Books : The R. Crumb Handbook
Price: $35.00 Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 703
EAN: 9781840727166
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1840727160
Label: M Q Publications
Manufacturer: M Q Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 440
Publication Date: April 15, 2005
Publisher: M Q Publications
Sales Rank: 447620
Studio: M Q Publications
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The only underground cartoonist to be accepted by the fine art world, the R.Crumb Handbook is divided into the four enemies of man: FEAR, CLARITY, POWER, OLD AGE. Working with his old drinking buddy and co-author Pete Poplaski, the four chapters are easily digested. With over 400 pages of cartoons and photographs, Crumb’s often controversially-regarded views toward Disneyland, growing up in America, hippie love, art galleries, and turning 60 are revealed. By tracing his development as a cartoonist from his tormented childhood in the 1940s through to his coming of age as an artist in the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, Robert Crumb visually treats us to the pressures and influences that the modern mass media has on human consciousness, and includes over 80 personal photographs, and 300 images taken from personal sketchbooks and comic books, as well as fine art from museums. For the serious student of late capitalist culture and the thousands of Crumb enthusiasts everywhere this book is indispensable.
Amazon.com Review:
 From the mountains of Southern France where he currently lives and works, pop artist R. Crumb makes a grand entrance back to the publishing world with The R. Crumb Handbook. Part biography, part comic book, and part media critique, the latest Crumb book is a feast indeed. In addition to numerous reprints of Crumb comic hits like Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, the book also features new works by Crumb, including a hilarious dialogue between the artist and his wife. (Both Crumb's wife and daughter are comic book artists.) Fans already familiar with Crumb’s comic book work will rejoice at the glossy reprints of Crumb oil paintings and sculptures, complete with gallery-owner narratives about working with the artist. There are also record covers reprints that Crumb has drawn over the years, as well as a CD of songs by the artist’s traditional band, R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders. But more important, the Handbook helps provide a window into the man himself.
In fact the more you read The R. Crumb Handbook the more you start to understand Crumb is really a political cartoonist, challenging stereotypes, cultural norms, and the media. U.S. media in particular has had a powerful and profound impact on Crumb. Readers will learn what TV shows and books inspired Crumb, the state of comics in the 1960s versus today, the media’s effect on day-to-day life, and what other comics served as models for Crumb in his own work. Artists like Jack Davis, John Stanley, Carl Barks, and the late Will Eisner made powerful impressions on Crumb about what comics could achieve. Crumb offers up some interesting insight into comics during the Great Depression (e.g., Dick Tracy and Superman) and explains how many of these comics mirrored the era and encouraged readers to "fight on" even during tough times. The R. Crumb Handbook is a solid piece of work, not only giving us a glimpse into the artist, but serving as a great read for old and new fans alike. --Pat Kearney
Listen to an exclusive track from R. Crumb and the Cheap Suit Serenaders Read an interview with R. Crumb
Exclusive Images from the R.Crumb Handbook
Spoiler Alert: View at Your Own Risk!
Build Your R. Crumb Library
The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 19 |
Complete Crumb Comics |
Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958-1977 |
The Life and Death of Fritz the Cat |
The R. Crumb Sketchbook Vol. 8: Early 1971 to Mid 1972 |
R. Crumb's Kafka |
Crumb in Other Universes
Crumb (DVD) |
The Confessions of Robert Crumb (DVD) |
The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book |
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
R. Crumb just may well be the most honest observer of the American scene of our generation. Since the mid-60s he's been looking at us and himself and putting his findings on paper. His eye has shifted focus several times over the past 50 years: early, cute satire; greeting card stuff that frequently was too risque to make it into print; the zapped LSD-inspired hippie drawings that made him the "father of underground comix"; the sexual confessions that earned him the hatred of some feminists and got him blacklisted from libraries (see the librarian's review of this book); the social critic who deplores consumerism, agri-industry, mass media, the ratrace, and the worship of the Almighty Buck; the music afficionado who writes incredible stories about his favorite musicians and musical genre; the philosopher who speculates about life, sex, fear, fame, and death; and always the autobiographer, who plumbs and probes and fingers his own psyche.
The R. Crumb Handbook is the latest chronological/autobiographical compilation of his work. It's a good companion volume to The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, which came out a decade ago. Crumb apparently doesn't like putting these things together, and does so only when he needs some cash (the Coffee Table Art Book paid for putting central heating in his French house). But both books are fine introductions to Crumb's work for those who've just discovered him, and nice walks down memory lane for those who are longtime fans. ... Read More
Rating:  -
A fascinating man talks about his life. Small format means the artwork is a little hard to read, tho.
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Includes a great CD Sampler with some hard to find Cheap Suit Serenaders songs, along with some of R. Crumb's other bands. Worth the price for the disc alone, and you get a great book as a companion!
Rating: -
I'm not vouching for the viewpoints taken or the commentaries on our bizarre human condition and culture necessarily, but this thick book (with a great cd of original and funny music) with its outrageous take on everything sacred is an inspiring dig into an artist's convoluted (but somehow eerily solid) psyche. I first saw many of these strips and characters in underground comics, tabs, independent newspapers, etc. back when I was a teen in the 70's and always was amazed at the hard-hitting art and dialogue. IT IS A TRIP! Sometimes, when the right frame of mind is brought around, this book will have you laughing more than you can barely stand. Just flow with it and forget your rigid alter-ego at the coat check. This is theater for the insane (with strong metaphorical realism). TAKE IT FOR FOR WHAT IT IS! A WINDOW INTO THE MIND OF A TRUE ARTIST. Makes a great gift for the moral majority members of your local PTA.
Rating: -
Before I got this a few weeks ago, I didn't think much of Crumb in comparison to the other 60's underground cartoonists that I read of in a book called "rebel visions". But that tome contained skimpy explainations on the featured artists, and really only contained Crumb's more "commercial" (crappy) work. But this handbook, with extensive artwork, photos, and narration by Crumb himself is a different, and oddly uplifting critique of the media illusion, personal failure and triumphs, family values, and of being left handed-I know, I'm one of em'-yes, were all perverts, yes, were all useless people with a knack for genius, and yes, were all attracted to music, concepts, and culture that few people can possibly comprehend or appreciate. Read it for all the gory details! The CD is okay. The cartoons are hilarious.
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