The Late 1980s, Vol. 17: Cave Wimp, Mode O'Day, Aline 'n' Bob, & Other Stories, Covers, Drawings (v. 17)
Crumb says this helping of his work includes "two of the best conceived, most complex stories I ever drew," the last story featuring fashion addict Mode O'day and "Cave Wimp." Visually detailed yet thoroughly and dramatically legible, they are perfect little sitcoms. The Mode O'day doesn't even need to be purged of explicit sex to be ready for prime-time network TV (though at nine o'clock or later). "Cave Wimp," which imagines how prehistory's artistic, sensitive types kept their genes in the pool despite their mesomorphic brothers' hogging the women, is another matter, as is "The Adventures of 'Wichita' the Rat Dancer," which satirizes "a reallynicecomic" (Reed Waller and Kate Worley'sOmaha the Cat Dancer) by injecting fetishism into soap opera. Oh, "Academy Awards," the results of a magazine assignment to cover the Oscars ceremony, is "clean," though unfashionably critical of celebrity worship, as are most of the magazine covers, one-off greeting cards, portraits, and other small works that fill the latter 62 pages. Everything shows Crumb at the top of his game.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved