While independent pop culture retailers often find it difficult to compete with mass market chains on the pricing of blockbuster DVD releases, small independent films with a specialized appeal offer considerable opportunities.  Case in point, The Confessions of Robert Crumb DVD, which is due out from Home Vision Entertainment in February with a retail price of $19.95.  This DVD is based on a documentary done for the BBC and was shot from a script prepared by Crumb himself.  Anyone who has read Crumb's confessional comics knows that just because he is writing the script it does not mean that he will go easy on himself.  His complex, convoluted attitudes toward women are explored at some length in this film, which was shot in 1987.  The Confessions of Robert Crumb provides an excellent counterpoint to Terry Zwigoff's more famous documentary, Crumb, which is also available on DVD (MSRP $27.95).  Zwigoff's film explores the twisted world of the family Crumb grew up in, while the Confessions of Robert Crumb concentrates more on Crumb's life as an adult and the family that he and wife Aline Kaminsky-Crumb have created for themselves, including some great footage of Crumb working at his drawing board.  The documentary also permits the artist to demonstrate his considerable musical talents.

 

With Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World film also debuting on DVD in February (see 'Ghost World DVD Bows in Feb'), enterprising retailers can create any number of interesting displays featuring the work of Zwigoff, Dan Clowes (who wrote the Ghost World graphic novel and screenplay) and Crumb.  Zwigoff's Crumb documentary is a natural, and The Confessions of Robert Crumb is not without its links to Ghost World.  Crumb's daughter Sophie, who appears as a precocious 6-year-old in Confessions, drew the sketchbooks for the character played by Thora Birch in Ghost World.  Savvy retailers might also want to include some of The Cheap Suit Serenaders CDs, which feature both Crumb and Terry Zwigoff as well as books from The Complete Crumb Collection published by Fantagraphics (which also publishes the Ghost World graphic novel and Screenplay).