The Complete Crumb Comics Vol. 1: The Early Years of Bitter Struggle

Reader Reviews
This first volume of the collected works of Robert Crumb focuses on the comix he drew between 1958 and 1962. Still a teenager during this Time (he was born in 1943), Crumb entered the comix world by collaborating with his older brother Charles. The two knocked out a monthly called "Foo" which they tried to hawk at their high school--there were no takers--and then desperately peddled from door-to-door, telling reluctant housewives that the mag was a "school project." But thanks to a good network system that connected aspiring comix authors, Robert (by this Time Charles had lost interest and dropped out of the comix scene) managed to touch base with like-minded folks outside of his Philadelphia/Delaware area. One of them was Marty Pahls, a student in Ohio, who encouraged Crumb and eventually married one of Crumb's sisters. The truly excellent introduction to this volume is written by Pahls. As one would expect, the art and storylines in Crumb's earliest work are uneven. But what stands out are the precocious sophistication of the work--it's hard to imagine that it's done by a teenage kid--and the fact that certain trademark Crumbian themes can be discerned even this early. The obvious differences between Robert's and Charles' talents also come through. The two brothers collaborated for a Time in writing "two man comics," each drawing separate panels and challenging the other to respond and continue the story ("Treasure Island Days," pp. 21-42, is a two man comic). Charles' drawings look like they came straight out of the Disney factory that so impressed him. They're great from a technical perspective, but there's little imagination and no originality obvious to them. Robert's stuff, on the other hand, is already breaking molds. In this early material, Crumb experiments with different drawing styles--although his characteristic cross-hatching is already obvious--and his story lines, even while not always successful, almost always contain some quirkily funny panels. In the 1958 "My Encounter with Dracula," for example, the famous vampire has a portrait of Bela Lugosi on the wall of his castle. It's captioned "Father" (p. 12). In the 1960 "Robin Hood," Crumb has the Sheriff of Nottingham, a duck, trying to figure out where a fake villain's mustache ought to go on his beak (p. 63). And the entire 1958 "Khrushchev Visits U.S." (pp. 14-15) is hilarious as well as containing incredible visual detailing. Fritz the Cat makes an early appearance in the 1960 "A Christmas Tale" (pp. 91-91), predictably trying to seduce a friend's wife. But Fritz's efforts are unsuccessful, and he winds up spending Christmas alone and forlorn--two themes that reappear in several pieces in this volume. Alienation and sexual frustration are trademarks in Crumb's work, but they're heartbreakingly painful in such early material, especially in "A Sad Comic Strip," the 1962 piece that ends this volume. It, along with several other selections (pp. 95-105), has a Jules Feiffer feel, but it also clearly has Crumb's thumbprint on it. This inaugural volume into Crumb's collected works offers a fascinating insight into the early days of a true genius. Highly recommended.


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