Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life

I moved to New York’s East Village in 1968 (and have been there ever since!), so I loved this book. I was 22 and had shoulder-length hair and wore bell-bottom jeans. I saw The Fugs live in Tompkins Square Park and went to free concerts at the Fillmore East. I was there! And this book is the real thing. It is not a Hollywood version of Hippiedom. I loved “R. Crumb” and still do. I love his style of drawing, his sense of humor and his hilarious onomatopoeias. I still laugh at the outrageousness of Mr. Natural and the Big Baby (“Blorp!”) and Honeybunch Kaminsky, the Drug-Crazed Teenage Runaway (“squish-squish”). I needed this book! (It’s hard to believe that the CRUMB documentary was more than 30 years ago!) If you feel the same way, this book is for you. If you’re unfamiliar with Crumb, I have no idea what you’ll make of it. But for me, it was quite valuable. I learned a lot about someone I consider THE major artist of my youth—far more than pretentious artsy-fartsy artistes like “Kusama.” I’m impressed with the way Crumb has kept developing. (I’m now interested in reading Boswell’s LONDON DIARIES, thanks to Crumb.) Dan Nadel does a masterful job or organizing a massive amount of material and putting it into perspective. This is NOT a short book, but I still didn’t want it to end. I was engrossed all the way through. How could I not give it five stars?

NOTE: Dan Nadel’s “Crumb” contains a grievous error of the sort that makes one question the veracity of the rest of the facts in the work. This is unfortunate because the book is otherwise great.So before reading the book go to page 326 and with a very permanent very black magic marker obliterate the words “Rocky Mountains” about three-quarters down the page. Then enjoy—and you will—the rest of the book.

He has his querks and constant self analysed fettishes and obsessions but he is one of the greatest graphic artists, and this very personal biography brings Crunb and the eras of the blossoming of modern comics and graphic novels to life.

In the late 70’s while I was at grad school at UC Berkeley, I was invited to a party.Suddenly out of nowhere the host of the party came over and introduced Robert Crumb to me (had no idea he would be there.).I had a pleasant chat with him for about 30 minutes and he complained about being ripped off by the “keep on truckin’ mudflaps”.I saw the Crumb documentary many years later and was shocked that his brother Maxonwas the same guy I saw in downtown San Francisco on the way to work with a begging bowl (I wish I had given him some money).Haven’t completely finished the book yet but impressed.I have to say that his early work representing women and black people still disturbs me and obviously it was left out of illustrations in the book. I’m looking forward to the book discussing this subject.His family history of serious mental illness hits home with me as I’ve had to deal with similar circumstances in my own.

Well-researched and creatively written - but it's a vanilla biography that doesn't take on any of Crumb's more serious faults and controversies, nor does it go very far in trying to finalize his place in American arts. It's not a hagiography but it's not a balanced work either. As many reviews have said, the narrative tone is fair and forgiving. The author clearly admires his subject which is ok, but definitely tempers any real criticism, artistic or otherwise, that might have been made here. Too much space is given to the Crumb family backstory, which while generally grim and occasionally repellent, finally isn't very interesting.A lot of this ground has been covered already, particularly by Crumb himself or in the famous bio-pic by Terry Zwigoff (which managed to be a little more objective, and tells you all you need to know about his childhood). In short, anyone who knows a bit about Crumb isn't going to get much here - this is a book for the general public, not Crumb aficionados. The most touching part covers the death of his wife Aline, of which very little was reported and over which Crumb has offered no public comment (that I can find). There are quite a few illustrations but you'll need a magnifying glass to read the comic reprints, which given the size of the book was unavoidable, but oddly annoying.

Very good audiobook. I thought the Crumb documentary was depressing, but this tops it. My only gripe: the book narrator kept referring Harvey Pekar as Harvey "Pecker." Ugh...

Very boring book, disappointing.

A fascinating and compelling look into the life and times of the most famous underground comics artist.