Kramers Ergot 10

Kramers Ergot #10

by Robert Crumb, Anna Haifisch (Artist), Dash Shaw (Artist)

Eighteen of the very best cartoonists in the world are contributing new pieces to this oversized volume, including Anna Haifich, Noel Frieberg, Adam Buttrick, Archer Prewitt, Andy Burkholder, Lale Westvind, Will Sweeney, Dash Shaw, James Turek, Rick Altergott, CF, Aisha Franz, Kim Deitch, Ron Regé Jr., and John Pham. There's a contribution from editor Sammy Harkham, as well.

Genres: Comics, Anthologies

120 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2018

About the author

Robert Dennis Crumb (born August 30, 1943)— is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.

Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded as its most prominent figure. Though one of the most celebrated of comic book artists, Crumb's entire career has unfolded outside the mainstream comic book publishing industry. One of his most recognized works is the "Keep on Truckin'" comic, which became a widely distributed fixture of pop culture in the 1970s. Others are the characters "Devil Girl", "Fritz the Cat", and "Mr. Natural".

He was inducted into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1991.

Reviews

[S. Zahler · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is not entirely fair to rate an anthology of comic book material this diverse, and as with many such samplers, the quality varies widely. As I expected, more innovation and creativity goes into the visuals of these tales than in the underlying stories (and some pieces are altogether abstract). This is fine in this medium and format, and can be credited in a large part to each piece's brevity.

Overall, Kramers Ergot 10 is worth reading---I enjoyed most of the material to some degree, and three tales quite thoroughly. I want to point out the crude and funny piece Run by Johnny Ryan (whose Prison Pit I adore), the Adventure Time-meets-Moebius oddness of The Embigenning by Will Sweeney, and the stunning, kinetic, and phantasmagorical tale Sarka by Lale Westvind as three reasons why I will keep this oversized monster in my collection. It's nice to see the cartooning genius Frank King included, and the funny-Euro-animal strip (by Anouk Ricard) Ducky Coco is indeed funny as was the similarly light, but more visually refined J & K by John Pham. The Chris Ware-like nuance in Sammy Harkham's western Hollywood biopic and Dash Shaw's Police Woman give those two reading experiences some of that uncomfortable angst and real-life awkwardness that defines many good indies.

Also worth mentioning: I bought other works by Westvind, Ricard, and Pham, so the collection was successful insofar as turning me on to talents I did not know.

An additional Note: Kramers Ergot #5 was comparably good to #10, the Mat Brinkman/Neil Burke, Chris Ware, and CF pieces were great, but other KE issues that I've read (6 & 9) had less stuff that I enjoyed.

[J.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another strong showing by Sammy Harkham's Kramers Ergot. Lots of top-notch cartoonists allowed to flex in an oversized format. My personal favorite was by a cartoonist who somehow has flown below my radar until now (Connor Williumsen). It's one of those comics that keeps you intrigued with a seemingly straightforward plot that ends with the reader not quite knowing what the hell happened.

[Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kramers Ergot continues its semi-regular anthology series with work by established and lesser-known cartoonists, including a few old underground treasures and a Gasoline Alley strip. The standouts in this impressive collection are Anna Haifisch’s “The Hall of the Bright Carvings,” Sammy Harkham’s “Blood of the Virgins” (Harkham also edits the Kramers anthologies), and a handful of Shary Flenniken’s incredible and still-uncollected “Trots and Bonnie” strips.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of stories! It reads better than America's Best Comics.

There's a ton of amazing creators including a whole bunch I've never read before.

I didn't love the large, floppy format. It made it a bit hard to read.

[Ryan Mandelbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm typically not into comic anthologies and almost never buy them, but after quite a few people I know recommended this one to me (and now finally owning a coffee table big enough to display such large book) I couldn't resist, and I'm glad I bought it. As far as anthologies go, this one is incredibly even in quality, and even has a somewhat cohesive tone overall. While there is an enormous amount of variation on display in this book, these stories seem very meticulously curated and often lean towards the uncomfortable, and often downright disturbing. Not every single one was a hit for me, and I doubt anyone will like EVERYTHING in here (the Marc Bell one was near indecipherable for me, though that's just my personal taste) but i also don't think any reader of independent comics with a taste for the weirder side of things can deny the value and quality bursting from these pages, right down to the front cover and even the damn glossary!

A few favourites were the ones by C.F., Connor Willumson, John Pham, Simon Hanselmann, Friberg & Larsen, Dash Shaw, Lale Westvind (prob the biggest standout in the book), and I definitely got a good chuckle out of all the short Anouk Richard strips.

Overall: will proudly display this baby on my coffee table for many years to come. No doubt many more casual flip-throughs ahead

[Mauricio Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sammy Harkham's short story about an early days Hollywood feud alone makes it worth it. There are a couple other stories (most notably the one by C.F.) that are very welcomed, and there are others that simply don't amount to anything but increase the page count (Johnny Ryan).
Overall you can see the effort put into it, which makes it all the more sad to find the same names repeating over and over in Kramer's Ergot and in every other "comics" anthology put forward in the last fifteen years or so... Do we really need to keep on digging Robert Crumb's decades old sketchbooks looking for content? Isn't any emerging talent out there that's worth publishing?

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent iteration of the long-running anthology series that does exactly what an anthology should do - surprise and delight at each turn. Obviously I loved some stories more than others, but that's the point - and the quality was consistently high, whatever my taste in the stories. The oversized format was fun to read, and the colors were gorgeous - a beautiful combo.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun!

This is an anthology by different creators telling their own stories. Shary Flenniken, Steven Weissman, Aisha Franz, Johnny Ryan were my favorites in this volume.

This is a great way to discover more underground artists that you may not have known about previously.

As with most anthologies this was hit or miss. I’d say it was more hit though, which is great.

[Michael Jantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found some of the pages in here to be lesser works of those whom I consider the greatest artists. Exceptions would be the C.F. and Connor Willumsen...both incredible.

[Keith Kavanagh · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lot of cool artists but a lot of loose ends
my favourite stories were connor willumsen's, anouk ricard's and sammy harkham's

[Eric T. Voigt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pretty decent collection. There weren't any pages I didn't like. My favorite two were by Dash Shaw and John Pham. Oh, well, Werewolf Jones' bit had me cracking up. Top favorite to Simon Hanselmann.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up from the library on a lark, was stunned that every page a beauty. Even Johnny Ryan's.

[Olivia Edginton · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun! the size of it is like A3 which made me feel like a big baby reading a picture book