Painting 2 Post 8

So let's talk about the other elephant in the room: R. Crumb.

Let's not even get started on how I look like him when he was young.

What Crumb did with his Genesis illustrations (the only illustrative work all fine artists can name beside Lichtenstein) was capitalize on the fact that he was generally doing all of the work on his projects.

What I mean by that is, cartoons/comics are a largely collaborative field. Any given comic book has a separate writer (or two), penciler, inker, letterer, and colorist.

Would the gallery have taken the exact same work if it was only in pencil, yet to be inked by a different individual than the one listed on the wall label? Probably not. Art is a tight-knit community, but when it comes to co-authorship, the red flags go up.

The Mickey Mouse I draw reference from was written/drawn by Floyd Gottfredson, but signed Walt Disney at the bottom of every strip. Now, Disney did write and draw the first month of the comic, but lets say GOttfredson wanted to display some of his handiwork in a gallery setting. Whose name goes on the wall label? And whats worse, what if Gottfredson hadn't written the strip, merely drew it. What now? Would a gallery even WANT to tackle that issue? Probably not.