"The Religious Experience" is a perfect title. As someone who grew up extremely religious, I had several small moments that felt like direct interaction with the divine. You can't explain it, you can't repeat it, it's not scientific, but it can completely redirect and shape your life "A Scanner Darkly" was the first secular book I ever read that accurately described what a religious experience feels like I'm writing my first comic for Webtoon called "Wolfman & Lion" that addresses this very topic. Chapter 5 is literally called "the religious experience" Love your videos guys! Keep up the great work
Artists who don't believe in God, divine or anything is weird. I can't separate art from the divine - Harold Bloom gets a lot about it, the artist sets out to study truth and evil, so the divine would be the immutable good; the search for the truth even if the absolute truth does not fit into words (the divine is not written), we must search until the end. We see a lot of atheist artists in pop culture, but today's pop culture is replaced by future trends in pop culture. Good luck in your work.
I am just now reading this Erik Davis book that deals with the similar experiencies that Philip K, Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKena went throgh in the seventies. Just today Im reading the chapter about Dick and as i turn the page where the book reproduces the Crumb comic a notification goes off in my phone and its this video. Fucking synchronicities man.
There's a fascinating film called "A Glitch in the Matrix" that includes some of Dick's interview where he first talks publicly about this experience. It's on Hulu. Highly recommended.
I have a new favorite episode. I could never find that work on the Web until now. Had to pause the video to read the text when hands weren't in the way. Many thanks! I've always been a fan of Dick's work.
VALIS is a trippy read the whole way through. It blew my mind in college. When I later learned that Crumb had illustrated this portion of the book it was like a piece of some cosmic puzzle had fallen into place. The combination just made so much sense.
Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, The Man in the High Castle, that one Nicolas Cage movie where he can see how the immediate future will play out, those were all movies/tv shows that were originally Phil Dick stories. PKD was prolific and got his start as a writer back in the late 1950s and continued writing into the 1980s. Couldn't get enough of him when I was in my 20s. I remember reading this comic online over a decade ago but I was already well familiar with Dick's story of his religious experience/mental breakdown. It's easy to write off stories like this but certain stuff like the voice telling him about needing to take his son to the doctor makes it difficult to do so. There will always be more to reality than we can truly know, you know, so you can never be totally certain that spooky things are not afoot.
I think Crumb's color seps were done by using opaque paints on overlays -- an arcane method he learned at the greeting card place in the early /mid 60s. Dori Seda had some of these supplies that Crumb had gifted her, she showed them to me at one point, this in the 80s time of ruby and amber. I'm like, this is insane!
The artwork is amazing. I know it wasn’t in the budgets back then, but I have a feeling color would really add to this piece, particularly given the subject matter and the two different time periods displayed.
I met and spoke with Jay Disbrow at a NYC comic convention many years ago. He wasn't aware of the fact that R. Crumb referenced him in the BBC documentary.
Jonathan Lethem, one of the editors of the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick has a great book of essays called the Disappointment Artist. Within is a personal story about his own experience sifting through Dick's catalog "You Don't Know Dick". A special bonus is a memoir on Marvel Comics and Kirby in the 70's called "Identifying With Your Parents, or The Return of the King."
I'd like to see a Jay Disbrow video, especially on his covers. You could also look at covers of his compulsive contemporaries Alex Schomburg and L.B.Cole.
He's an amazing cartoonist.He produced a rigorous web comic in the early 00s - Aroc of Zenith. And he was one of the first cartoonists that Fantagraphics published. The guy drew Golden Age comics! I don't think anyone had a comics career like his. I just picked up one of his 80s comics this past weekend. - Jim
There is a biography on PKD called "I Am Alive and You Are Dead" that goes in to Dick's history of hallucinations. He had hallucinations well before his days of drug use. I always wondered if PKD had some sort of mild epilepsy and if the rapid flashing from the necklace caused him to have a seizure induced hallucination.
Prime Crumb! Also, Crumb did a study of Jay Disbrow in one of his sketchbooks (the latest Taschen volume, page 21). Here’s another vote for a Jay Disbrow video!
Makes a lot of sense that Crumb covered this. Philip K Dick was a nut bar. Dude ate cat food and was hopped up on Amphetamines which just made him a walking time bomb of crazy. Like... If you ever want to think of "Paranoid crazy person who is PROBABLY rummaging through your bins right now"? That's Philip K Dick. Hell, I remember Stanislaw Lem actually admired him and was disappointed to discover that Dick thought Lem was a Soviet propagandist plot (a la ghost writers) and wasn't real. Kinda sad when your heroes a freaking loon and thinks you're a Communist robot.
He ate pet food because he was living from check to check. He often scrambled to finish the endings of his novels to get some money. Desperate elderly people have and still do resort to eating pet food just to survive. It has nothing to do with one's mental health.
@@nivekleveb8872 I don't discredit the mans work. I re-read A Scanner Darkly every year or so myself. I pity Philip K. Dick for the fact that he (probably) had undiagnosed mental health issues in a time when you had that, you were locked in a nut house. Does not make it right and I pity the poor guy for it because I tend to wish the people who bring me joy to have a comfortable life where they're not tortured by the maze in their mind.
@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 Oh I know. I prefer the dry kind of dog food myself, less chance of tapeworm and less of that gross jelly stuff. You ever smiled after having that between your gums? It's nasty. I'm ultimately saying that Philip K Dick was a tragic figure, similar to someone like Poe, who was having to struggle when he really shouldn't have been. As someone who has to deal with mental health issues on a daily basis, I have nothing BUT sympathy for the guy because I've seen friends go down the same path of paranoia, mistrust and become locked in their own minds where they become obsessed and dedicated to some strange ideas. Poverty isn't something to celebrate and poverty with mental health issues is worse. It sucks to hear that someone else had to struggle when he's a world famous author.
I thought I heard that Duck did LSD back in the 60’s which probably contributed to his visions. I always just assumed he was never "normal". Always interesting reading.
There's a movie based on an unfinished Dick novel, called Radio Free Albemuth. It is the most authentically "Dickian" of the movies based on Dick's ideas. Through a Scanner Darkly with Keanu Reeves is also good, though I found the rotoscoping sort of exhausting.
"The Religious Experience" is a perfect title. As someone who grew up extremely religious, I had several small moments that felt like direct interaction with the divine. You can't explain it, you can't repeat it, it's not scientific, but it can completely redirect and shape your life
"A Scanner Darkly" was the first secular book I ever read that accurately described what a religious experience feels like
I'm writing my first comic for Webtoon called "Wolfman & Lion" that addresses this very topic. Chapter 5 is literally called "the religious experience"
Love your videos guys! Keep up the great work
Artists who don't believe in God, divine or anything is weird. I can't separate art from the divine - Harold Bloom gets a lot about it, the artist sets out to study truth and evil, so the divine would be the immutable good; the search for the truth even if the absolute truth does not fit into words (the divine is not written), we must search until the end.
We see a lot of atheist artists in pop culture, but today's pop culture is replaced by future trends in pop culture.
Good luck in your work.
I am just now reading this Erik Davis book that deals with the similar experiencies that Philip K, Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKena went throgh in the seventies. Just today Im reading the chapter about Dick and as i turn the page where the book reproduces the Crumb comic a notification goes off in my phone and its this video. Fucking synchronicities man.
Welcome to the Matrix. - Jim
There's a fascinating film called "A Glitch in the Matrix" that includes some of Dick's interview where he first talks publicly about this experience. It's on Hulu. Highly recommended.
I have a new favorite episode. I could never find that work on the Web until now. Had to pause the video to read the text when hands weren't in the way. Many thanks! I've always been a fan of Dick's work.
VALIS is a trippy read the whole way through. It blew my mind in college. When I later learned that Crumb had illustrated this portion of the book it was like a piece of some cosmic puzzle had fallen into place. The combination just made so much sense.
its a tough read
The empire never ended.
Thanks, my interest is piqued. Further explorations needed. What a fun experience 😮😅😊Tally-ho.!!
Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Paycheck, The Man in the High Castle, that one Nicolas Cage movie where he can see how the immediate future will play out, those were all movies/tv shows that were originally Phil Dick stories. PKD was prolific and got his start as a writer back in the late 1950s and continued writing into the 1980s. Couldn't get enough of him when I was in my 20s. I remember reading this comic online over a decade ago but I was already well familiar with Dick's story of his religious experience/mental breakdown. It's easy to write off stories like this but certain stuff like the voice telling him about needing to take his son to the doctor makes it difficult to do so. There will always be more to reality than we can truly know, you know, so you can never be totally certain that spooky things are not afoot.
NEXT, with cage
I think Crumb's color seps were done by using opaque paints on overlays -- an arcane method he learned at the greeting card place in the early /mid 60s. Dori Seda had some of these supplies that Crumb had gifted her, she showed them to me at one point, this in the 80s time of ruby and amber. I'm like, this is insane!
Yeah. Dori Seda. Yet another talented artist who went to an early grave.
The artwork is amazing. I know it wasn’t in the budgets back then, but I have a feeling color would really add to this piece, particularly given the subject matter and the two different time periods displayed.
I met and spoke with Jay Disbrow at a NYC comic convention many years ago. He wasn't aware of the fact that R. Crumb referenced him in the BBC documentary.
Did Mr. Disbrow say how he felt about Crumb, his work, and him citing Disbrow as an influence?
Jonathan Lethem, one of the editors of the Exegesis of Philip K. Dick has a great book of essays called the Disappointment Artist. Within is a personal story about his own experience sifting through Dick's catalog "You Don't Know Dick". A special bonus is a memoir on Marvel Comics and Kirby in the 70's called "Identifying With Your Parents, or The Return of the King."
This is a great book! I love Lethem! Also, highly recommend his novel, 'The Fortress of Solitude'
This illustration of Phillip K. Dick looks like Jordon Peterson.
I'd like to see a Jay Disbrow video, especially on his covers. You could also look at covers of his compulsive contemporaries Alex Schomburg and L.B.Cole.
He's an amazing cartoonist.He produced a rigorous web comic in the early 00s - Aroc of Zenith. And he was one of the first cartoonists that Fantagraphics published. The guy drew Golden Age comics! I don't think anyone had a comics career like his. I just picked up one of his 80s comics this past weekend. - Jim
awesome commentary and detailed description..cheers.
Thank You!!!
WOW that cover reminds me of the "shunting" scene in Society 1989, i wonder if screaming mad george was a fan
There is a biography on PKD called "I Am Alive and You Are Dead" that goes in to Dick's history of hallucinations. He had hallucinations well before his days of drug use. I always wondered if PKD had some sort of mild epilepsy and if the rapid flashing from the necklace caused him to have a seizure induced hallucination.
Prime Crumb! Also, Crumb did a study of Jay Disbrow in one of his sketchbooks (the latest Taschen volume, page 21). Here’s another vote for a Jay Disbrow video!
Makes a lot of sense that Crumb covered this. Philip K Dick was a nut bar. Dude ate cat food and was hopped up on Amphetamines which just made him a walking time bomb of crazy. Like... If you ever want to think of "Paranoid crazy person who is PROBABLY rummaging through your bins right now"? That's Philip K Dick. Hell, I remember Stanislaw Lem actually admired him and was disappointed to discover that Dick thought Lem was a Soviet propagandist plot (a la ghost writers) and wasn't real. Kinda sad when your heroes a freaking loon and thinks you're a Communist robot.
It was dog food, dammit! And his friends think he was lying for show.
He ate pet food because he was living from check to check. He often scrambled to finish the endings of his novels to get some money. Desperate elderly people have and still do resort to eating pet food just to survive. It has nothing to do with one's mental health.
@@nivekleveb8872 I don't discredit the mans work. I re-read A Scanner Darkly every year or so myself. I pity Philip K. Dick for the fact that he (probably) had undiagnosed mental health issues in a time when you had that, you were locked in a nut house. Does not make it right and I pity the poor guy for it because I tend to wish the people who bring me joy to have a comfortable life where they're not tortured by the maze in their mind.
@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 Oh I know. I prefer the dry kind of dog food myself, less chance of tapeworm and less of that gross jelly stuff. You ever smiled after having that between your gums? It's nasty.
I'm ultimately saying that Philip K Dick was a tragic figure, similar to someone like Poe, who was having to struggle when he really shouldn't have been. As someone who has to deal with mental health issues on a daily basis, I have nothing BUT sympathy for the guy because I've seen friends go down the same path of paranoia, mistrust and become locked in their own minds where they become obsessed and dedicated to some strange ideas. Poverty isn't something to celebrate and poverty with mental health issues is worse. It sucks to hear that someone else had to struggle when he's a world famous author.
Yes, let's look at Jay Disbrow. I have a few comics, but I'd love to see more!
I had no idea Crub had retold the Dick's story. Going to order this!
where?
Whoa. That was fascinating!
I thought I heard that Duck did LSD back in the 60’s which probably contributed to his visions. I always just assumed he was never "normal". Always interesting reading.
Hey man, we ain't all surfing nuts who do yoga, that's southern California 😂
There's a movie based on an unfinished Dick novel, called Radio Free Albemuth. It is the most authentically "Dickian" of the movies based on Dick's ideas. Through a Scanner Darkly with Keanu Reeves is also good, though I found the rotoscoping sort of exhausting.
I have the book that Crumb's dad wrote: Training People Effectively. Crumb described this in his famous documentary by Zwigoff.
Is the book any good?
You put Philip K Dicks epiphany down to "MK Ultra liquid acid type shit". Have you ever done Acid? This was something else for fuckin' sure!
Has this story been reprinted anywhere?
Cover reminds me of the NATIONAL LAMPOON cover, "If you don't buy this magazine we'll kill
this dog."
pkd was definitely a kook, magical thinker, and all around paranoid.
but he was right,
the empire never ended
Sounds to me that Phillip had a tooth pulled and his pain killer was some heavy narcotics, that would explain the inset of his "visions."
Dentist had given him a shot of Sodium Pentathol. I just watched pkd talking about it.
I pray often for the salvation of Mr. Crumb. He needs Christ desperately.