Robert Crumb’s Sex Obsessions

They have little to do with the standard procreative urge, Mr. Crumb admits. He has also said he finds nothing more boring than someone else’s sexual obsessions, and yet through his long career the world’s most famous underground cartoonist has felt compelled to include his own sex fantasies in his art. He explains it as a compulsive catharsis, while fans call R. Crumb’s erotic fantasies the master at his best. 

Now Crumb has selected his most intimately revealing comic strips and single page drawings to create a 258-page encyclopedic trip through his sexual psyche. All images were created between 1980 and 2006, and all strips are hand-colored for a lush vibrancy never seen in his comic books. In total the book features 14 complete stories, including My Troubles With Women, If I Were a King, A Bitchin’ Bod, and How To Have Fun With a Strong Girl, as well as 60 single-page drawings.

The artist admits it’s a little scary to see his most fevered obsessions collected end to end like this, but fans will find Robert Crumb’s Sex Obsessions a fascinating peek inside an often tortured, always brilliantly talented mind, as well as an unparalleled collector’s item.

Robert Crumb first found fame with Zap comics in 1968. Subsequent comics include Snatch, Big Ass, Despair, Weirdo and Hup. He starred in the Oscar nominated 1994 film Crumb, and has produced many books, including TASCHEN’s Sex Obsessions.

Dian Hanson produced a variety of men’s magazines from 1976 to 2001, including Juggs, Outlaw Biker, and Leg Show, before becoming TASCHEN’s Sexy Book Editor. Her titles include the “body part” series, The Art of Pin-up, Psychedelic Sex, and Ren Hang.

Robert Crumb’s Sex Obsessions

Edition of 1,000

Robert Crumb, Dian Hanson

Pigment print, 20 x 26.7 cm, 

hardcover in slipcase, 

20.3 x 27.4 cm, 

258 pages

Edition: English