Obsessive love is bad if it leads to bad outcomes, but Crumb himself has been happily married for decades. It seems very judgmental to pile on criticism of the

Obsessive love is bad if it leads to bad outcomes, but Crumb himself has been happily married for decades. It seems very judgmental to pile on criticism of the style of someone's obsession - when most of his own work is devoted to disentangling those obsessions. It's also unkind to pronounce his work a "trash fire". Surrounded by hypocrites who don't have the self-reflection, intellectual honesty, or skill to reveal their inner dichotomies and turmoil, who are we to criticize someone for trying to download their inner mess to the rest of us? Sure, he's an easy target, but it's obnoxiously priggish to deride the one guy who puts it in print while you and your neighbors have the same or worse obsessions that cannot be spoken or named.