*R. Crumb is undoubtedly the foremost cartoonist of the latter 20th Century, and his sketchbooks — in which he has written and drawn continually from the early '60s to present — might rank as his finest achievement. Fantagraphics is proud to present these sketchbooks, in facsimile form, as a comprehensive series of volumes that will eventually run well over 4000 pages. Volume 7, covering mid-1969 through the end of 1970, represents one of the more inquisitive and soul-searching periods in this phenomenal artist's life. Crumb repeatedly expresses, through a variety of penetrating and coruscating visual metaphors, the central existentialist struggle: to live in the full light of consciousness with all the risk, pain and suffering that entails. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this seventh volume, which coincides with Crumb's rise to fame and rejection of the late '60s hippie counterculture that made him famous. Like every volume in the series, though, Vol. 7 offers the full panoply of a life of perceptions rendered with consummate artistry.
*Source: fantagraphics.com