Crumb Family Comics

I bought this collection because I wanted to see more of Charles Crumb's artwork up close. The book included a lot of this, plus Charles's insane "Talent Test" which was shown in the movie "Crumb." Also included are some essays by Charles about his troubles as a high school student and his constant struggle with his sexual orientation and his desire for boys. There was also a lot of excellent art by Maxon Crumb, and a few good R. Crumb comics (My Trouble With Women, Part II, for example.) Towards the beginning there is a lot of biographical information about the Crumb family written by Maxon, which is very interesting to read and provides a lot of background on all of the Crumb brothers. At the end of the book is a comic about life in France written and illustrated by R. Crumb and his wife Aline. There are also a few really interesting essays hand-written by Robert Crumb about intellectual topics. This book is a great book because it's about more than just the art of the Crumb brothers. A great deal of it is taken up by writing from all three of the Crumbs that really brings the reader closer to their world, and therefore their art.

I just recently saw the documentary about this very unusual family and was intrigued enough to buy this book and will probably buy some othe Crumb things. This explains in more detail what happened to Charles Crumb and why. His drawings are very disturbing. Maxon's drawings are also of a disturbing bent. There are some comics from all members of the family and some beautiful drawings by Crumb himself. Maxon wrote the introduction and there are also excerpts of Charles letters. One picture of the mother sort of tells the whole story.

With introductions by both Terry Zwigoff and Maxon Crumb. For me the surprise was finding that Maxon is a good (though sometimes obtuse) writer. The comics by Robert have been seen elsewhere, and emphasise his sexual neurosis. There are letters from Charles, a sad, solitary fellow. Comics by Aline and Sophie have a lighter appeal. All in all, plenty of thought provoking material, without much cohesion besides the fact that it's all in the family.