Hysteria in Remission [Paperback]

Robert Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2003

Legendary imagist painter Robert Williams sprang from the custom car culture of Southern California and the roots of the Underground Comix movement. Though known today as one of the world's most iconoclastic fine artists, Williams is also, of course, first and foremost a cartoonist. As one of the original ZAP artists, along with R. Crumb, Williams eventually transcended the world of comics by cultivating his mastery of oil paints and forging a career as the preeminent artist among a generation of imagist painters gathering inspiration from the shadowed corners of contemporary culture. Williams singlehandedly became the model of the "Outsider" art movement, influencing a generation of artists to create without concern for the fine art world, held in contempt by Williams (a feeling which had been reciprocated in kind for years by the established fine art community, although Williams' sheer mastery of his craft has caused a grudging retreat—Williams paintings now command tens of thousands of dollars each in the gallery scene and the artist has a long waiting list of potential buyers).

Included in this deluxe collection are all of Williams' contributions to such legendary underground anthologies as ZAP, Snatch, Arcade, Cocaine Comix, and more (much of which has been out of print for over 25 years). Also, the book will feature scores of never-before-published work, including the never-before-seen, full-color storyboards for a proposed, animated ZAP movie, along with numerous cartoons from Williams' early years at L.A. City College. Plus, the seminal Coochy Cooty Men's Comics, dozens of examples of hot rod art done for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's studio, and the rare, two-color strip "Yama Yama." Hysteria In Remission is a perfect and comprehensive complement to Williams' Malicious Resplendence, finally collecting all of Williams comix art and illustration work in one place, as his previous book did for his paintings to great acclaim. The book features two introductions, one by abulous Furry Freak Brothers creator and fellow ZAP cohort Gilbert Shelton, and the other by Williams himself. contextualizing his comix work within his better-know career as a painter. Black-and-white illustrations with over 30 pages in full-color.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This blast from the past still has the power to disturb and impress. Before he became popular as an imagist artist, Williams was one of a seminal crew of cartoonists in the 1960s and '70s who created underground "comix." This new genre was a reaction against mainstream comic books, long neutered of challenging material by the Comics Code Authority, a mid-1950s comics industry oversight body established to prevent Congress from regulating the content of kids' comic books. Besides demonstrating that comics can and should deal with serious subjects like sex and drugs, comix experimented with the design of comic book pages and the limits of linear storytelling. However, their primary emphasis was on grossing out inhibited readers and thus liberating their imaginations. Williams knew he didn't fit in with the abstract expressionists of the "fine art" gallery world. But when he saw a copy of the underground Zap Comix in 1967, he knew he'd found a creative home. This collection begins with samples of Williams's college cartoons and early illustrations for karate and custom car magazines, but most of the art is from the pages of Zap, Snatch, Dr. Wirtham's Comics & Stories and other counterculture publications. Williams is an excellent draftsman with a stunning mastery of technique, though his subject matter can be monotonous as he searches for new outrages to depict. And if these images don't seem relevant today, consider a four-page depiction of outrageously escalating brutality that concludes, "Violence Is Always Right If You're The Winner!"
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

A key figure in 1960s underground comics--he was one of the original Zap artists, along with R. Crumb--Williams is now a highly regarded painter. The path to the artist's deliriously detailed and disquieting oil paintings is retraced in the comic strips collected in this lavish volume. Williams got his start working for hot-rod impresario and outlaw cartoonist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, and his advertisements for Roth appear here. Here, too, are dozens of long out-of-print stories from underground comics anthologies and never-before-seen rarities, such as storyboards for a never-produced Zap animated film. Nearly every story is blatantly sexual, violent, or scatological, sometimes all at once. Taking the freewheeling 1960s underground tradition to its ultimate limit, Williams' stuff makes even Crumb's most controversial work look as tame as Ernie Bushmiller's definitively innocent strip, "Nancy." This is formally playful, wildly imaginative, occasionally outright brilliant stuff but so unabashed in its scabrous subject matter that it defies censorship. Only libraries unafraid of making an artistic freedom statement may be bold enough to acquire it. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; First Edition Thus edition (January 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560974656
• ISBN-13: 978-1560974659
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,512,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SCOUNDRELS WEAR SMOCKS, August 17, 2003

By 

H_E_H (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hysteria in Remission (Paperback)

Robert Williams' comix are amazing. Very violent & vulgar, but amazingly executed. I prefer his black & white comic work over his oil paintings any day. Unforntunately his comic output is pretty small. Nonetheless the several comics presented here are amazing. Extremely detailed and bizarre and they ooze with a feeling of being high.
My personal favorite tale is "Mentor in the Mentor Jar". Insane ideas such as 'Gorilla Women of the Third Reich', Atrillo Trilobite and the fate of 'Mr. Baldpubis' puts Robt. Williams in a class all of his own.
Years ago I went and bought all the individual ZAP comics when i learned Mr. Williams did comic work. These issues are great for you can see the work of the other underground greats, but Hysteria in Remission presents Williams' work in a lovely LARGE format (even at the size, the detail boogles my grey matter) and on beautiful glossy paper rather than fading pulpy newsprint grade paper.
Get this book for the insane-ness, the fantastic execution in india ink and completeness of Williams' comic work (early days all the way up to model sheets for an animated series, Jack Clum, Dream interpreter done in 2001.
a great piece of work from Fantagraphics - THANK YOU.
Now i need to save up some cash to purchase MALICIOUS RESPLENDENCE....

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and Exquisitely Designed, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Hysteria in Remission (Paperback)

This book has everything. The perfect, comprehensive companion to Fantagraphics' 1998 collection, MALICIOUS RESPLENDENCE. MALICIOUS has all of the paintings, while HYSTERIA has all of the comix and illustration. It is astounding how provocative and powerful this work is, and that so much of it has been allowed to slip out of print over the last 25 years despite Williams's extraordinary success in the fine art world. His comics bulge (as Jim Woodring says, "often literally") with greater imagination than even his paintings, what is amazing is how few people are doing comics like this anymore. There may have never been a better pure draughtsman in comics, his work rivals Crumb and even classic strip artists like Hal Foster or illustrators like Howard Pyle, but what truly sets Williams apart is the sheer visceral force of his imagery. If anything lives up to the old cliche of, "This will blow your mind," it's HYSTERIA IN REMISSION.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hard Stuff, September 22, 2005

By 

Virgil Avery (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hysteria in Remission (Paperback)

Robert Williams is one of the few bright lights in today's art world. Combining a staggering imagination with a powerful illustrative style, his works provoke and antagonize the viewer like no others, and demand scrutiny.

This book shows the evolution of this mad genius by taking us through all of his cartoons, comics, and illustrations, (no paintings) from his first commercial drawings to recent times. It is very interesting to see these after becoming familiar with his oil paintings. The quality of the various items within varies widely, from very crude, to masterly.

Some of his comics are extremely smuttty and raw, much more than most of his paintings even. But if you have a sick sense of humor, you'll appreciate them. If you're not familiar with his work, I'd recommend "Views From a Tortured Libido" or "Malicious Resplendence" as your first Robert Williams book.