The Complete Crumb Comics, Vol. 7: Hot 'n' Heavy!

The Complete Crumb Comics #7

by Robert Crumb

Back in print after a several-year absence, and with Crumb’s popularity ever-rising, the seventh volume of The Complete Crumb Comics spotlights Crumb’s work from 1970 and 1971, the peak years of Crumb’s hippie stardom which led to “the grip of paralyzing, crippling self-consciousness that for years became increasingly harder to push past,” as Crumb writes in his introduction. Included from this era is the entirety of Crumb’s work from underground classics such as ZAP, The East Village Other, Bijou, Mr. Natural, Uneeda, Esquire, and much more, including strips featuring classic Crumb characters like Fritz the Cat, Flakey Foont, Angelfood McSpade, Bo Bo Bolinski, and Shuman the Human. 16 color, 128 b&w illustrations.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Art, Collections, Fantasy, Comix

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

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

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crumb himself admits in the introduction that he was just cranking out some of these, though he wisely doesn't indicate which ones. Even second-rate Crumb is still at least interesting. There are some real gems in this volume. "Stoned Again", where a smiling man's head slowly melts over the course of six panels is a personal favorite, as is "The Origins of Mr. Natural," a fascinating exercise in faux history.

[EC Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly not as hot as you may hope, the title must be referring to his life at the time. The work is moving toward the more existential: The Fuzzy Bunny is a great, almost wordless long story drifting from one magical landscape to another that was written with his brother Charles, and has a very wistful quality. Mr. Natural has and extended meditation with a similarly shifting landscape communicating a near wordless story. There's more adventures of Mr Natural with the Big Baby, Schuman, and others. Pete the Plumber starts gross and gets increasingly metaphysical, and appropriately there is also the classic "Don't Forget To Wipe Your Ass, Folks" signage, which ought to be posted in every public bathroom. A solid dose of Crumb, no matter what he says.

[Jesska · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Gross. Why am I reading this? Why do I OWN this? Why did I have an R. Crumb phase? What the hell was wrong with me?
Still love that Zwigoff doc, tho.

[Ioan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a rich one. While the really dark undertones of Ol' Pooperoo's work caught full bloom in following volumes, this one spits a burning gob of venom towards authority and "rebel youth" alike. Of course, the stories that match this statement perfectly are primarily the stories featuring Honeybunch Kaminsky, a naive (or worse) pothead teenager and her boyfriend, revolutionary wannabe, Projunior, who does little other than think or talk. Won't dabble any more into descriptions of the action, but one thing's made certain: when your girlfriend gets back at your place from a convention of no-good femmies (and you are a male, of course), it's hell to pay. Crumb's exceptionally cartoony way of approaching physiognomies shines here.
There are many other nuggets - check the Mr. Natural stories and pages, where the barrier between wisdom and plain charlatanism can get really blurred (lest we forget the story that makes the front cover, where Crumb got himself "famous" as a child pornographer), jams with other Zap fellers, comix techniques abound in those, and will have become so influential over the following generations, pages featuring Shuman the Human, and a humorous behemoth (crust-dirty humor, that is) in a story featuring Horny Harriet Hotpants and Mr. Snoid, who gets to cure the protagonist of her disease in rather spectacular ways.
All in all, a must read. Heck, just like most of the volumes in this series.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of the same from the previous volume. I'm not a big fan of some of his characters like Mr. Natural. The stories with him just seem pointless, which may be the point, but they're also repetitive, which is boring. I love the strips with the little girl. She's an interesting character, even if it does make me feel like a creep reading it. In his biopic, one of Crumb's friends says that he masturbates to his drawings. I had this in mind the whole time, and I was trying to guess which one's he does it to.

[Nikita Katiyar · Rating 4 out of 5]

a most unprincipled man has created this :3