Crack open the pages of Jon B. Cooke's The Book of Weirdo: A Retrospective of R. Crumb's Legendary Humor Anthology, and it's like grabbing a fistful of chocolate bridge-mix. Some milky morsels amuse, some darker bits require rumination, but each bite is sinful and toothsome. To call it a compendium weighs it down. With doting irreverence, in bold and meticulous black and white, the book chronicles the history of R. Crumb's Weirdo, the quarterly magazine published by Last Gasp from 1981 through 1993, and described by co-conspirator Robert Williams as, “Orthodox Bohemia where you could do whatever the fuck you wanted.”
Comprehensive, but not painstaking, it's chock full of rare and unseen comics, randy remembrances from over 130 contributors, plus their photos, interviews with the editors and publisher, Ron Turner, as well as a gorgeous index of the clever, beautifully rendered covers. Start with any page or start at the back to find a morsel of intentionally offensive material, each historical, hysterical and topical. Legends like Harvey Pekar and Raymond Pettibon mix it up with modern and lesser known names in a comix free-for-all. As Kramers Ergot editor Sammy Harkham explains, “Weirdo is difficult. It pushes you past your own standards of taste, of what you think you like. You wrestle with it… but Weirdo always wins.” ––Gwynn Vitello
Last Gasp Books lastgasp.com
