Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life: Publication Day!

In bookstores everywhere right this minute.

Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life is zinging its way into the world starting today. It’s a 480 page hardcover with a 16 page color section published by the fine people at Scribner. After six years of work it’s awfully nice to see it out in the world. I’m told it’s even a good beach read. Happily, Robert Crumb is here in New York to celebrate its release with me. If you’re so inclined please share news of the book far and wide and leave reviews and comments in the usual places.

I’ll be all around the country talking it up beginning tonight, April 15, 7 pm at 92NY with Crumb and Naomi Fry!

Come listen to me spiel:

Wednesday, April 16, Washington DC at Politics & Prose Union Market, 7 pm.

Saturday, April 19, Philadelphia at Partners & Son, 6 pm. (In conversation with Sally Madden)

Tuesday, April 22, Portland OR at Powell’s Cedar Hills Crossing, 7 pm (in conversation with Lance Bangs)

Wednesday, April 23, Los Angeles at Live Talks LA/Artani Theater, 8 pm (in conversation with Matt Groening and Art Spiegelman)

Friday, April 25, Petaluma, Copperfield’s Books, 7 pm.

Saturday April 26, A San Francisco double header!

• 2 pm: Et Al. Books: Book signing and conversation with my doppelganger, curator/writer Jordan Stein.

• 4 pm: Jordan’s art space Cushion Works is hosting a two-person art exhibition organized by yours truly called Robert Armstrong and Robert Crumb: Elderly Cartoonists Show Their Work. The opening is 4-7 pm and there will be delightful live music from Armstrong and friends.

Tuesday, May 6, New York, NY Comics and Picture-Story Symposium at The New School, 7 pm.

Tuesday, May 13, New York, CUNY Graduate Center, 6:30 pm (in conversation with Elisabeth Sherman)

Sunday, May 18, Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, 10:30 am (in conversation with Chris Ware)

Spin-off alert!

I’m so proud that the great Come Tees is releasing a collection of limited edition Crumb clothing in conjunction with my book. It’ll debut on Thursday April 17.

And there’s been a lot of nice press:

For The New Yorker, Bruce Handy penned a lovely Talk of the Town about an afternoon we had at The Whitney Museum of American Art.

Gal Beckerman went long on Crumb in The Atlantic, calling him “the anti–Norman Rockwell the culture was craving.”

The LA Times very kindly calls Crumb “an artist biography that astutely connects the work to the life story without forcing or simplifying anything. It works as cultural history and criticism; you won’t find a sharper analysis of the underground comix movement. Nadel honors the complexity of his subject, even, perhaps particularly, when it gets ugly.”

Not to be outdone, The Boston Globe says the biography has the “kind of granular texture and thematic heft that Crumb’s life and work deserves.”

Art in America goes into depth on Crumb’s life in, well, art.

Check out the April issue of Harper’s for an impossible-to-excerpt page-and-a-half examination of the book. I love it.

And if you’re still not convinced, you can read an excerpt at The Toronto Star or Lit Hub.

Wait, here’s more:

“Essential history for art and comics aficionados.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“A revealing portrait of a little understood American artist.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“This first major biography of [Robert Crumb] the iconic cartoonist is unsparing in its detail, acutely aware of social and historical context, and unapologetically in awe of Crumb’s artistic talent. A revealing portrait of an artist, yes, but also of an art form.” — Booklist (starred review)

Graphic Reminders!