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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Amazing Id Of Robert Crumb, September 12, 2002
This review is from: The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book (Kitchen Sink Press Book for Back Bay Books) (Paperback)
There's an illustration on the back cover of The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book that perfectly encapsulates the artist's work - it depicts the top of Robert's head exploding, with several of his creations, famous, infamous, and otherwise, leaping out. That, to me, sums up Crumb's work - this incredibly inventive artist with, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, a head full of ideas that are drivin' him insane. There are frequent complaints about Crumb's work being too dark, racist, sexist, and/or misogynistic. While I can see where these criticisms come from, I really don't think Crumb is any darker, more racist, sexist, or misogynistic than any of us - he simply is unafraid to - COMPELLED to, almost - lay his cards on the table. Some people find this offensive. Would it be absurd of me to suggest that some of those who are offended by his work have their own issues with sexism, racism, and/or misogyny that they are unwilling to confront? What I'm trying to get at here, I guess, is that this IS NOT a book for little kids. There's a sticker on the front of my copy of the book that says "FOR ADULT INTELLECTUALS ONLY!", and while I'm not so sure about the "intellectuals" part, this is probably not a book you want your grade-school age child to get ahold of, unless you're okay with said child seeing depictions of graphic (and I do mean GRAPHIC) sex, hard-core drug use, and extreme (albiet cartoonish) violence. I realize all I've spent all this space talking about Crumb without ever really discussing what I like about his work. I think there's two main things: (1) his unflinching honesty (as I touched upon earlier), and (2) the incredible beauty of his draftsmanship. I think my favotite chapter in the whole book is the one that features his pen-and-ink still-lifes and landscapes. Just beautiful stuff - worth studying for his use of cross-hatching alone. In conclusion, if you're at all interested in checking out the work of one of the finest artists to ever work in the comics medium, I highly recommend you get this book. It's easily worth the 25 bucks. Oh, yeah - and it DOES make a wonderful coffee table book. :)
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A definite "must" for the Crumb Collector, March 19, 1998
Having followed and collected R. Crumb's work since the sixites, I was delighted when I received this book as a Christmas gift. Much of the work included will be familiar to fans, although some of the early pieces included help illustrate the progression of his career. What I found most wonderful, though, were his essays on his own work and life, the things that influenced him. While the documentary, Crumb, gives us a rather lurid and skewed look at his family and past, it's intriguing to read what he has to say about his own evolution as an artist. And make no mistake, comic books are art. I was especially fascinated to see how his work changed with the advent of psychedelics into his life. The small commentary drawings throughout the book make reading it an adventure. There is always more to see just when you think you've found it all. The hardboiled spirituality of Mr. Natural juxtaposed with the foolishness and naivete of Flakey Foont just has to make you laugh and appreciate the fact that this odd genius of pen and ink still retains a basically sincere interior despite the crusty coveringand cynical pose. This is an excellent addition to a comic collector's library and a rare look at a protrait of the artist by himself.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The little guy that lives inside Crumb's brain bursts out, November 12, 2001
This review is from: The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book (Kitchen Sink Press Book for Back Bay Books) (Paperback)
There's a line that R. Crumb uses twice, in two separate comics, that epitomizes the major themes of his art: "Nobody understands [me]... and of course, how could they??" Periodically his work will stumble into a pit of naval gazing and self-indulgence when it comes to the subjects for his comics. But ultimately, everything he does boils down to this one line. The level of self-awareness he manages to achieve with this line, and throughout the remainder of his work, is both staggering and fascinating, enough to justify the grandiosity of this book. I tried to read this as an autobiography, from cover to cover, taking time to carefully understand how the context of Crumb's life affected his work. Not an effective strategy. If the book wasn't so cumbersome to hold, it might have worked. But since that first reading, I've gotten much more enjoyment just laying the book open flat on a large surface, and staring at the audacious art contained herein. The large-scale (13"x11") format has various levels of effectiveness when presenting Crumb's work. The sketchbook pages, when blown up to this size, lose their intimacy. You can see the fudges and mistakes that Crumb's made. These imperfections are beautiful in the smaller format, but become grotesque and distracting at this size. On the other hand, too often his comic book covers should have been enlarged but weren't. The details in the margins, brought out gloriously when they are blown up, can't be seen when the covers are presented as thumbnails. Each chapter begins with a page-long, hand-written introduction by the man himself. Robert is self-effacing to a fault; you can tell that he's embarrassed by the treatment his works have been given here. He never intended them for such a wide audience, and now the incoherent ramblings of his inner mind are getting the coffee table book treatment! It's preposterous! That being said, he does a fine job trying to explain his own psychology, getting at his motivations for creating the art he did, and never apologizing for any of it. And I found that if you read his writings while imagining that great laid-back drawl of his, the experience is that much more enjoyable. The book is a perfect companion piece for anyone who's seen Terry Zwigoff's stunning documentary, "Crumb". Many of the pieces shown in that movie turn up here too, only instead of just snippets we get the whole work. Most notable is the inclusion of "A Bitchin' Bod'!", in which the notorious Devil Girl, her head removed, is given by Mr. Natural to Flakey Foont, who proceeds to defile it, only to feel terribly guilty afterwards. This comic got the most attention from the intellectuals dissecting Crumb in the movie, and it's here in all its glory. True, it's hideously misogynistic, but it's also a fine example of what makes Crumb's work so awe-inspiring. He has a unique ability to mine his id for material, to lay his fantasies bare, and damn the consequences. A fascinating foray into one man's artistic (and by association, personal) life, "The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book" would work splendidly on anyone's coffee table. That is, if you had the nerve to actually put it on your coffee table. If you want to freak out your friends, and educate them about the twisted depths that men's souls can achieve, you should.
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