Robert Crumb's Sex Obsessions

by Robert Crumb (Contributor)

Randy Robert: Crumb's secret fantasies revealed They have little to do with the standard procreative urge, Mr. Crumb admits. He has also said he finds nothing more boring than someone else's sexual obsessions, and yet through his long career the world's most famous underground cartoonist has felt compelled to include his own sex fantasies in his art. He explains it as a compulsive catharsis, while fans call R. Crumb's erotic fantasies the Master at his best. Now Crumb has selected his most intimately revealing comic strips and single page drawings to create a 256 page encyclopedic trip through his sexual psyche. All images were created between 1980 and 2006, and all strips are colored for a lush vibrancy never seen in his comic books. In total the book features 14 complete stories, including My Troubles With Women II, If I Were a King, A Bitchin' Bod and How To Have Fun With a Strong Girl, as well as 62 single page drawings. This signed, slipcased, limited edition of 1,000 copies is a work of art in itself, with every part of the book?case, front and back covers, spine, introduction and pre-introduction pages?created for this project by Robert Crumb. Each book also comes with a print on mould-made age-resistant hahnemuehle paper pulled from an original watercolor by Robert Crumb. The artist admits it's a little scary to see his most fevered obsessions collected and to end like this, but fans will find R. Crumb's Sex Obsessions a fascinating peek inside an often tortured, always brilliantly talented mind, as well as an unparalleled collector's item.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Smut

253 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

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

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I'm the first person to read this book, but hey, I'll take the win. Perhaps it's simply a sign that unlike the mass collective of people rushing to get the top review for the latest James Patterson or Danielle Steel novel I'm simply willing to start ploughing into Robert Crumb, immediately of course regretting the use of the word "plough."

Sex Obsessions does not put on any airs, and Robert Crumb doesn't try to be anything he isn't, namely, a pervert. The works contained in this collection range from small stories of comics, independent sketches, random thoughts and experiences Crumb recorded in his notebook, or sometimes just his obvious masturbatory habits set to paper and ink. Crumb is an artist looking to the medium of comics to explore his impulses, desires, and sexual eccentricities because "why not?" And while there are passages in this book that leave even me shocked and uncomfortable, what is consistently fascinating about Robert Crumb is his honesty. The man simply is who he is.

There are some problems with this book, namely that Crumb's work is often largely his space to vent and this can sometimes be a burden to the reader. His prose is not terribly clever, but it is honest to what the man is feeling and so I'm willing to bear it.

What I keep returning to over and over again is Crumb's art, because even at his most grotesque Crumb is able to create moments and entire pages of beautiful and amazing lines that last. They seem possessed by this incredible energy, passion, and conviction. Crumb's work can be sexist at times, but his women are powerful creatures often falling prey to spindly and repugnant little creeps, but even they are made up of these incredible lines.

I wouldn't want Crumb's sex life, but I'll never not want a reason to look through the man's body of work and see the skill that's constantly going into it.

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

..ja sākumā dažbrīd Kramba apsēstība pat nedaudz uzbudināja, tad laika gaitā nedaudz apnika tā vienveidība uz lielām sievietēm, kurām viņš, pats būdams mazs un trausls tipiņš, lauza galvu atpakaļ un sēdās uz muguras. bet kopumā bija interesanti. :)