Robert Crumb: Existential Comics

    Robert Crumb: Existential Comics

    Edited and with an introduction by Dan Nadel

    This volume brings together twenty-five of R. Crumb’s most ambitious, acclaimed, and profound comics.

    One of the most influential and iconic cartoonists of our time, R. Crumb is celebrated for pushing the boundaries of representation, mass consumerism, and polite society. The comics in this volume exemplify Crumb’s creative output from 1979-2004.

    The comics collected here depict characters searching for an understanding of the world around and within themselves. Through adaptation, autobiography, biography, and short fiction, Crumb—much like his subjects—demands we pay attention to our darkest desires, compulsions, fears, and obsessions.

    Existential Comics also features a new, introductory comic strip by Crumb.

    Editor Dan Nadel’s essay further weaves together Crumb’s life, career, and influences, delving into the creative environment that informed some of the artist’s most outstanding comics.

    Hardcover, 208 pages

    David Zwirner Books, 2025

    Available at stores everywhere.

     

    Contents:

    Pay Attention!

    Dan Nadel

     

    Not For Everybody, 2024

     

    A Short History of America

    CoEvolution Quarterly, no. 23 (Fall 1979)

     

    Sharon and Karen in “Karen Meets Boz”

    CoEvolution Quarterly, no. 31 (Fall 1981) and Weirdo, no. 3 (Fall 1981)

     

    Excerpts from Boswell’s London Journal, 1762–1763 (A Klassic Komic)

    Weirdo, no. 3 (Fall 1981)

     

    I Remember the Sixties

    Weirdo, no. 4 (Winter 1981–1982)

     

    My Troubles with Women

    Zap Comix, no. 10 (1982)

     

    Trash: What Do We Throw Away?

    Weirdo, no. 6 (Summer 1982)

     

    Uncle Bob’s Mid-Life Crisis

    Weirdo, no. 7 (Winter 1983)

     

    Jelly Roll Morton’s Voodoo Curse

    Raw, no. 7 (May 1985)

     

    Psychopathia Sexualis (A Klassic Komic)

    Weirdo, no. 13 (Summer 1985)

     

    Life Certainly Is “Existential”!

    Weirdo, no. 14 (Fall 1985)

     

    Patton

    Zap Comix, no. 11 (1985)

     

    The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick

    Weirdo, no. 17 (Summer 1986)

     

    Footsy

    Weirdo, no. 20 (Spring 1987)

     

    My Troubles with Women, Part II

    Hup, no. 1 (1987)

     

    Don’t Worry About It!

    Hup, no. 1 (1987)

     

    Cave Wimp

    Zap Comix, no. 12 (1989)

     

    People . . . Ya Gotta Love ’Em!

    Weirdo, no. 26 (Fall 1989)

     

    Nausea (A Klassic Komic)

    Hup, no. 3 (November 1989)

     

    Point the Finger

    Hup, No. 3 (November 1989)

     

    Can You Stand Alone and Face Up to the Universe?

    Hup, no. 4 (November 1992)

     

    Mode O’Day

    Weirdo, no. 27 (Spring 1990)

     

    Dumb

    Zap Comix, no. 13 (1994)

     

    Don’t Tempt Fate

    Mystic Funnies, no. 3 (2002)

     

    Cradle to Grave

    Mystic Funnies, no. 3 (2002)

     

    Walkin’ the Streets

    Zap Comix, no. 15 (2004)