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

The Complete Crumb Comics #1

by R. Crumb, R. Crumb

This long out-of-print volume collects Crumb's earliest comic efforts. This long out-of-print first volume of the multiple Harvey and Eisner award-winning Complete Crumb Comics series has been one of our most demanded reprints of the last several years. Now, this landmark volume of Robert Crumb’s formative years not only will return, but also boast a major discovery not included in prior editions: a never-before-published, 60 page “home-made” Arcade comic from 1962. Growing up, Robert and his brother Charles often created their own comic books. These “home-made” editions were usually produced in editions of one. As such, many have been lost to time or private collections. What hasn't comprises much of the first two volumes of The Complete Crumb series. Their creation continued throughout the 1950s and into the early ’60s and eventually the content of Crumb’s work gradually matured from the light-hearted, funny animal antics of earlier years to stories that flashed signals of what we now recognize as “true Crumb.” This previously undiscovered Arcade “issue,” from May, 1962, shows many flashes of where Crumb was heading (whereas Charles had all but abandoned drawing comics by the ’60s). The 17-page strip “Jim” is the most emotionally-charged work of Crumb’s young life to that point, a gentle and psychologically astute look at a boy who needs a mother, and also brimming with signs of his increasing frustration with Catholicism. It also features the first quintessential “Crumb girl,” Mabel. This volume also includes several early Fritz the Cat stories (a.k.a. “Animal Town Comics”), and the classic “Treasure Island Days” (as seen in the Crumb film) and is rounded out with other strips, diary entries and sketches that will be a treasure trove for Crumb fans, all defining work from Crumb’s formative years as a cartoonist, spanning the years 1958-1962 (when Crumb was ages 15-19) and featuring material from other “home-made” comics of the era. This is Ground Zero for a man who may well be the greatest cartoonist who ever lived. black and white with 16 pages color

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Fiction, Comix, Graphic Novels Comics, Collections

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 1996

Reviews

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Discontinued due to lack of interest" said one of the unfinished comics written by one of the Crumb brothers in this collection. That was funny. But also memorable. Something very idealistic yet desolate and funny about the decision to not continue and not give a fuck. Crumb's brothers were more fucked up than him. Robert Crumb had the discipline I guess. If I was a police officer or something who read this book, I would order a raid on the Crumb family. But I am not. I am just some guy who searches for artists like Crumb. Is the CIA creating a database of people who buy these curated and expensive collections of Crumb's work?

[Stewart Tame · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many things I find amazing about Crumb is how good he was at such a young age. This volume is entirely composed of what is, essentially, fanzine material. Inspired by Mad, Robert and his brother, Charles, created their own comic, Foo, which was mainly sold or traded to fellow fans. Homemade imitations of Mad were something of a cottage industry in those days (late 50's, early 60's.) Robert & Charles had always done comics to amuse themselves, to the point where it became almost as natural as breathing. They soon ceased Foo, but continued creating comics for friends and family. Charles eventually lost interest, but Robert stuck with it ...

The strips in this book were all done when Crumb was 16 to about 19 years old. Even at a young age, his command of comic timing and character humor is impressive. Also, for those who have seen Terry Zwigoff's film, Crumb, notice how, towards the end of the book, you can see evidence of Charles' runaway wrinkle technique beginning to take over. Until this book was published, very few fans had seen any of this material before. Kudos to Fantagraphics for making it available. Highly, highly recommended!

[Samuel Edme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis: The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 1: The Early Years of Bitter Struggle compiles previously unreleased cartoons from Robert Crumb's early adolescent years he worked and collaborated on with his siblings Charles and Maxon Crumb from 1958-1962 along with R. Crumb's high school journal entries.

My Thoughts: While I wouldn't call myself an R. Crumb scholar, I have seen some of his short comics online and am definitely familiar with his contributions to Harvey Pekar's American Splendor series and, I must say, this is quite a bit of a far cry from what Crumb became well-known for. It was pretty clear he was still trying to find his style which at first, derived heavy influences from Walt Kelly's funny animal strips both in terms of art and dialect though as the book continues, Crumb's trademark grotesque, over-the-top style begins to emerge. The drawings themselves were great but the presentation was a tad sloppy on some of the pages since many of them were drawn on his notebook. Plus, the text was too blurry in several places which made the dialogue hard to read on multiple occasions. That being said, the writing and socio-political satire was surprisingly impressive and gave me quite a few laughs at times. In my opinion, the strongest comics were the Fritz the Cat ones though the eponymous character's hedonistic, morally-deviant nature isn't as apparent yet. Crumb's journal entries were also fairly amusing to read through.

Final Thoughts: Despite the somewhat low-quality aesthetic, The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 1 is worth a look for any Robert Crumb fan interested in seeing his humble beginnings.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth it if you are a comics or Crumb scholar to see his very early stuff.

[QueenSolomon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn’t recommend this book if you aren’t already familiar with Robert Crumb’s work. That being said, I loved this book, personally I love seeing how an artist develops their craft. Teenage Crumb’s letters were very entertaining and relatable to read. My favorite comic that particularly struck me was “The Sad Comic Strip”.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far from fit to amaze, this nascent collection still impressed in it's own ways, considering his high-school age.

Sure, the writing could use work from basically every angle, but I easily deemed him ->mentally sharp at 15<- because I noticed plenty of thinking that you could tell he was hashing, or even gnashing on, which would have absolutely discounted the teens from my estimate of "the writer's" years.

The art is generally sometimes sloppy slap-dash but it's in no way bad.

Inkwise, I would've "turned up the darkness" from the material that they were working with when they created this edition.

[Alex Firer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is a weird beautiful object of found magic as the narrative they breed-- Charles Crumb losing his mind, Maxon Crumb's pretnetiousness and Robert Crumb's calm and ridiculous development throughout it all-- are in full bloom. Plus, as the volume goes on, the work done by 17 year old Crumb is as good as anything else he made in the sixties. Or at least as wistful and interesting. Bravissimo.

[Zachary Lacan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed out loud, guffawed and haw-hawd at Crumb's hilarious drawings of R. Crumb, and best of all, I really gotto thinking about something.

[Oscar Suescun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crumb's goofy playfulness is his genius. He's so honest.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early, early Crumb. You can see the signs of greatness coming, but a little bland overall.

[Luke Stevens · Rating 2 out of 5]

The early years indeed ! A high schooler's comix ! Not that good but still intriguing !

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

The early years of Crumbs art and comics were interesting, but they are very different than the comics and images that he is famous for. It is great to get insight of his humble, disney-esque beginnings with his brothers, but it doesn't give us much in the way of story or plot. There are several journal entries included that are interesting, but this collection didn't really draw me in (no pun intended)

[Andrew Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Been intrested in robert crumb and his alt comics for a while but only just got round to reading. I got through half of this volume as its so BITTER. Really too bitter for me and was playing on my emotions. Had to stop.

[Eve Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Turns out I'm not that interested in Crumb. Gotta give him credit though that he was pretty good already at an early age. The introduction was decent and I learned about his backround. That's all folks.

[Aurora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read these in middle school and thought they were really cool. Now that I'm a fully functioning adult I find Robert Crumb's storytelling tedious, taxing, and misogynistic. I do like some of the artwork though. It is a cool view into the world of the breakthrough of adult comics in the 60s, though!

[j_ay · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a stand-alone comic, it's a 2 star package, but as historical look back on how R Crumb came to be, it's pretty interesting.

[Leland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wacky and weird. What more can be said?