Customer Reviews

The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 10: Crumb Advocates Violent Overthrow!

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story from which an inset is shown on the cover of this volume is one of the gutsiest I've seen in Crumb's career -- and which probably caused him the heaviest backlash. Frosty and a couple "revolutionary types" go to bomb the Rockefeller mansion. It still makes me cringe, the fact that the cover says that Crumb advocates violent overthrow! Perhaps he DID believe at one time that would be a good idea. I daresay he does NOT feel that way now. Later comics and interviews reveal both his paranoia after printing those Frosty stories -- fearing "they" would be out to get him -- and his belief that it was this story that caused the IRS to make his life a living hell for a number of years, the IRS being used as a "harassment arm." For this alone I think it makes the book worthy of inspecting.

While I must disagree who said this was Crumb "at his worst" -- as I am not at all certain Crumb's worst is bad enough to be called the W word -- I would say that his collaborative comics with Aline Kominsky in this volume may have been the crudest of her work that I remember having seen.

This volume is a mixed bag with some delights and other things while less delightful still interesting. Not my favorite of Crumb's work, but I wouldn't dismiss this volume either. I really enjoyed his comic called "The Kid," and this is the ONLY volume in which I have seen Crumb depict his son Jesse as a kid. The way he depicts Jesse is hilarious, outrageous and deeply disturbing, but I guess I wouldn't be such a huge Crumb fan if his work DIDN'T disturb me!

One other thing: I also find this to be one of the few volumes to show Crumb and Kominsky collaborating on highly imaginative stories where, while they may speak at least a partial truth about their own relations it is clear that they are telling tall tales.

I think in the end I have to classify this volume almost as an "experimental" volume -- where things not usually seen, even from Crumb (or Kominsky) are seen and heard -- and some which I admit I am glad he left off doing after the experiment. No, this volume is NOT among my favorites, I must admit; yet I wouldn't want to be without it. "Gotta have it" books, to me, deserve 5 stars (4 1/2 actually, but that is not one of the choices here)!!

The classic comic style and the hilarious stories that he creates is on point. I love his work and he didsn't sell this one short