Anarchic LA label Come Tees taps cult comic artist for a new collab

As the world around us becomes more censored – whether via Instagram’s war on female nipples or Donald Trump rewriting historic events on the back end of Wikipedia – it’s not surprising that the slogan tee is doing a roaring trade. From political and human rights messages calling for a ‘Free Palestine’ or to ‘Protect The Dolls’ to the moment Charli xcx stepped out at Coachella in a ‘Miss Should Be Headliner’ and in the process kicked up a stink on social media, loads of us are plastering messages that matter to us front and centre across our chests. 

For those in the know, LA’s Come Tees has been a go to for subversive t-shirts since finding its feet back in 2010. The brainchild of Sonya Sombreuil, across the course of the last 15 years Come Tees has rallied behind wannabe POTUS Bernie Sanders, implored us to ‘Protest and Survive’, and funnelled profits raised from sales of its anarchic styles into grassroots organisations working towards prison reform and healthcare for all. The designer has collaborated with No Sesso, Eckhaus Latta, and Heaven, and counts Rihanna, Lil Nas X, and loads more as fans.

Now, Sombreuil is dropping a new collab that spotlights the work of cult artist Robert Crumb, who rose to prominence in the 60s and 70s underground comix scene. Through scrappy strips like Fritz The Cat and Mr. Natural, Crumb satirised modern living in America, and prodded, poked, and ripped apart its archetypes – from corrupt police and raging neoliberals, to psychedelic hippies, inept politicians, and more. It wasn’t without controversy, however, with Crumb criticised for sometimes conjuring up violent, racist, and misogynistic characters, but the artist maintained that he was sending up the stereotypes of the USA rather than buying into them. Crumb had no problem ripping himself apart within his work – no one was safe from his scrutiny – but on numerous occasions he has reappraised and readdressed some of the themes of his work, engaging with his critics rather than burying his head in the sand. 

Sombreuil first connected with Crumb’s cartoons as a kid when she quickly became obsessed with a videotape that her dad banned her from watching. “The VHS lived under the TV with big red letters that said ‘CRUMB’ on it,” she explains. “From pretty early on, I was into anything and everything related to 60s and 70s counter-culture, and Crumb is an emblem of that time.” The collection itself plants his big, bolshy logo across the front of baby-tees and big, full-coverage cotton knickers, while Fritz the Cat stars front and centre. Brought to life through a campaign shot by famed fetish photographer Eric Kroll – who was also behind artwork for the out of bounds video Sombreuil was enraptured by – it's a timely tribute to an outspoken artist whose biography simultaneously lands this week. 

As the Come Tees collection gets its release, Sombreuil speaks on Crumb’s impact on culture and her own work, as well as why she wanted to work with Kroll to capture it all.

When did you first come across Robert Crumb, what was your introduction to his work? 

Sonya Sombreuil: My first introduction was a dubbed VHS tape that lived under our TV with big red cartoon letters that said "CRUMB," which was very appealing to me as a child but my dad forbade me to watch. The name Crumb is so perfect, it sounds like a cartoon puppy's name and it embedded itself in my mind. From pretty early on I was into anything and everything related to 60s and 70s counter-culture, and Crumb is an emblem of that time. My dad used to get me Crumb books for Christmas and one year he got Crumb's Genesis for each member of our family.

Do you have a favourite character, and why is it your fave? 

Sonya Sombreuil: I love the Teenage Pigeon Girl because she is so cute and so gross, just like a real teenage girl. I am a big Mr. Natural girl – I feel like I grew up with that archetype, the mischievous, perverted, but cosmically "turned on" older hippie guy. I also love Andrea Ostrich because she kills Fritz The Cat when he refuses to have sex with her. She is the female ID.

He's a really controversial artist. Why did you want to feature his work, and why now? 

Sonya Sombreuil: The occasion for this collaboration arose because his biography, written by Dan Nadel, is being published, and Dan graciously tapped me. There are only a few artists whose work I have a longer and more personal history and experience with – like I said I was aware of him even as a small child – but I think why now is an even more important question. 

We live in a world where there is more censorship than ever from both sides of the political spectrum in the form of social and speech policing. I'm not about to go on the same rant about fragility or the PC police, but on a more subtle level I think that an artist like Crumb's compulsion to express his psychological and emotional wound is a positive impulse toward healing, and paradoxically it heals the society that produces those wounds. 

He himself says if he didn't express these thoughts he might have been dead or a criminal, like each of his brothers respectively, but instead we gain this incredible body of work that both challenges and enforces social stigmas in our culture. I think by over-policing each other, we lose out on this kind of potential.

“Throughout his career Crumb expressed repulsion and remorse toward himself, but I think he felt driven or even responsible for shedding artistic light in the dark corners of the psyche” – Sonya Sombreuil

Tell me about the designs in the collection, why did you decide on those specific ones? 

Sonya Sombreuil: At first I felt I had a responsibility to represent the span of R. Crumb's whole career in t-shirts, but my friend close friend Jessi Reaves, urged me to just follow my heart and pick my favourite artworks, which include a lot of gymnastic and hairy women – as well as some of the heavy hitters, like Mr. Natural, Fritz who I also feel a personal connection to despite his infamy.

Did you work directly with Robert on the line? How did that work? 

Sonya Sombreuil: Robert approved the collection. Dan Nadel said he was "Heartened and intrigued that some of the 'sexy' stuff was in there."

Crumb has often been accused of objectifying women and even he himself has admitted to this and stopped drawing women some time ago – what do you make of this. Is this project a reappraisal of sorts? 

Sonya Sombreuil: I'm not in a position to defend all of Crumb's work, but I don't see it as a harmful or meaningless ‘objectification’. I think his work is somewhat meta in that he is commenting on or objectifying objectification itself. A lot of his work is about how women objectify men. Like I said, I think Crumb used his art to express his rage and perversions in a way that was both healthy and illuminating – I would say he is a kind of wounded healer. 

I wouldn't characterise his decision to stop drawing women as any kind of "admission" of guilt – he has said he felt bullied by critics and as any normal sensible person would, he felt bad and questioned himself. But he has always maintained that the artwork didn't come from his conscious mind, and that he doesn’t analyse it, doesn't even know what it is. 

Throughout his career he expressed repulsion and remorse toward himself, but I think he felt driven or even responsible for shedding artistic light in the dark corners of the psyche. I recognise the mystical role of the artist here. I also see a shift in subject matter as a kind of rebellion – defying expectations, feeling bored, but also refusing self-imitation.

Why did you want to work with a fetish photographer and portray your models in the way you have? What were you trying to get across? And why did you work with the models you did – what qualities did you see in them that you liked?

Sonya Sombreuil: I have wanted to work with Eric Kroll for a long time and actually, Kroll shot the cover of the Zwigoff Crumb documentary (the one that was stationed below my parent's TV). I wanted to work with Kroll because I saw certain similarities in his and Crumb's obsession with women – an obsession that is more adulating than hostile (and at times both). They both clearly love women, and the women in their work are often funny, intelligent, and playing along. 

The models, Jessi Reaves and Flannery Silva, are close friends of mine, and they are great artists and they are both sexy in a very special self-aware way. I saw this shoot as this incredible situation in which the photographer and artist, Kroll and Crumb, became our muse and inspiration so the roles were reversed. I wanted the models to reference the Crumb universe in costume, but also to participate in a way to heighten the humour and absurdity of that world.

Do you think fashion and wider culture has gone too far in its censorship of sex?  

Sonya Sombreuil: There seems to be both an expansion of sex and expansion of censorship that is simultaneous and irreconcilable. I think in the past, for an artist like Kroll whose art career centred around erotica, sexual content pushed you to the far margins of the art world. I'm not sure that is quite as true today. On the other hand, there is a really insane uptick of panic, control, and manipulation of this panic toward sex. I don't think either are what they seem.

“The models, Jessi Reaves and Flannery Silva, are close friends of mine, and they are great artists and they are both sexy in a very special self-aware way. I saw this shoot as this incredible situation in which the photographer and artist, Kroll and Crumb, became our muse and inspiration so the roles were reversed” – Sonya Sombreuil

Who's wearing this collection? Who would you love to see wearing it?

Sonya Sombreuil: We developed women's panties and baby tees because I really want women to wear this collection, and it was important to me to photograph everything on female models. I really love artists like Crumb that are generationally unifying. I hope this hits the 65-80 demographic [that loved him the first time around] as hard as the 15-30.

Who's next for a collaboration? Dream artist living or dead? 

Sonya Sombreuil: Hiromix and Martine Syms.