The sublime Robert Crumb

By Nicholas Barber

Interviewing Alan Moore recently, I asked the creator of “Watchmen”, “V For Vendetta” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” which comics writers and artists he admired. First on his list: “The sublime Robert Crumb, who is one of the gems of the medium. He’s somebody who has managed to keep doing brilliant and inspiring work, who has never got tired, who has never got lazy. He’s fantastic.”

Crumb, 72, is synonymous with the underground American comics – or “comix” – of the 1960s and 1970s. Born into a Catholic family in Philadelphia, he began working as a greetings card illustrator when he was still in his teens, but moved to San Francisco in 1967 to concentrate on satirical, heavily cross-hatched art. The style he developed was a mix of E.C. Segar (“Popeye”) and George Herriman (“Krazy Kat”), with liberal doses of LSD.