Gotta Have 'Em
Robert Crumb was born in Philadelphia in 1943. His first cartooning efforts as a child were inspired by his older brother Charles, with whom he would collaborate on elaborate comic book projects. He left home at age 19 to become a greeting card artist in Cleveland and later moved to San Francisco, where, after experimenting with LSD, he founded ZAP Comix. He is considered the father of the underground comics movement in America, and his characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural have become counterculture icons. His work has been featured in numerous publications, galleries, and museum shows, and he is the subject of the Terry Zwygoff documentaryCrumb. In 1993 he traded six of his sketchbooks for a house in a remote village in the south of France, where he now lives.