Aline Kominsky

Aline Kominsky-Crumb (born Aline Goldsmith, August 1948, Long Beach, New York) is an American underground comics artist best known as the wife of cartoonist R. Crumb.

She was born to a middle class Jewish family in the Five Towns area of Long Island. Her father was a largely unsuccessful businessman and organized crime associate. She later claimed that the social milieu shown in the movie Goodfellas (some of which was set in the Five Towns area) bore some resemblance to her own childhood. As a teenager, she turned towards drugs and the counterculture, and was a hanger-on to New York countercultural musicians such as The Fugs. Relocating to East Village during her college years, she began studying art at The Cooper Union.

In 1968, she married her first husband, Carl Kominsky, with whom she relocated to Tucson, Arizona. Their marriage did not last long. However, she retained the surname Kominsky after their split. During this time, she attended University of Arizona, graduating with a BFA in 1971. She was also introduced to Spain Rodriguez and Kim Deitch by former Fugs drummer Ken Weaver, who was living in Tucson at the time. Spain and Deitch introduced her to underground comics, inspiring her to begin writing underground comics herself and to relocate to San Francisco.