I'm sure we're all familiar with the R. Crumb trading cards, the blues set anyway. He did two other series featuring jazz and early country artists. They are now all collected together in book form. Cheryl, a.k.a. Devil Girl , got it for me for Christmas and it's fabulous to have it alongside the R. Crumb Handbook which I also highly recommend.
The country section is particularly interesting, with renderings and write-ups of some terminally obscure artists. This includes the likes of Mumford Bean & His Itawambians who put out a single record on OKeh.
The book is of very high quality and the cards are reproduced in a 7" x 5" format so you can really dig Crumb's technique if such things interest you. I used to (still do a little bit) draw comics so naturally I'm rapt.
There's a nice intro from Terry Zwigoff outlining the history of the cards and art-technical details. Write-ups on the musicians are by Richard Nevins, Stephen Calt and David Jasen and, apart from wishing they were much more detailed and longer, I can't find much to criticize. Calt's entries are easy to pick out though!
The accompanying CD contains what you might expect, a total of 21 well-chosen tracks, 7 blues, 7 jazz and 7 country. I've so far resisted the urge to crack open the pristine CD packaging inside the back cover but there's some cool stuff on there I don't think I've heard so it's just a matter of time.
http://www.amazon.com/Crumbs-Heroes-Blues-Jazz-Country/dp/0810930862
The country section is particularly interesting, with renderings and write-ups of some terminally obscure artists. This includes the likes of Mumford Bean & His Itawambians who put out a single record on OKeh.
The book is of very high quality and the cards are reproduced in a 7" x 5" format so you can really dig Crumb's technique if such things interest you. I used to (still do a little bit) draw comics so naturally I'm rapt.
There's a nice intro from Terry Zwigoff outlining the history of the cards and art-technical details. Write-ups on the musicians are by Richard Nevins, Stephen Calt and David Jasen and, apart from wishing they were much more detailed and longer, I can't find much to criticize. Calt's entries are easy to pick out though!
The accompanying CD contains what you might expect, a total of 21 well-chosen tracks, 7 blues, 7 jazz and 7 country. I've so far resisted the urge to crack open the pristine CD packaging inside the back cover but there's some cool stuff on there I don't think I've heard so it's just a matter of time.
http://www.amazon.com/Crumbs-Heroes-Blues-Jazz-Country/dp/0810930862