Robert Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis- Robert Crumb

Called the Bruegel of underground art, Robert Crumb is an American icon of comic introspection, cultural satire, and sexual obsession. His pen and ink drawings shaped the 1960s/70s counterculture. This compact collection presents a trip through the hippie years, 1968–1975, personally sourced by the artist from his original sketchbooks.

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.