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The Complete Crumb Comics #1
The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 1: The Early Years of Bitter Struggle
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128 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 1996
About the author
Robert Crumb
572 books546 followersRobert 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
March 26, 2013
"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?
March 9, 2017
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!
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!
November 23, 2019
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.
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.
November 7, 2013
Worth it if you are a comics or Crumb scholar to see his very early stuff.
January 17, 2025
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”.
May 28, 2022
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.
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.
December 28, 2014
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.
June 12, 2007
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.
February 18, 2013
Crumb's goofy playfulness is his genius. He's so honest.
July 7, 2014
Early, early Crumb. You can see the signs of greatness coming, but a little bland overall.
May 30, 2024
The early years indeed ! A high schooler's comix ! Not that good but still intriguing !
July 26, 2026
This is not “good” but it’s very interesting in that you get to see the very first Crumb comics. A lot of the comics feel a bit generic/uninspired, although you can tell the authors are talented for their age.
You can see he hasn’t quite found his voice yet, except for a few pagea it feels like what you’d expect from R. Crumb as an adult. These were written when the Crumb brothers were still in school. Amusingly one serial comic in the book just abruptly ends when the writer just loses interest in continuing the story.
I was expecting R. crumb comics only, but it seems to be more a cooperation with his brothers at this early stage. It wasn’t entirely clear to me who the author of each comic was.
You can see he hasn’t quite found his voice yet, except for a few pagea it feels like what you’d expect from R. Crumb as an adult. These were written when the Crumb brothers were still in school. Amusingly one serial comic in the book just abruptly ends when the writer just loses interest in continuing the story.
I was expecting R. crumb comics only, but it seems to be more a cooperation with his brothers at this early stage. It wasn’t entirely clear to me who the author of each comic was.
April 28, 2023
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)
June 15, 2017
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.
October 24, 2017
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.
January 3, 2022
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!
April 5, 2026
lmao the artist really doesnt care about this
February 4, 2014
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.
November 4, 2011
Wacky and weird. What more can be said?
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews