Fantagraphics has announced a new book by influential (and controversial) cartoonist Robert Crumb, Tales of Paranoia, due out this November. Featuring the 81-year old’s first new comics since 2002’s Mystic Funnies #3, the book consists of 12 short comics “mixing memoir, essay, polemic, neurosis, and conspiracy,” including the belated finale of the 1993 series Dirty Laundry, written by Crumb’s late wife Aline Kominsky-Crumb (who passed away in 2022, aged 74).
The seminal cartoonist who single-handedly invented the alternative comics format of the one-person anthology in 1967 with ZAP returns at age 81, still raging at the world and himself, still drawing like a master, and still funny… for the most part! In his latest comics excursion, Crumb dives down internet and newspaper rabbit-holes, and comes up asking questions. Why don’t we know the real background of deep state careerists? Is Crumb himself just as paranoid as everyone else tells him he is? Or is that just what THEY want you to think?
Crumb has been experiencing something of a resurgence recently, having been the subject of a new biography, Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life by Dan Nadel (which Crumb provided the cover art for), earlier this year. The book will be preceded by an exhibition, similarly titled R. Crumb: Tales of Paranoia, at David Zwirner‘s gallery in Los Angeles, starting October 10. It will mark Crumb’s first exhibition in LA since the Hammer Museum’s presentation of The Bible Illuminated: R. Crumb’s Book of Genesis in 2009.
Furthermore, Fantagraphics announced Tales of Paranoia will herald the start of their 50th anniversary celebrations. The company, which was founded by Gary Groth and Michael Catron in 1976, and published various Crumb comics since 1987, unveiled a new logo to mark the occasion, which you can check out below, along with a two-page preview:
The Book of Genesis is Crumb’s most recent work (2009), I believe. Looking forward to this new release. The art is still solid based on the preview.
Thanks for the heads up – I’m curious as to why the press release says otherwise, and looking over it now I will tweak further to be more in-line with its phrasing (it seems Book of Genesis was done well in advance of, but never serialised before its release.)
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