132 CRUMB, ROBERT
with his wife) and controversial, he has also explored a number of historical subjects,
often in an increasingly detailed, realistic style, including his illustration of the fi rst
books of the Bible.
Since his emergence as a major fi gure in the late 1960s, Crumb has attained a sta-
tus shared by few living cartoonists, especially those who have almost never worked in
mainstream culture. Most of Crumb’s work has been collected in Th e Complete Crumb
Comics a 17-volume (to date) series by Fantagraphics, supplemented by a 10-volume
set of Crumb’s Sketchbooks. Th ough now out of date, Th e R. Crumb Coff ee Table Art
Book (Little, Brown & Co., 1997) off ers a solid overview of “Crumb’s Whole Career,
from Shack to Chateau!” Crumb’s work continues to appear in comic books as well as
limited-edition publications, and has been the subject of critical studies, guidebooks,
museum exhibitions, and two documentary fi lms, Terry Zwigoff ’s well-received Crumb
(1994) and an earlier BBC production Th e Confessions of Robert Crumb (1987).
Selected Bibliography: Beauchamp, Monte, ed. Th e Life and Times of R. Crumb.
New York: St. Martin’s Griffi n, 1998; Crumb, R. and Peter Poplaski. Th e R. Crumb
Handbook. London: MQ Publications, 2004; Fiene, Donald M. R. Crumb Checklist of
Work and Criticism. Cambridge, MA: Boatner Norton Press, 1981; George, Milo, ed.
R. Crumb: Th e Comics Journal Library. Vol 3. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2004; Th omp-
son, Ilse, ed. Your Vigor for Life Appalls Me: Robert Crumb Letters 1958–1977. Seattle:
Fantagraphics Books, 1998.
Corey K. Creekmur
