R. Crumb: Existential Comics: Selected Stories, 1979–2004

by R. Crumb, Dan Nadel (editor)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 27, 2025

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan Nadel who wrote the Crumb biography released earlier this year, also curates a collection of the post-underground comix career of Robert Crumb. Collecting works from Hup, Weirdo, the mid-late '90s issues of Zap Comix and other anthologies, the 25 comics collected here reflect the more matured and refined version of the cartoonist's substantial output of comics. More biographic works like the ones featuring Charlie Patton and Philip K. Dick are added in here, along with Crumb's more autobiographical pieces like "I Remember the Sixties" and "My Trouble with Women" get included too. Opening with what I consider to be Crumb's most elegantly drawn work (I would genuinely consider it to be a masterpiece - a word I rarely use) in "A Short History of America", which is in my opinion well worth picking up this entire collection for.



"A Short History of America", as first published in CoEvolution Quarterly, no. 23 (September, 1979)

Published on silky matte paper to really do Crumb's intricate lines and hatches justice, I think this makes a great alternative to other bulky Crumb collections, like The Weirdo Years or volumes of The Complete Crumb. Hardcore fans of Crumb aren't finding much new material here, though Crumb does pencil in a couple new pages for this collection. In general, this serves as a fantastic sampling of Crumb's more composed and refined work, a nice supplement to the more transgressive and raunchy works from the '60s.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed much of it but that’s way too much R. Crumb for me. I guess I just like a bit at a time.

[Aquanaten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is almost certainly the best value for money collection of Robert Crumb comics that currently exists.

It compiles all the major "intelectually significant" Crumb works, including his many musings on sex and gender relations, partial adaptations of literary works, biographical pieces (including the much praised biography of Charlie Patton and the remarkable retelling of Philip K Dick's spiritual awakening), recollections of his own youth and just general jamming where he, in one way or another, puts forward his takes on life, death and religion.

If you want to read a curated sampling of Crumb's best works, there isn't any better place to start. There's still a lot of stuff missing and Crumb's most exploitative comics seem to be generally avoided (there isn't a single Fritz the Cat strip to be found, which is the most glaring omission) but you'll still find your fair share of sex mania and misogynistic ramblings. One has to give it to Crumb, at least he is completely open about his failings. Clearly he hopes that by being honest he can make his opinions seem completely objective and unbiased, which they aren't, but that just makes his work all the more interesting.

Highly recommended to anyone looking for damn good comics and honest talks about sex and religion. Even if you don't agree (I don't, most of the time) the quality is undeniable.

[John “Hoss” · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of work Crumb did later in his career (I say later in regard to this collection not having his 60s work included). This collection has some great biography and autobiography work he did for his magazine Weirdo, Zap, and my personal favorite “A Short History of America,” in an ecological journal. The introduction by his biographer Dan Nadel was really good too. This collection in its entirety really reflects and compliments the work done in the biography Nadel did on R. Crumb. Crumb has a new one pager here too, and is as sharp and elegantly crafted as his other works collected here. If you’re a bit of an obsessive collector as I feel I am you might feel you’re just recollecting work put together in his sketchbook collections or the Complete Crumb series from Fantagraphics. In some ways yes, that is true… but I overlooked that and I’m delighted to have this in my collection. For new fans it’s a great book to have and look upon his technique and style. For seasoned fans and collectors this is a wonderful book to revisit stories that really set Crumb to a different level of cartoonist, rather than being a memory of the 60s hippy scene.

[viy]

As somebody who has regarded digging through Crumb's oeuvre as somewhat of a chore, this collection really does collect almost all my favorite works of his in one volume. That said, there are places where the thematic linkages between stories is weak, but there are two stories (very low ratio!) that I didn't appreciate in the collection. I would suggest to any who enjoyed this collection to invest in a copy of Crumb's Kafka, Genesis, a 360p .mp4 file of Zwigoff's “Crumb” and perhaps “Portraits of Women”.

[Shishuraj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains a lot of Crumb’s comics I’ve already read but the ones new to me were great. The ones that stick out are his illustrations of cases of psychopathic sexual neuroses from a german medical journal, a 1989 strip in which Crumb’s groupies dunk Donald Trump’s into the toilet and an excerpt from Sartre’s Nausea.
My personal favorite thing that Crumb ever did is the short illustrated biography of blues singer Charley Patton. I can reread that any number of times.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite a ride, and super insightful into Crumb’s preoccupations. I mean sure, a good portion of those preoccupations are big-legged women and self-pity, and sometimes over the course of a collection you get some repeated content - but even the darkest parts are directed more back at Crumb himself than at any external party.