Crumb, R.

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

Anyone who knows R. Crumb’s work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to- mid-1980s. Now they are packaged together for the first time in book form, along with an exclusive 21-track CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself (featuring original recordings by Charley Patton, “Dock” Boggs, “Jelly Roll” Morton, and others). A bio of each musician is provided, along with a full-color original illustration by the cartoonist. A characteristically idiosyncratic tribute by an underground icon to the musical innovators who helped inspire him, R. Crumb’s Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a must-have collection for Crumb aficionados, comics fans, and music lovers alike.

The R. Crumb Handbook

From the mountains of Southern France where he currently lives and works, pop artist R. Crumb makes a grand entrance back to the publishing world with The R. Crumb Handbook. Part biography, part comic book, and part media critique, the latest Crumb book is a feast indeed. In addition to numerous reprints of Crumb comic hits like Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, the book also features new works by Crumb, including a hilarious dialogue between the artist and his wife. (Both Crumb's wife and daughter are comic book artists.) Fans already familiar with Crumb's comic book work will rejoice at the glossy reprints of Crumb oil paintings and sculptures, complete with gallery-owner narratives about working with the artist. There are also record covers reprints that Crumb has drawn over the years, as well as a CD of songs by the artist's traditional band, R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders. But more important, the Handbook helps provide a window into the man himself.

In fact the more you read The R. Crumb Handbook the more you start to understand Crumb is really a political cartoonist, challenging stereotypes, cultural norms, and the media. U.S. media in particular has had a powerful and profound impact on Crumb. Readers will learn what TV shows and books inspired Crumb, the state of comics in the 1960s versus today, the media's effect on day-to-day life, and what other comics served as models for Crumb in his own work. Artists like Jack Davis, John Stanley, Carl Barks, and the late Will Eisner made powerful impressions on Crumb about what comics could achieve. Crumb offers up some interesting insight into comics during the Great Depression (e.g., Dick Tracy and Superman) and explains how many of these comics mirrored the era and encouraged readers to "fight on" even during tough times. The R. Crumb Handbook is a solid piece of work, not only giving us a glimpse into the artist, but serving as a great read for old and new fans alike. --Pat Kearney

The Complete Crumb Comics, Volume 16

The multiple award-winning The Complete Crumb Comics series—the definitive, comprehensive series reprinting the entirety of Crumb's oeuvre—enters the mid-1980s with this 16th volume, a period that many critics consider to be the richest of Crumb's career. Anchored by Crumb's contributions to the seminal anthology Weirdo, created and edited by Crumb, this volume focuses on the years 1985-1987 and includes the seminal "Jelly Roll Morton's Voodoo Curse," from Art Spiegelman's RAW magazine. Also featured are Crumb's gorgeous "Pioneers of Country Music" color portrait series, and such Weirdo classics as "The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick," which chronicles the last years of the highly-regarded science-fiction writer who experienced an intense vision of the apocalypse and believed that he was possessed by the spirit of Elijah.

Also included is Crumb's first issue of Hup, his acclaimed solo series of the 1980s and 1990s. The book is rounded out with a new cover and introduction by Crumb and a color section that includes rare album art for various jazz and blues greats, as well reproductions of his various comic book covers from this period. Crumb is the most revealing of all artists, and The Complete Crumb Comics leaves no stone unturned.

R. Crumb Sketchbook, 1964-1965 Vol. 1 (R. Crumb Sketchbooks)

The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics

The Complete Dirty Laundry Comics collects the two issues of Dirty Laundry Comics as well as other comics that were collaborations between Robert Crumb and his wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb. Against the backdrop of the wild 1970s, the Crumbs appear as themselves in autobiographical vignettes. They wander through various situations ranging from the banal (Aline complaining that she doesn't draw as well as Robert) to the extreme (Robert shoving Aline's face into a pool of vomit). While both of these artists share an almost unrelenting frankness, they each have unique personalities and art styles.

Big Yum Yum Book: The Story of Oggie and the Beanstalk

The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb

Described by art critic Robert Hughes as ?the Brueghel of the 20th century, ? Robert Crumb has become the only sixties counter culture artist to break through into the fine art world with great acclaim. Laura Hoptman, curator of the Carnegie International said, ?Crumb is one of the most subversive and important voices to come out of America in the 20th century?He's one of the greatest draftsmen of our time.? Now available for general distribution is The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb which is an exclusive collection of drawings that reveal the tender side of R. Crumb. Evocative haunting images of people and places such as Aline, his daughter Sophie, scenes from the village and region he lives in the South of France, Jesse Crumb, his first wife Dana and their son Jesse and of course the Blues musicians he treasures from his 78rpm record collection.

R. Crumb Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country 2008 Wall Calendar

This calendar, based on Abrams' popular book R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country, features a different music legend for each month of the year and comes with six postcards.

R. Crumb: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series)

R. Crumb's illustrations have appeared on the covers of albums by Big Brother and the Holding Company, on bootlegged T-shirts, and in several underground newspapers. He is, however, first and foremost, known as the father of underground comics and for work that paved the way for both satirical comics and autobiographical work in the comics medium.

He has been compared favorably to Brueghel, demonized as a misogynist, defended by feminists, and lionized as the subject of Crumb, an award-winning documentary film. Having created such iconic characters as Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, and even himself as part of his cartoon universe, R. Crumb (b. 1943) is firmly established as one of the most significant, controversial, and technically gifted cartoonists of the second half of the twentieth century.

R. Crumb: Conversations collects interviews that span the late 1960s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. In these Crumb proves to be iconoclastic, opinionated, and---despite his celebrity---impervious to the commercial moods of the public.

Crumb appears alternately as neurotic, witty, acerbic, gentlemanly, cruel, verbose, and reticent. His persona in comics form (as an unattractive, continually nervous, lecherous, obsessive man) is both confirmed and challenged by the person who emerges from these interviews.

Gathered here are interviews and profiles that span the various periods and events in his life and work, including his early days as a countercultural figure in San Francisco, his verging on a nervous breakdown after the release of the X-rated Fritz the Cat, his editing the groundbreaking comics anthology Weirdo, his move to France in the 1990s, and the resurgence of his popularity when Crumb was released.

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Robert Crumb: The Conversation Series (The Conversation)

This out-of-sequence first volume in Hans Ulrich Obrist's Conversation Series is devoted to the influential cult comics artist, Robert Crumb-creator of Fritz the Cat, Zap Comics and Mr. Natural, among many other iconic underground mainstays. Both Obrist and Crumb are great conversationalists, and here they make a great match:
Obrist: Could you tell me a little bit about how you feel about America and world politics right now?
Crumb: Well, when I was young I really believed in the revolution. I don't really believe in revolution any more; I'm too old now. I think that any violent over-turning of a government or society causes a reaction that is bad or worse than the thing that they were revolting against to begin with... In the early 1970s I believed in that whole thing. I had basically left-wing sympathies but, I don't know, as someone said about communism: great idea, wrong species!