Customer Reviews

The Life and Times of R. Crumb: Comments from Contemporaries

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

 

 

This is probably the least important book ever written about Robert Crumb and his work. Although it's packed with people --- each one of them talks about Crumb in their own words --- almost everything they say is forgettable. I think it's because the chapters are so short. Each person gives you two or three pages about reading Zap in the 1960s or hanging out with Crumb. I got bored hearing the same tale over and over. Two chapters stand out: Crumb's ex-wife Dana and Roger Ebert. The Crumb artwork in the middle of the book looks nice, but most of it is excerpted from longer stories. Instead of this, just buy Fantagraphics' Complete Crumb Comics.

Robert Dennis Crumb is one of the more singular artistic talents America has ever produced. His deeply weird and unfettered genius gave birth to the underground comix of the 1960s and helped to separate comic books from capes and wish-fulfillment, bringing about the field of alternative comics as we know it. His work, beloved by some, reviled by others, has had a giant impact on comics people, from writers to publishers to editors, and they've all got something to say about the man.

The style and length of these appreciations vary greatly, from Alan Moore's commentary on Crumb's impact on him as a teenager, to the Rev. Ivan Stang's vision of Crumb as trend-evading creator, to Matt Groening's relived glee as a childhood consumer of illicit cartoons. This book makes for a fine, episodic read, the perfect thing to pick up, read some essays, and put it down again for a few days. Whether you enjoy it or not depends on how much you like comics, the history of comics, general weirdness, and the reminiscences of aging hippies about the zany 60s.

Other reviewers have complained that the essays presented here are not deep. What of it? This is not intended to be a great work of scholarship, but a collection of comments from contemporaries. If you don't want to read reminiscences, then don't buy it or read it. If you want to learn more about what people think about Crumb, either back in the old days or now, give it a try.

This is one I would have given 4.5 stars had that been a choice, and that would have only been a slap on the hand of the editor who included 3 or 4 (mostly short, thank God) really repugnant commentaries in this book. I don't mind people disliking Crumb or taking offense to him, but when it's just petty and non-understandable, why print it? Okay. for that it lost half a star.

HOWEVER, this book is a treasure trove of odd information about Crumb when it's not interesting information about the times and career in which he lived or about another fan -- who just may happen to be a cartoonist or some such -- talking about his or her take on Crumb. I could not put this book down until I finished it (except to go to sleep at night -- okay, so I'm a slow reader, but that's because I love to linger on that which fascinates me).

And just for the record, I'm a little younger than Crumb but still somewhat a contemporary of his and I have a big butt and big legs and I APPRECIATE his positive desire for such attributes in a world where the media has nearly always pushed the thin button. And no, it very rarely bothers me to see his "misogynistic" comics. Very few panels have bothered me enough to think "I wish he would not have drawn that." Okay, there ARE some things I wish he hadn't drawn, but my gosh, I've read probably thousands of pages of his comics and really I take most of that stuff at comic face value. It's okay. He can do that because he is a GREAT artiste and I'm amazed he doesn't bore or offend me a HECK of a lot, because most of his competitors tend to bore or offend me 20 times more often.

Not a great fan of R. Crumb? Then get one of his comics collections instead. A feminist that can't stand seeing hostility toward women in comics? Then get "The Sweeter Side of R. Crumb" which was made "just for you." Only get this book if you are ALREADY a die-hard fan of R. Crumb, because only his true fans can appreciate this collection, warts and all. And a big fan would not want to miss this book!!

The minimal but reasonable expectation from a book of essays about the "Life and Times of R. Crumb" is that the contributors either actually write about R. Crumb's life and times, or write something interesting about his work, or write something interesting about his influence on their work. But nearly none of this is to be found in this sadly disappointing collection.

Out of the book's 46 essays, only 5 are worth a second glance: Robert Armstrong on Crumb and music; Trina Robbins, Crumb's onetime pal and longtime critic, on what she sees as Crumb's misogyny; Roger Ebert's well-crafted essay on Terry Zwigoff's film "Crumb"; Charles Plymell's recollection of the early days of "Zap"; and Dana Crumb's account of her marriage to Crumb. The rest of the essays are fluff, innocuous pieces that (at best) only reiterate what's already widely known. The worst offenders in the second category are the contributions of Jaxon and Charles Alverson.


What semi-salvages the collection are the 5 good essays and the center-pieced reproductions of some Crumb work.

The poor quality of this collection underscores the pressing need for solid, critical secondary commentary on Crumb's stuff. What we need instead of embarrassing books like this one are collections of essays written by philosophers, theologians, artists and art critics, social commentators, psychologists, and so on that explore the depth and breadth of Crumb's work. We also need to see some single-authored books devoted to exploring his themes. So far, almost none of this secondary literature has been written. D.K. Holm has done a bit (Robert Crumb: Pocket Essential Comics and R. Crumb: Conversations), but it only scratches the surface.

A gem of a book. Thanks to the memoir approach its editor took, this particular Crumb compendium makes for an entertaining, refreshing, and insightful read. Picks up where Zwigoff's documentary "Crumb" leaves off. Of all the R. Crumb histories ever produced, I found it to be the best, and 100% worthy of the plug Vanity Fair chose to give it.