Drawn Together: The Collected Works of R. and A. Crumb

Cartooning couple Aline and Robert Crumb have drawn together, in both senses, throughout 35 years of marriage while supporting each other's individual artistic careers. Drawing themselves into each panel, the couple has produced numerous improvisational cowritten comics since the 1970s, in addition to contributing reportage for The New Yorker about the Cannes Film Festival and a Crumb family reunion, among other topics. Whereas all stories integrate uncensored confessional comedy into usual and unusual daily events, earlier stories wander unexpectedly into freewheeling fantasy. Later stories are tighter in plot and offer more subtle insights into the couple's emotional and sexual relationship. Their somewhat Bohemian saga has much to offer readers, both as broad satire and as sometimes surrealist testimony about a successful, if perhaps unusual, marriage. The final episode about senior sex, designed to shock, also shows their mutual fondness.