R. Crumb's Dream Diary

Product Description An unprecedented insight into the untamed art and psyche of R. Crumb. For more than forty years, legendary American artist Robert Crumb has documented his nightly dreams in a meticulously kept private journal. This material has stood as a guarded secret in a career defined by an impish compulsion to publically selfdisclose. All of the artist’s well-documented preoccupations are present and accounted for – rampant egomania, insatiable lust, profound self-disgust, the sad beauty of old America, the moral bankruptcy of new America and the fool’s errand quest for spiritual enlightenment – but here they are entirely untamed, springing forth from forces beyond even his control. Published for the first time, the complete Dream Diaries offer readers a deep, dark look under the hood of one of America’s most aggressively dynamic comedic voices. Review [R.Crumb's Dream Diary] is both familiar and surprising, pleasurable and enlightening. It strikes and maintains the difficult balance between thrill and intimacy.--Lily Majteles "Brooklyn Rail" [R.Crumb's] black-and-white work is bawdy, often X-rated, and drawn with a cross-hatched precision that feels closer to a museum-caliber etching than the coloring-book wonders of old comics. But they're really not so far off: [...] Readers will discover how a cartoonist's imagination has always grown from the same place of surreal, anxious wonderment and escapist reflection.-- "Rain Taxi"