The Complete Crepax: Dracula, Frankenstein, And Other Horror Stories: Volume 1 (The Complete Crepax, 1) Hardcover – March 21, 2016

This was my first proper encounter with Crepax's comics - I had seen images here and there online, but never read a full story. This is best possible way I can think of to experience this incredible artist. Fantagraphics' attention to detail and outright love for this art can be felt in every fibre of the book.Crepax's work, to me, feels like a combination of Peellaert's eye for fashion with Pratt's sense of storytelling and Manara's always lustful gaze. It's hallucinatory, frequently surreal, but always compelling. The first half of the book are "horror" stories (really more like sci-fi, but let's not split hairs) featuring his signature protagonist Valentina. At first, she is merely a supporting character to Philip (a sort of superhero with magic eyes) but later becomes a much more developed figure in her own right.The second half is devoted to adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein. The vampire story is as beautiful and sensuous as one would think; all billowing lines and Gothic excess. Frankenstein is a stranger proposal, and comes from much later in Crepax's career where his line work was much looser and his figures more freeform. It's perhaps a little disappointing, but is still interesting to see the artist evolve 30 years in the turn of a page.The sticking point, however, is the series editor. His introduction to the book reads like a 5th grader's essay on their favourite artist - all declarative sentences and Wikipedia-level information - with some outright bizarre claims that any actress with a bob haircut was clearly influenced by Valentina. His story notes are no better, pointing out mindless minutiae when what's really needed is context for the social and political milieu of Italy in the 60s. Compared to other series notes, such as RC Harvey's indispensable work on Pogo, this feels sophomoric and below Fanta's usual high standards.I'm still looking forward to the next volume. Crepax is too important and too damn good to let ancillary material spoil his work.

I love Crepax-so much so that I have ordered his books from France and Italy in languages I don't speak. Now we have a beautiful, very large book of his work including Valentina and his adaptation of Dracula. Crepax version of Dracula is not only the best comic version but improves on the novel by trimming the boring parts and supplying stunning images capturing the weird sexual undertone.Valentina is also excellent. Her stories combine her real life adventures and her fantasies, mixing them and blurring them together.Crepax achieves something only the greatest cartoonists can-he creates a world of his own, unique and consistent and like nothing else.This is the comics book of the year. Thanks, Fantagraphics.

Fantagraphics is doing proud the Crepax estate and Crepax fans worldwide with this reprint collection.Oversized, gorgeous cover quality, spines, intros and extras.The work is not in chronological order, but rather by genres and themes. With this volume, fans will admire the artist's early style and witness old age and sickness takes its toll on a master storyteller who just kept going until the end.The stories are strictly in black and white and at times, It feels as if Frank Miller took a cue from Crepax's art when he created his Sin City stories.

Such a wonderful book: fabulous design, printing, and content. Crepax's horror stories blow EC's Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear out of the water.

Now, this is one big, heavy book! Definitely one for the coffee table! 34cm in length, that's 5cm bigger than A4, and heavy enough to give you arm ache. If you whacked someone on the head with it...well, let's just say they'd get a good night's sleep.Now that's out of the way, a few words about Guido Crepax and his work. It's great to see this publication, as Crepax is probably one of the most undertranslated comic book authors ever. Very few of his works have made it into English and most of those are out of print. So the fact that Fantagraphics are bestowing upon us the complete Crepax, painstakingly translated into English and split into ten massive volumes of which this is the first, is absolutely wonderful, a real treat for all lovers of good art.Amongst other things, this first volume introduces us to the iconic 'Valentina'. Valentina was Crepax's most famous and enduring creation - a beautiful Milanese photojournalist who is the essence of 60s European erotica. Based upon silent movie actress Louise Brooks and Crepax's own wife, Valentina was exquisitely drawn and beautifully conceived - sensual, stylish, sophisticated, enigmatic, demure, adventurous, liberated, and, ultimately, prone to losing her clothes very easily and becoming embroiled in all sorts of erotic dreams, adventures and fantasies. Apparantly, she presented a headache to Italian feminists of the 60s, who applauded her sexual liberation but had a problem with how passively she fit into the male sexual fantasy. Personally, I'll leave that debate to the 60s - I'm completely under Valentina's spell and in no fit state to contribute.So, anyway, what we have here is a beautiful hardback book, containing six Valentina stories followed by Crepax's versions of 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. There is also an introductory essay, and a few fascinating interviews/essays toward the end, including an interview with Crepax's adult children, extensive story notes, and cultural and historical references. All of the comic art is presented as it was when first issued i.e. gorgeous black and white art, but there is also colour, mostly in the essay photos and art before and after the main feature. The pages are very high quality, with a semi-gloss sheen, the book is properly bound, and...well, basically, the whole package is exquisite. Yes, it's pricey, but when you see what you're getting, I'm sure you won't doubt that the price is actually very reasonable.This is not only a wonderful piece of genre-defining European erotica but an important piece of European cultural history. I recommend it very highly indeed. And long live Fantagraphics, who continue to amaze.

WOW! Crepax' VALANTINA in English at last. This book is truly fabulous, and what a wonderful achievement it will be if this indeed does become the 'Complete' Guido Crepax! - Can our bookshelves take the weight?Comics have moved on at a pace since the 1970s but some of us have remained loyal to this "Raphael of Comics" whose style harks back to his own ground-breaking period in which during the late sixties in France Jean Claude Forest unleashed Barbarella (1964) into pop culture and in Italy Guido Crepax set about completely restructuring the comic strip per se with the help of his very own 'damsel in distress'. I have conducted my own love affair with Valentina Rosselli since I found her books for sale outside the bookshops on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris, in the early 1970s. This series of encyclopedic tomes will be a joy. A true posthumous acclamation for Crepax, a great comic-strip artist once described by Graziano Frediani as a "hunter of butterflies" and whom Wilinsky maintained, drew the best ass of any comic strip artist!

Guido Crepax is an important Comics Artist. His life long career constitutes a very important body of works. This gorgeous book is the first of many volumes which will collected all his graphic works in English for the very first time. It's a big and heavy volume of 430+ pages. The main portion of the hefty volume is dedicated to Valentina, his famous female protagonist. These stories are really mind blogging. Page after pages of black & white artwork, very beautiful, surreal & whimsical. But they are intended for mature readers only as they have erotic elements.

The art in this book is great! The story and the narrative is at times vague, and hard to follow... not very engaging. I bought this book mostly for the art, and in that department, it delivers.

豪華な装丁で宝物にしたい一品。高価ではあるがその価値あり。一生手元に置いておきたい一品です。