Crumb gives you the unblinking artist and his damaged family. But R. Crumb has another family that isn't in the film-the generation of cartoonists for whom he was a spiritual father and definitive influence. We asked five of the most prominent of these offspring, all staunch defenders of Crumb's freedom to offend, to draw the man and tell us what they've personally drawn from him. *PETER BAGGE (Hate; drawing at right) ''I was never into superheroes or Richie Rich, and I never saw what comics could do till I saw an R. Crumb comic. I was totally blown away. There was a guy just pissing on a toilet. I knew then exactly what I wanted to do. I've personally never been offended or repulsed by anything he's done, but I'm always amazed by his honest presentation of an ugly thought.''
*LYNDA BARRY (Ernie Pook's Comeek; left) ''You know how people know where they were when Kennedy was shot? I know exactly where I was when I saw my first R. Crumb comic book. It was in the eighth grade and I was in row three, seat three, and it was Zap number zero, and it completely blew my mind.''
*BILL GRIFFITH (Zippy; right) ''Crumb is an artist. If he's got dark recesses in his mind they'll come out just as clearly and as loud as anything that's inside him. That takes a lot of guts and my hat is off to him. If you want comics without that stuff, don't go to Crumb.''
*DANIEL CLOWES (Eightball; left) ''When I first saw his work when I was 8 or 9 years old I thought it was the most obscene pornography I'd ever seen, which when you're a kid is great. For those of us trying to do more with comics than make money, he's certainly the number one influence. (With Crumb) you never know whether he's parodying these things or he believes it, so he leaves the reader in doubt, which is great.''
*DREW FRIEDMAN (Warts and All; right) ''I can't say now that I agree with some of his more controversial stuff, but I appreciate that he doesn't censor himself. He takes these horrible thoughts and puts them down on paper. But that's better than going out and acting on (them).''
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