Legends of the Blues

August 1, 2013

How can it be that R. Crumb didn't include Robert Johnson in his iconic trading cards set of blues artists in 1980? That devilish omission is here remedied by Stout, a writer and artist in the style of Crumb, in his coverage of 100 blues legends who were not part of that earlier acclaimed collection. Each alphabetically arranged artist profile includes a full-color portrait plus witty facing-page biographical and playlist commentary framed by a fan's introduction by Leimbacher, a former Rolling Stone writer who owns the Seattle-area bookshop MisterEBooks. A bonus CD of 14 classic blues tracks from Shout! Factory artists is included. VERDICT A fine new companion to R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country (Abrams, 2006).

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2013
For decades, fans have unsuccessfully importuned R. Crumb to expand his card-set, Heroes of the Blues. In his stead, mainstream comics artist and blues fan Stout has leaped into the breach. A book proved more feasible than cards, though, and here are the first results of Stout's labors. The drawings, stylistically modeled on Crumb's, are unimpeachable, the faces based on photographs while the backdrops refer, when possible, to the subjects' legends. So, for instance, Friday 13 looms behind guitarist-singer Albert King, conjuring his hit, Born under a Bad Sign. A biographical sketch faces each portrait and includes Stout's choices of Recommended Tracks and Interesting Covers, and more often than not a bit of Trivia is appended. Stout reprises only two of Crumb's subjects (Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson) and features the electric bluesmen Crumb deliberately excluded, such as Howlin' Wolf and T-Bone Walker, and musical-genre-straddlers like Chuck Berry and Dinah Washington. Nice stuff.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)