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Arts

The father of underground comics: Robert Crumb at 75

August 30, 2018

The compulsive artist became the best known figure of the underground comix movement. Robert Crumb's work is controversial, but fans love the way he targets corporate America — including Donald Trump.

https://p.dw.com/p/342Nr
Comiczeichnung von Robert Crumb - Crumb USA 1994 Regie Terry Zwigoff abgebildet Karikatur Robert Crumb Copyright IFTN UnitedArch
Image: imago/United Archives

"I'm not here to be polite," declares Robert Crumb in a famous cartoon depiction of himself.

Extensive LSD use contributed to the unique style he developed. The artist found release from his tormented, sexually obsessed psyche by creating notoriously politically incorrect and misogynistic cartoons. Despite criticism, Crumb, born on August 30, 1943, remains one of the most influential figures of US counterculture.

"My comics appealed to the hard-drinking, hard-fucking end of the hippie spectrum as opposed to the spiritual, Eastern-religious, lighter-than-air type hippie," said the cartoonist who also created the artwork for Janis Joplin's Big Brother & The Holding Company Cheap Thrills album.
  

Cover of album "Cheap Thrills" by Big Brother and the Holding Company
Image: Columbia Records

The cartoonist, who often signs R. Crumb, expressed his disgust with America throughout his career, including in his Point the Finger series.  

In the 1989 series, Crumb targeted different people, including a real estate mogul who'd decades later become the president of the United States.

The cartoonist portrayed himself meeting Donald Trump. In the cartoon, he described the multimillionaire as "one of the more visible big time predators who feed on society," a "slime-ball," as well as "one of the most evil men alive." 

Click through the gallery above to rediscover some of Crumb's most famous — and shameless — characters. 

Portrait of a young woman with red hair and glasses
Elizabeth Grenier Editor and reporter for DW Culture