“Elderly Cartoonists Show Their Work”
Robert Armstrong & Robert Crumb
Organized by Dan Nadel
April 26–June 14, 2025​​​​

Opening reception: April 26, 4–7pm (book signing 5pm, remarks and music 6pm)
The opening event is preceded by a 2pm conversation between Dan Nadel and Cushion Works founder Jordan Stein at Et al. books, 2831 Mission Street

“Elderly Cartoonists Show Their Work” is a two-person exhibition by Robert Armstrong and Robert Crumb, old friends whose work cuts to the quick of the American visual vernacular and exists at the core of underground comics. This show is rooted in decades of friendship, a love of music, and a distinctly Northern California sensibility that marries humor, social commentary and psychological observation. It also doubles as a celebration of Dan Nadel’s Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life, the first biography of the artist and countercultural legend.

Nadel reports that one of the pleasant surprises of his research was encountering Crumb’s generous friends. Primarily through bartering, many of them came to live with artworks, including drawings from the very first Zap Comix, iconic Mr. Natural pages, portraits of lovers, friends, and admired musicians, political cartoons, object studies, and the self-portrait that became the biography’s cover. Cushion Works is pleased to present these works, most of which have never before been exhibited.

While Crumb cuts a singular figure, the lives of artists are never truly singular: Crumb ran with a network of talented fellow travelers, including the great Robert Armstrong, an artist who invented the dissolute Mickey Rat character in 1971 and later trademarked and popularized the term “Couch Potato.” Armstrong also produced extraordinary paintings replete with joyous visions of musicianship, animal life, and visions of the future informed by his knowledge of Hawaiian music, Disney cartoons, and mid-century signage.

Armstrong and Crumb met around 1970 and soon formed R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders, a string band specializing in songs from the 1920s. They toured the country, made three fine records, and scoured antique stores for elusive 78 records. From the mid-1970s until 1991 Armstrong and Crumb lived near each other in California’s Central Valley. They have never presented their work side by side.

Robert Armstrong (b. 1950, Pasadena) is an artist and musician best known for creating the rodent reprobate Mickey Rat in a series of underground comics and for popularizing the term “Couch Potato” after founding an organization of avid TV viewers in the 1980s. He lives and continues to play music in California’s Central Valley.

Robert Crumb (b. 1943, Philadelphia) redefined comics as an art form in the 1960s and ’70s with titles including Zap, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural. In 1994 he was the subject of the widely hailed documentary, Crumb. Celebrated internationally for expanding the boundaries of the graphic arts, his books include The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb and Existential Comics. He lives in the south of France.