Saturday, April 6, 2013

Book Review: R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz, & Country


A love of music should be a blessing to cartoonists. The hours spent at the drawing board pass very pleasantly with music, and one can be endlessly inspired by artists working in an altogether different medium.

R. Crumb's musical tastes are legendary. He has an abiding love of blues, jazz, and country music. He possesses a large record collection with many obscure 78's. Back around 1980 he illustrated three sets of trading cards featuring his favorite musical performers. The illustrations are based on old photographs, many of them as obscure as the music.

Crumb uses his celebrity to popularize some of his musical heroes. His appreciation of them is absolutely authentic. Crumb is evidently more popular than ever since Terry Zwigoff's documentary was released, and in 2006 these three sets of trading cards were published in book form by no less than Harry N. Abrams. I doubt that there would be much interest in this sort of project if not for Crumb's participation.

The blues and country artists are totally unknown to me outside of this book. I don't have the companion CD, so for now they will remain unknown. The descriptions provided give tantalizing hints of their fine musicianship.

The early jazz greats, here depicted in watercolor and not Pantone, are less obscure. Almost a third of them are known to me and I can vouch, along with R. Crumb, for their greatness.

R. Crumb, Heroes of the Blues, Serigraph, Edition of 150
 The signed serigraph edition of 150 was published at $380 in 2010 and is now sold out.


R. Crumb, Heroes of the Blues, Giclee Print, Unsigned Edition of 300, $90 from RCrumb.com
Image added April 8, 2013

 

Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html
 



Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html



Image added April 8, 2013
http://rcrumb.com/prints.html

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