User:Viriditas/A Short History of America

"A Short History of America" is a 1979 comic by American cartoonist Robert Crumb, first published by CoEvolution Quarterly and later reprinted that same year in Snoid Comics by Kitchen Sink Press. The original comic is in black and white ink, consisting of a total of twelve panels across four pages, three per page. A few years later, another version was released adding color. In 1988, Crumb added three additional panels. Today, the entire work is often depicted on a single page in print or online, and usually sold in the form of a poster. It is considered one of Crumb's most famous works outside his usual genre of underground comix, and it explores the green, environmental themes popular with the counterculture of the 1970s. Along with "Keep On Truckin'" (1968) and the cover art for Cheap Thrills (1968), "A Short History of America" is one of the most reproduced and anthologized of his works. American artist Chris Ware called it "one of the best comic strips ever drawn". It continues to be used by educators and scientists to help illustrate the cumulative effects of physical activities in a region and their impact on the environment, as well as to visualize future scenarios relevant to discussions about environmental mitigation.

Critical reception
VR pioneer Michael Naimark compares Crumb's work to that of Children's Games (1560) by 16th century Flemmish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Both pieces, Naimark argues, are examples of "place-based works depicting 'accumulated' views", with Crumb using the different panels over time, while Bruegel shows them simultaneously. Daniel Worden of Rochester Institute of Technology sees "A Short History of America" as a parody and continuation of the five-part series The Course of Empire (1833–1836) by American landscape painter Thomas Cole (1801–1848). Like Crumb's work, The Course of Empire shows the same landscape over many different generations, from a natural state to the creation of an empire, and finally its decline. Unlike Cole, however, Crumb's addition of three new panels in 1981 shows that a future might be possible.

Exhibition
A 1993 serigraph of A Short History of America was exhibited in 2009 in the show Underground Classics: The Transformation of Comics into Comix at the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconisn.