virtualman

The Complete Crumb: We're Livin' in the Lap of Luxury, Vol. 12 collects many of the cartoons of R. Crumb from the late 70s. Like the eleven volumes before it, this beautifully laid out collection lends an insight to Crumb's work unique to this series in that the reader really gets a glimpse at the cartoonist personality of Crumb. Perhaps it is his persona but there seems to be some themes that run through many of the cartoons throughout the book which blends into Crumb's cartoon persona. As always Crumb has several autobiographical cartoons whose confessional motif is quite extreme. The themes from these autobiographical comics also appear in comics depicting characters other than himself. The line between Crumb and characters like Mr. Inappropriate and Mr. Natural is quite fuzzy. It's ironic that Crumb became the king of the underground comics of the hippy era. In many ways he's the antithesis of the typically leftist hippies. Sure in some comics he's a strong proponent of environmentalism, marxism, and free love, especially free love, but on the other hand he's quite racist, sexist, and conservative. His distaste for anyone not middle of the road, white, straight, and male (ie. anyone not R. Crumb) shows quite clearly. Even when he supports some classic left wing causes like environmentalism or Marxism it just seems like so much slogan spouting and overcompensated effort to be down with his readers. However, despite his shortcomings and lack of likability, Crumb's comics are compelling. Perhaps reading them is like slowing down to view a car accident on the highway. I'm not sure really but I keep reading his comics and will continue to read his comics, which seems to be the attitude of most of his readers whom I suspect Crumb wouldn't like very well. The best comics in this books are those written by underground comix's best writer, Harvey Pekar. Pekar likes to come off as a curmudgeon like R. Crumb, but he doesn't hate people like Crumb does. Pekar never seems like a chauvinist or a bigot and his political concerns seem genuine. Pekar's crankiness seems more due to his neuroticism, which is spurred by his concerns for making a living and supporting his family. Like most of us he often says the wrong thing or things he wishes he could take back but he means well. When Crumb doesn't write the words, his talent for expressiveness shines through. Many artists have depicted Pekar and Crumb's one of the best at doing so. His art may not precisely reproduce Pekar's real likeness but it captures the character that Pekar is in his comics. Crumb also does what any good comic artist does and brings out characteristics only someone who is not Pekar would see. When the two team up, it's always with good results. Regardless of the controversial aspects of Crumb his cartooning is beautiful and this volume holds some of his best work. This is another thing that I like about the Complete Crumb series is to see how Crumb's art has progressed over the years, despite his writing or wisdom. This volume has the same character that all of the Complete Crumb's do and captures Crumb's work very well.

2023-05-29 00:03