drummer Ken Weaver, who was living in Tucson at the time. Rodriguez and Deitch introduced her to underground comics, inspiring her to begin writing underground comics herself and to relocate to San Francisco.^[1]

Career[edit]

Soon after arriving in San Francisco, she was introduced to Robert Crumb by mutual friends, who had noted an uncanny resemblance between her and the coincidentally-named Crumb character Honeybunch Kaminski. Their relationship soon became serious and they began living together not long after. She also fell in with the Wimmen's Comix collective, and contributed to the first few issues of that series. After she and Diane Noomin had a falling out with Trina Robbins and other members of the collective, they started their own title, Twisted Sisters. Kominsky-Crumb has later claimed that a large part of her break with the Wimmen's Comix group was over feminist issues and particularly over her relationship with Robert Crumb, whom Robbins particularly disliked.^[1]

Aline married Robert Crumb in 1978.^[3] Their daughter Sophie Crumb was born in 1981. Since the late 1970s, she and Robert have produced a series of collaborative comics called Dirty Laundry (also known as Aline & Bob's Dirty Laundry), a comic about the Crumb family life. Each of them drew his or her own characters for the comic. Later installments of Dirty Laundry feature contributions by Sophie, who also began producing comics in her teens.

For several years during the 1980s, she was editor of Weirdo, a leading alternative comics anthology of the time, taking over editorship from Peter Bagge, who had taken over from original editor Robert Crumb.

She was featured in a number of scenes in Crumb, the 1994 documentary about the Crumb family. Since the early 1990s, she and Robert have lived as expatriates in a small village in Languedoc-Roussillon. Aline wanted to as she is outspoken Francophile and Robert himself became especially disgusted with American culture. They also believed it would be a better environment for their daughter.

Personal life[edit]

In addition to her comics work, Kominsky-Crumb is also a painter and since moving to France, has focused more on painting and less on producing comics. In February 2007 she released a memoir entitled Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir, a collection of her comics and paintings, along with photographs and autobiographical writings.^[4]

Bibliography[edit]

Comics contributed to[edit]

• Wimmen's Comix #1, 2, #4 (1972–1974)
• El Perfecto (1973) – contributor & editor
• Manhunt (1973–1974)
• Dirty Laundry Comics #1, 2 (1974–1977)
• Arcade (1975–1976)
• Twisted Sisters (Last Gasp, 1976)
• Lemme Outta Here (The Print Mint, 1978)
• Best Buy Comics (Apex Novelties / Last Gasp, 1979-88)
• Weirdo (Last Gasp, 1986–1993) – contributor & editor
• Twisted Sisters #4 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1994)
• Self-Loathing Comics #1 & 2 (Fantagraphics, 1995-97)

Compilations[edit]

• Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art (Penguin, 1991) (ISBN 0140153772)
• The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics (Last Gasp, 1993) (ISBN 0867193794)
• Twisted Sisters 2: Drawing the Line (Kitchen Sink Press, 1994) (ISBN 0878163441)
• Drawn Together: The Collected Works of R. and A. Crumb (Norton, 2012) (ISBN 087140429X)

Solo Work[edit]

• The Bunch's Power Pak Comics (Kitchen Sink Press, 1979-81)
• Love That Bunch (Fantagraphics, 1990) (ISBN 1560970170)
• Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir (MQ Publications, 2007) (ISBN 1846011337)

References[edit]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Kominsky-Crumb, Aline. (2007). Need More Love. New York: MQ Publications. ISBN 1-84601-133-7
2. ^ Noomin, Diane. (1991). Twisted Sisters: A Collection of Bad Girl Art. Penguin Books, New York. ISBN 0-14-015377-2
3. ^ Duff, Lindsay. "Thumbnail: R Crumb", Ninth Art (website), January 27, 2003. Retrieved on May 23, 2007.
4. ^ Dollar, Steve (2007-02-26). "Love Among the Crumbs". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2007-02-27. 

Further reading[edit]

• Chute, Hillary L. (2010). Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-15062-0. Retrieved 6 September 2011. 

External links[edit]

• Aline Kominsky-Crumb at the Internet Movie Database
• "'He always laughs at my jokes and is my best fan'", The Guardian, March 25, 2005. – Aline Kominsky-Crumb answers Guardian readers' questions.
• Mary Fleener reviews Aline Kominsky Crumb's NEED MORE LOVE from Mineshaft magazine, issue #20 (September, 2007)
• "The R. Crumb Handbook", interview with Aline Kominsky-Crumb, The Leonard Lopate Show, April 13, 2005.
• "Aline Crumb" interview by Daniel Robert Epstein, SuicideGirls, November 29, 2006.
• "Loudmouth: Aline Kominsky-Crumb tells all", interview by Sara Ivry, Nextbook, February 5, 2007. (page links to MP3 audio file)
• "The Crumbs' Underground Comics", interview with Aline and Robert Crumb by Terry Gross, Fresh Air, February 13, 2007. (page links to streaming RealPlayer audio)
• Interview with Hillary Chute, The Believer, November/December 2009
• Kristen Schilt interviews Aline Kominsky-Crumb at "Comics: Philosophy & Practice" Conference, May 2012
• Video Short Aline and her cousin Ilana Arazie in Florid, March 30, 2010
• Let My Botox Go Blog Aline's latest Florida adventure, February 20, 2011