ccc 01 early years
ccc 01 early years
Fantagraphics October 1987
Volume 1 – 1st printing. “The Early Years of Bitter Struggle!” Art by Robert Crumb. This is the first of a series of volumes that collect the works of one of America’s most original, trenchant, and uncompromising satirists. This series includes early work, previously unpublished strips, sketchbooks, underground comix, dramatic and autobiographical strips, and Crumb’s classic creations – Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. Hardcover, 8 1/2-in. x 11-in., 128 pages, B&W. Mature Readers Cover price $39.95.
This long out-of-print first volume of the multiple Harvey and Eisner award-winning Complete Crumb Comics series has been one of our most demanded reprints of the last several years. Now, this landmark volume of Robert Crumb’s formative years not only will return, but also boast a major discovery not included in prior editions: a never-before-published, 60 page “home-made” Arcade comic from 1962.
Growing up, Robert and his brother Charles often created their own comic books. These “home-made” editions were usually produced in editions of one. As such, many have been lost to time or private collections. What hasn’t comprises much of the first two volumes of The Complete Crumb series. Their creation continued throughout the 1950s and into the early ’60s and eventually the content of Crumb’s work gradually matured from the light-hearted, funny animal antics of earlier years to stories that flashed signals of what we now recognize as “true Crumb.”
This previously undiscovered Arcade “issue,” from May, 1962, shows many flashes of where Crumb was heading (whereas Charles had all but abandoned drawing comics by the ’60s). The 17-page strip “Jim” is the most emotionally-charged work of Crumb’s young life to that point, a gentle and psychologically astute look at a boy who needs a mother, and also brimming with signs of his increasing frustration with Catholicism. It also features the first quintessential “Crumb girl,” Mabel.
This volume also includes several early Fritz the Cat stories (a.k.a. “Animal Town Comics”), and the classic “Treasure Island Days” (as seen in the Crumb film) and is rounded out with other strips, diary entries and sketches that will be a treasure trove for Crumb fans, all defining work from Crumb’s formative years as a cartoonist, spanning the years 1958-1962 (when Crumb was ages 15-19) and featuring material from other “home-made” comics of the era. This is Ground Zero for a man who may well be the greatest cartoonist who ever lived.