by Robert Crumb (Illustrator), Dian Hanson (Editor)
It's the old story. When TASCHEN released the first limited edition of R. Crumb Sketchbooks: 1982-2011, fans drooled over the gorgeous packaging of this six-volume boxed set, the artist's thoughtful editing, the hand-written introduction, marbleized page edges, and signed Crumb colored art print. Not all, however, could afford the steep price. So they whined and coveted, with the wail growing louder when the second boxed set, 1964-1982, was released the next year.
Covet no more. R. Crumb Sketchbook, Volume 2: Sept. 1968 - Jan. 1975 combines the two middle volumes from the second boxed set, produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, into one fat 444-page Crumb feast, at an irresistible price. This book contains hundreds of sketches from the master of underground comic art, including cover roughs for Zap, Motor City and Despair comics, the introduction of Aline, the first female Yetis, Flakey Foont and Mr. Natural, Honeybunch Kaminski, San Francisco drug culture and big buoyant butts, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself.