Taschen surveys Robert Crumb's career in the 6-volume Robert Crumb Sketchbook series. Each 440-page volume, the first four combining two volumes each of the limited edition set, produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, spotlights a different era of Crumb's work, providing a chronological overvue of the artist, his life and interests, and his artistic development. Volume 1 (June 1964 to Sept. 1968) includes cover roughs for the legendary Zap and Head comics, the original Keep On Truckin' sketches, the first appearance of Mr. Natural, Fritz The Cat, and more. Volume 2 (Sept. 1968 to Jan. 1975) features the introduction of Aline, the first female Yetis, San Francisco drug culture and more. Volume 3 (1975-1982) includes Crumb's move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, and the birth of daughter Sophie. Volume 4 (1982-1989), when the artist was comfortably ensconced in rural California, fills its pages with Crumb's signature perversions (in country settings), and scathing social commentary. Volume 5 (1989-1998) finds Crumb at age 46, solidly into the midlife crises years, and the family's move to Sauve, France, in 1991 heralds a switch from portraits of apple-cheeked American girls to portraits of girls in French cafes and pastorals of rampant French countryside. Finally, Volume 6 (1998-2011) finds Crumb still illustrating sex fantasies and ranting against the human condition, but increasingly working from photos and historical themes such as the atrocity of Abu Ghraib and historic tableaus such as Piers the Ploughman of 14th century England. Crumb produced a consistent body of work over the last 40, if not 50, years, yet each page is also jarringly different from the one before. So much is packed in you can spend an hour and find you're only a quarter of the way through, with Crumb bemoaning his mortality, while continuing to prosper, every few pages. A fine stand-alone volume, and must-have completion for the sketchbook set.
