Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life

(Hardback)

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Description

The first biography of Robert Crumbone of the most profound and influential artists of the 20th centurywhose iconic, radically frank and meticulously rendered cartoons and comics inspired generations of readers and cartoonists, from Art Spiegelman to Alison Bechdel.

Robert Crumb is often credited with single-handedly transforming the comics medium into a place for adult expression, in the process pioneering the underground comic book industry, and transforming the vernacular language of 20th-century America into an instantly recognizable and popular aesthetic, as iconic as Walt Disney or Charles Schulz. Now, for the first time, Dan Nadel, a curator and writer specializing in comics and art, shares how this complicated artist survived childhood abuse, fame in his twenties, more fame, and came out the other side intact.

More than just a biography of an iconic cartoonist, Crumb is the story of a richly complex life at the forefront of both the underground and popular cultures of post-war America. Including forty-five stunning black-and-white images throughout and a sixteen-page color insert featuring images both iconic and obscure, Crumb spans the pressures of 1950s suburban America and Crumbs highly dysfunctional early family life; the history of comics and graphic satire; 20th century popular music; the world of the counterculture; the birth of underground comic books in 1960s San Francisco with Crumbs Zap Comix; the economic challenges and dissolution of the hippie dream; and the path Robert Crumb blazed through it all.

Written with Crumbs cooperation, this fascinating, rollicking book takes in seven decades of Crumbs iconic works, including Fritz the Cat, Weirdo, and his final book-length comic of The Book of Genesis; capturing, in the process, the essence of an extraordinary artist and his times.

Reviews

"Crumbis fabulous, an engrossing biography, both intimate about the man but insightful about the times. Dan Nadel has written a revealing portrait of the artist as a young manbut also about the mature curmudgeon we all know as R. Crumb, the signature Sixties artist of underground comics. Hilarious at times, poignant and always empathetic,Crumbis a marvelous trip crafted by a brilliant biographer."
Kai Bird, co-author of Pulitzer Prize-winningAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Author Bio

Dan Nadel is a writer and curator. His previous books include,Its Life as a I See It: Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 19401980; Peter Saul: Professional Artist Correspondence, 19451976;andArt Out of Time: Unknown Comic Visionaries, 19001969. Nadel has curated exhibitions for galleries and museums internationally including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is the founder of PictureBox, a publishing and packaging company that produced over one hundred books, objects, and zines from 2000 to 2014, including the Grammy Awardwinning design for Wilcos 2004 albumA Ghost Is Born. Dan is the curator-at-large for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family.