Customer Reviews

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

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Dedicated collectors of Crumb will appreciate this book for what it is - a genuine tribute to hope and youthful enthusiasm through the eyes of 'the first punk' (see "Confessions of..").

"Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me" adds a deeper layer of insight into Crumb's fascinating family life and his discovery in the 1950's of a world outside his closed Catholic existence. And fittingly, between the lines of Crumb's writing, so to are the rich lives of Marty Pahls, Mike Britt and Charles-Maxon-Sandra-Carol-Beatrice-Charles Snr Crumb. All people whose lives were one way or another turned inside-out by the works of Harvey Kurtzman, Charles Barks, and ultimatetly - one Robert "voice of countercultureMrSixtiessexpervertlovechildidealistonceinagenerationGENIUS" CRUMB.

I'm 27 and find Robert Crumb's comics to be the work a 'classic' modern artist. Yes I've suffered the appalled looks and barbs of many a dissident, but I maintain that even when his work is grotesque and repellent you can't help but be fascinated by this man's focus and tenacity. OK, does anyone not know that Crumb loves voluptuos, fleshy women and doesn't mind getting kinky with 'em? I mean is that pretty much absolutely VERY OBVIOUS BY NOW FOLKS?? AND that he had the kind of troubled childhood that is vividly echoed in this (very endearing!) book of letters?

This is a chidhood/teenagehood that I think people of our time would be able to relate to.. particularly those who are creatively inclined or at an early age blankly questioned subjects such as religion, philosophy, art, 'fandom', what makes things 'good' or meaningful, family, the unknown.. Here we see Crumb asking these questions that at some stage in an artists life, just have to be asked. To paraphrase - "Could pretty much all of what I've been told is good and true be made up of lies? Would they actually do that just to make a buck?"

This book establishes that even in his early teens, Robert Crumb was an individual with talent, passion and an incredible focus. And the letters are hardly 'tedious'.. Knowing full-well what Crumb would become is half the joy of reading this book, which if you've read this far you know you must purhcase. ESSENTIAL for the Crumb collector.