Bruce Cockburn and random notes

Comments from Thanksgiving 2009 on Facebook

This is an awesome song, I heard him do it live the first time 1978
in a small club in Chicago called The Quiet Knight.
We hung out with him backstage in this tiny room the whole time. The Lord Of The Starfields on YouTube, check it out.

If Bruce Cockburn was not such a personal friend having a huge impact on my career as an Artist, I would not be mentioning this, but the fact is he came along at a time when I had to make the final decision to step it up once and for all. And what did it for me was Bruce's dedication to his Art regardless of acclaim, fame or fortune. We both know he was kept out of the BIG Music Biz in America, but that is exactly what I needed to inspire me in my career as an Artist, to do it for the Art if that were all I got out of it....... Bruce's example of suffering through the business to get to the Music, and his personal way with people, made a lasting impression on me and my art. After spending two days with him in 1978, I was off to the Races as they say. I just put the head phones on and started drawing, inking, designing while listening to this amazingly gifted Artist/Musician from Canada.....Bruce Cockburn. Somehow, the pain disappeared, the doubts dissolved, the stumbling blocks were removed and I ran free to do the art for the sake of doing it.

But seven years later, Robert Crumb challenged me again to do it for the sake of the Art in a phone interview. Funny thing about that was the perception by some "well meaning friends" who were under the assumption back in the early 80's that Robert was making tons of money from his comics......?????

I never argued with those "well meaning friends" but found out from Mr. Crumb that that was not exactly the case at the time........He proved that to me and others in 1988 when he charged only $50 for a two page comic of his, we reprinted. Since those two witnesses, Bruce Cockburn and R. Crumb have so clearly laid out the path, I suggest if you are aspiring to be an Artist do it for the Art or dont do it.

If by chance and a lot of Luck, you can earn a living from your work, then more Power to you. But that may never happen, so I suggest you find someone to mentor you along, someone who is able to point you in the right direction. Happy Holidays

R.Crumb's Prophesy and the Book of Genesis

I just want to say this one thing about the Serpent from R. Crumb's Book of Genesis, Crumb did him right, with legs and arms. It was after the garden thing that the Lord God said He would crush the serpent's head and make the serpent slither on the ground. What would you do if you met a Lizard Man creature covered in precious stones? You would probably take his advice too............ eat from a tree to become as god or goddess, just like Adam and Eve did.

A friend Josephine posted on my Facebook concerning this, she writes, "I am going to get Crumb's book" My response was....."yes, (but) remember it is the Bible and even if Crumb (himself) does not believe it is the literal Word of God, he did illustrate it literally and with great respect to the Torah, Israel and Ishmael's descendants too. It is quite obvious to even the casual observer Crumb's own talents are uniquely God given, so you will be reading the Bible just by looking at the pictures if you get this Book of Genesis by R.Crumb. By all means buy it and read it, and if you can get it at a book signing, all the better.

And even if you just want read it in a King James text, because maybe you never read such stories in the Old Testament, you will find the same stories. Only difference is no one ever illustrated it like it is literally written before now. Particularly, Noah having sex with his daughters, after they got him drunk. I am going out so far as to say this will change the way we view the Torah and the Holy Scriptures in years to come, regardless of what Robert or any one of us says about it.

R. Crumb told me over the phone, while I was doing an interview with him in 1985 for Cornerstone magazine, that I would soon be doing other things. He literally prophesied I was going to fall out of favor and lose my job at Cornerstone, as the staff cartoonist. I was stunned, I had nothing to come back with. I remember specifically to this day what R.Crumb said to me. He said, "the die was cast and I would be soon doing other things for Jesus". It was prophetic and almost instantaneous, for shortly after that phone conversation, I was out looking for free lance work. Don't believe it? Ask Skip Williamson, he hired me.

At a time, when I was in no way shape or form ready for going out to fend for my family as a freelancer. There I was out of favor and out of my position as the Comic artist, at the top of my comic career or so I thought. R.Crumb is like Bob Dylan, a prophet to our generation, ask around if you don't believe it. I only know I spent two hours on the phone with him and it changed everything back in 1985. And just because he took great care and time to do a perfect satire on my comic entitled "A Rock and Roll Classic" in Zap no.#10. And after touching on every issue we could think of..... finally he just said, "Mr Cox, Jesus has other things for you, my friend, the die is cast , your days are numbered at Cornerstone...." He was right...

So I am warning folks, not to trifle, this is the Bible and it carries it's warning with in it's pages that God is not mocked, nor is He a Man that He should repent. Only a Fool says in his heart there is No God......and it says it is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God, I can testify to that. I am very happy for R. Crumb and his heirs, as this will continue to sell long after he is gone, providing for his family and their descendants for generations. From my perspective it is clearly the Hand of God, a Gift to me and many others, proof that God loves them and has never abandon us even in the hardest times since those cold days in Chicago 1985. Can you still remember how hard it was?

The Book of Genesis, illustrated by a wonderful friend, it is all I want or need for Christmas 2009. Last year I got my one and only Christmas present, to see a parallel movie version of my Dietrich Bonhoeffer Graphic Novel: RESISTANCE, to a tee in certain parts, on the big screen with Tom Cruise in Valkryie on Christmas day. This Christmas, it will be reading R. Crumb's Master Piece, the Illustrated Book of Genesis. I can also testify, there is a Father Christmas, another one of my four kinds of high.......