The American cartoon artist and satirist R. Crumb, 72, began making handmade comic books as a teenager. Later, the characters he created for counterculture zines, such as Fritz the Cat, the Keep On Truckin' guy, Devil Girl and Mr Natural, helped define the cartoon and punk subcultures of the Sixties and Seventies. In the Nineties he moved to France with his wife, Aline, where he continues to produce original comics and drawings. An exhibition of his 1991 magazine Art and Beauty, a satirical take on aesthetics and sexuality, goes on show at David Zwirner, London, on Friday.
I seldom get up early because I always stay up very late.
I am often in my keenest mental state at 2.30 or 3am. Plus I have negative associations with getting up early: school and job.
I try to meditate for 35 minutes every morning but don't always succeed.
I've learned that I need meditation to keep life from overwhelming me, to maintain some calm and detachment. As [Charles] Bukowski once wrote, "When I bend down to tie my shoes in the morning I think, 'Christ almighty, what now?'"
Next I have my bread and jam with tea, which I eat while reading.
Then I spend varying amounts of time procrastinating before knuckling down to work. Some appalling percentage of waking hours are piddled away in procrastination, but such is human life.
I don't own a computer or a cell phone.
I have a part-time secretary to whom I give handwritten letters. She then types them up and sends them out by electronic mail. She also prints out any emails I receive and gives them to me on paper. At this point I think it's too late for me to learn how to use a computer. Plus I have zero desire to learn how to use these infernal devices. I like paper.