Taschen America L.l.c.

Creative Team

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Frank Frazetta has reigned as the undisputed king of fantasy art for 50 years, his fame only growing in the years since his death and long overdue for this ultimate monograph. Born to a Sicilian immigrant family in Brooklyn, 1928, Frazetta was a minor league athlete, petty criminal and serial seducer with movie star looks and phenomenal talent. He claimed to only make art when there was nothing better to do-he preferred playing baseball-yet began his professional career in comics at age 16. Strip work led him to the infamous EC Comics, then to oils for Tarzan and Conan pulp covers. Both characters were interpreted by many before him, but as he explained in the 1970s, "I'm very physical minded. In Brooklyn, I knew Conan, I knew guys just like him," and he used this first-hand knowledge of muscle and macho to redefine fantasy heroes as more massive, more menacing, more testosterone-fueled than anything seen before. Add in the action, the creatures, the twilit worlds of haunting shadow and Frazetta's art is addictive as potato chips.

Creative Team

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From the legendary Tank Girl to live-action animations with Gorillaz, a Chinese contemporary opera to an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, artist Jamie Hewlett is one of the most energetic figures of contemporary pop culture. With influences ranging from hip hop to zombie slasher movies, Hewlett emerged in the mid-1990s as co-creator of the zeitgeist-defining Tank Girl comic. With then-roommate Damon Albarn, he went on to create the groundbreaking cartoon band Gorillaz. The award-winning virtual pop group of animated characters is a truly global phenomenon. Gorillaz have topped charts around the world, toured the globe from San Diego to Syria, and picked up hundreds of millions of streams and record sales along the way. This special edition celebrating TASCHEN's 40th anniversary updates Hewlett's first major monograph with around 30 brand new pieces. The book illustrates his thrilling creative journey with more than 400 artworks from the Tank Girl era through Gorillaz and up to the present day.

Creative Team

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Taschen surveys Robert Crumb's career in the 6-volume Robert Crumb Sketchbook series. Each 440-page volume, the first four combining two volumes each of the limited edition set, produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, spotlights a different era of Crumb's work, providing a chronological overvue of the artist, his life and interests, and his artistic development. Volume 1 (June 1964 to Sept. 1968) includes cover roughs for the legendary Zap and Head comics, the original Keep On Truckin' sketches, the first appearance of Mr. Natural, Fritz The Cat, and more. Volume 2 (Sept. 1968 to Jan. 1975) features the introduction of Aline, the first female Yetis, San Francisco drug culture and more. Volume 3 (1975-1982) includes Crumb's move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, and the birth of daughter Sophie. Volume 4 (1982-1989), when the artist was comfortably ensconced in rural California, fills its pages with Crumb's signature perversions (in country settings), and scathing social commentary. Volume 5 (1989-1998) finds Crumb at age 46, solidly into the midlife crises years, and the family's move to Sauve, France, in 1991 heralds a switch from portraits of apple-cheeked American girls to portraits of girls in French cafes and pastorals of rampant French countryside. Finally, Volume 6 (1998-2011) finds Crumb still illustrating sex fantasies and ranting against the human condition, but increasingly working from photos and historical themes such as the atrocity of Abu Ghraib and historic tableaus such as Piers the Ploughman of 14th century England. Crumb produced a consistent body of work over the last 40, if not 50, years, yet each page is also jarringly different from the one before. So much is packed in you can spend an hour and find you're only a quarter of the way through, with Crumb bemoaning his mortality, while continuing to prosper, every few pages. A fine stand-alone volume, and must-have completion for the sketchbook set.

Creative Team

Description

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.

Creative Team

Description

Combining volumes 5 and 6 from the second R. Crumb Sketchbook boxed set, and produced directly from the original artworks now belonging to an ardent French collector, this is one big 444-page Crumb feast for way less than his rare originals. Among the hundreds of subjects included are Crumb's move to rural California, his marriage to Aline Kominsky, the birth of daughter Sophie, as well as further adventures of Mr. Natural, mischievous Snoids, Arcade comics strips, political discontent, existential angst, huge powerful women, geeky little guys, Mao Tse Tung, Mick Jagger and moral outrage, all wrapped up in a quality hard cover featuring front and back illustrations newly hand-colored by Crumb himself.

Creative Team

Description

Combining volumes 7 and 8 from the first boxed set (confusing, we know), it spans the years 1982 to 1989, a period when the artist was comfortably ensconced in rural California, raising his young daughter Sophie, who appears throughout this volume. But Crumb was still Crumb, declaring in one drawing, above a lovingly rendered tree, "As I get older I get more twisted, convoluted, depraved, cynical, embittered, self-centered, jaded, debauched, ruthless, greedy, conceited, set-in-my-ways, long-winded, absent-minded, prejudiced, closed-minded, misanthropic, nervous..." To prove this self-flagellating analysis he fills the pages with his signature perversions (in country settings), scathing social commentary, cruel self-portraits, experimental cubism... and some lovely sylvan landscape. His mastery of the Rapidograph pen is at its zenith here in his 40s;

Creative Team

Description

As this volume opens we find our hero at age 46, solidly into the midlife crises years. Crumb has lived his entire life in anxious, introspective, self-flagellating crises, however, so the middle years bring only a refinement of his lifelong turmoil and further honing of artistic talent. More words accompany the drawings, demonstrating Crumb's brilliant powers of observation, as in a long paragraph devoted to an encounter with one of brother Maxon's vegan turds, and a poetic paean to the heartbreak of life and aging. The family's move to Sauve, France, in 1991 is heralded by a switch from portraits of apple-cheeked American girls sketched while waiting for food in California cafes to portraits of girls in French cafes, by pastorals of rampant French countryside, and by haunting tableau of homeless beggars in the Metro. The most notable new character in this sketchbook is a turbaned holy man named, by young Sophie Crumb, Roman Dodo, who seems loosely inspired by Robert's brother Maxon. Patricia Pig, a cheerful human/porcine hybrid also debuts, alongside portraits of girlfriends present and past.

Creative Team

Description

The last volume of this six-book series has our hero settled in his French home, still illustrating sex fantasies and ranting against the human condition, but increasingly working from photos and historical themes. Images of torture at Abu Ghraib and family portraits are mashed together. Old age hasn't brought contentment. "Silly Fool Comics" fills the final page in this final volume, with a devilish creature telling the anguished Crumb, "YOU Will Soon Be DEAD!" He was a mere 67, but in his self-absorbed Crumbish way was obsessing about death, when not making intimate and loving portraits of his wife Aline and all the other women who'd tormented his libido since boyhood. Most impressive in this book are his historic tableau, some single page, others multi-page strips, including Piers the Ploughman of 14th century England, My Secret Life by "Walter," Rough Women of the Dark Ages and The Apache Dance, from a 1930s Parisian postcard. His Rapidographed cross hatching is superb as ever and we are treated to long screeds displaying his undimmed brilliance at analyzing the human condition, in a morbid but nonetheless amusing way. One could say there are no surprises in content, as Crumb has produced a consistent body of work over the last 40, if not 50, years, yet each page is also jarringly different from the one before, due to his personal juxtaposition of images. So much is packed in you can spend an hour and find you're only a quarter of the way through, with Crumb bemoaning his mortality, while continuing to prosper, every few pages. A fine stand-alone volume, and must-have completion for the sketchbook set.