Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977 (Paperback)

~ Robert Crumb (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Philadelphia, R. Crumb is the author of numerous comic works and one of the pioneers of underground comics. His books include Kafka, The Complete Crumb Comics (17 volumes), The R. Crumb Sketchbook (10 volumes), R. Crumb Draws the Blues, The Book of Mr. Natural, The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, and many more. He lives in the south of France with his wife, the artist Aline Kominsky-Crumb. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (July 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560973102
• ISBN-13: 978-1560973102
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #648,972 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Glimpses into the psyche of a comix genius, October 6, 1998

By A Customer

It is easy to deconstruct the graphic ouvre of R. Crumb. This does not mean that understanding his creative mind is an easy task. This collection of his letters from the early years of his career gives the reader a glimpse into the passions and motivations of America's formost cultural iconoclast.

This book is not for the Politically Correct crowd, which is a blessing. Crumb is not only honest in his creative work, but in describing his attitudes about American popular culture--the more obscure the expression, the more he appreciates it.

A must-have for any scholar of pop culture.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably for completists , mostly..., July 10, 2002

By	David Grim (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This collection of letters focuses primarily on R. Crumb's life from age 16 to about age 21. It's particularly useful in its presentation of how the budding artist formulated his views while he was still in such an impressionable stage of life. All 50 of the letters printed in this volume are addressed to one or the other of his youthful friends (Mike Britt and Marty Pahls), with whom he shared the primary interests of comic-book collecting (fandom) and collecting records from the 1920s. A lot of the content of these letters consists of lists of comics and records with the accompanying minutiae relating to them. While this makes for tedious reading at times, it demonstrates the obsessive passion Crumb had for the worlds of these particular collectibles. Sprinkled among the letters are incompletely formed philosophical tracts about isolation, religion, the commercialism of American society, and personal relations. It also includes some examples of early artwork which Crumb included within his letters to his friends. While this collection does not present Crumb's evolution past his early-20s, it does give the reader a sense of an idealistic, youthful, and sometimes sweet R. Crumb that his fans are unlikely to find elsewhere. So while I would recommend this to Crumb completists, I would suggest that those less knowledgable about the artist start with Zwigoff's documentary, "Crumb", or "The R.Crumb Coffee Table Art Book".

5.0 out of 5 stars Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me, May 26, 2009

By	D. Chesnut (Murphys, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

R. Crumb's Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me is an excellent look into the life of the adolescent underground comic. His letters to his two boyhood pals, Mike Britt and Marty Pahls, seethe with teen angst and the first hints of what would appear in his comics show up in these letters.

If one reads these letters carefully, and considers the autobiographical movie Crumb, the essence of the artist is really displayed for all to see. There is also an excellent book on Crumb interviews that helps to fill in the gaps; however, the interviews become repetitive after reading a few.

The one thing that stands out in Your Vigor... is how obsessed Robert was with drawing AND collecting comics and how he turned that obsession into a fine career as probably the most respected of the underground comic artists that came out of the 60s.

Two thumbs up...an excellent read.