R. CRUMB SKETCHBOOK Volume 3 1975-1982

Until May 2017, Robert Crumb was simply lauded as the greatest underground artist. Then his cover drawing for the 1969 comic Fritz the Cat sold for a record $717,000, the highest price ever realized for any Crumb original art, and concepts of under- and above ground went out the window. Now everything Crumb is fast increasing in value; the perfect time for R. Crumb Sketchbook, Volume 3: Jan. 1975–Dec. 1982. Combining volumes 5 and 6 from the $1000 second R. Crumb Sketchbook boxed set, and produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, this is one big 444-page Crumb feast. Among the hundreds of subjects included are Crumb’s move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, the birth of daughter Sophie, as well as further adventures of Mr. Natural, mischievous Snoids, Arcade comics strips, political discontent, existential angst, huge powerful women, geeky little guys, Mao Tse Tung, Mick Jagger and moral outrage, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself. “There’s something irreconcilable at the heart of this work… which is at odds with much contemporary art. It’s about seduction and repulsion. You are drawn into it and you are judging yourself as you look at it.”— Lucas Zwirner, The Guardian, London Nudity and explicit sex, of course.