ROBERT CRUMB SKETCHBOOK HC (2025)

"From the very beginning, even before the sexual revolution made Robert Crumb the world's most celebrated underground cartoonist, he felt compelled to commit his sexual fantasies to paper. Once upon a time, he'd destroy them, fearful of others discovering his quirky tastes. Then he found that baring his soul provided a sort of therapy, leading him to immortalize every desire in pen and ink. This compact new edition, sourced from the same Robert Crumb Sketchbooks 1964-1982, offers the same high-quality obsession at a bargain price. Through satire, psychedelia, and outlandish sexually obsessed characters, 448 pages bring the best of Crumb's prolific mid-1960's period of June 1964 to September 1968."

"Called the Bruegel of underground art, Robert Crumb is an American icon of comic introspection, cultural satire, and sexual obsession. This new collection presents an affordable 444-page trip through the hippie years, 1968-1975, personally sourced by the artist from his original sketchbooks. R. Crumb Sketchbook, Volume 2: Sept. 1968 - Jan. 1975 combines the two middle volumes from the second boxed set, produced directly from the original artworks. This book contains hundreds of sketches from the master of underground comic art, including cover roughs for Zap, Motor City and Despair comics, the introduction of Aline, and much more, all wrapped up in front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself."

Combining volumes 5 and 6 from the second R. Crumb Sketchbook boxed set, and produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, this is one big 444-page Crumb feast for way less than his rare originals. Among the hundreds of subjects included are Crumb's move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, the birth of daughter Sophie, as well as further adventures of Mr. Natural, mischievous Snoids, Arcade comics strips, political discontent, existential angst, huge powerful women, geeky little guys, Mao Tse Tung, Mick Jagger and moral outrage, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself.

"This book spans the years 1982 to 1989, a period when the artist was comfortably ensconced in rural California, raising his young daughter Sophie, who appears throughout this volume. But Crumb was still Crumb, declaring in one drawing, above a lovingly rendered tree, 'As I get older I get more twisted, convoluted, depraved, cynical, embittered, self-centered, jaded, debauched, ruthless, greedy, conceited, set-in-my-ways, long-winded, absent-minded, prejudiced, closed-minded, misanthropic, nervous ' To prove this self-flagellating analysis he fills the pages with his signature perversions (in country settings), scathing social commentary, cruel self-portraits, experimental cubism and some lovely sylvan landscape. His mastery of the Rapidograph pen is at its zenith here in his 40s."

As this volume opens we find our hero at age 46, solidly into the midlife crises years. Crumb has lived his entire life in anxious, introspective, self-flagellating crises, however, so the middle years bring only a refinement of his lifelong turmoil and further honing of artistic talent. More words accompany the drawings, demonstrating Crumb's brilliant powers of observation, as in a long paragraph devoted to an encounter with one of brother Maxon's vegan turds, and a poetic paean to the heartbreak of life and aging. The family's move to Sauve, France, in 1991 is heralded by a switch from portraits of apple-cheeked American girls sketched while waiting for food in California cafes to portraits of girls in French cafes, by pastorals of rampant French countryside, and by haunting tableau of homeless beggars in the Metro. The most notable new character in this sketchbook is a turbaned holy man named, by young Sophie Crumb, Roman Dodo, who seems loosely inspired by Robert's brother Maxon. Patricia Pig, a cheerful human/porcine hybrid also debuts, alongside portraits of girlfriends present and past.

The last volume of this six-book series has our hero settled in his French home, still illustrating sex fantasies and ranting against the human condition, but increasingly working from photos and historical themes. Images of torture at Abu Ghraib and family portraits are mashed together. Old age hasn't brought contentment. "Silly Fool Comics" fills the final page in this final volume, with a devilish creature telling the anguished Crumb, "YOU Will Soon Be DEAD!" He was a mere 67, but in his self-absorbed Crumbish way was obsessing about death, when not making intimate and loving portraits of his wife Aline and all the other women who'd tormented his libido since boyhood. Most impressive in this book are his historic tableau, some single page, others multi-page strips, including Piers the Ploughman of 14th century England, My Secret Life by "Walter," Rough Women of the Dark Ages and The Apache Dance, from a 1930s Parisian postcard. His Rapidographed cross hatching is superb as ever and we are treated to long screeds displaying his undimmed brilliance at analyzing the human condition, in a morbid but nonetheless amusing way. One could say there are no surprises in content, as Crumb has produced a consistent body of work over the last 40, if not 50, years, yet each page is also jarringly different from the one before, due to his personal juxtaposition of images. So much is packed in you can spend an hour and find you're only a quarter of the way through, with Crumb bemoaning his mortality, while continuing to prosper, every few pages. A fine stand-alone volume, and must-have completion for the sketchbook set.