Chapter One explores Robert Crumb’s discovery of Beat literature and the ways the emerging American counterculture became a primary influence on his own artistic and intellectual development. Crumb’s friend Marty Pahls was significant in turning Crumb on to the Beat writers. Crumb created portraits of Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac. Crumb also became fascinated by Buddhism and Hinduism. The Beats’ spiritual quest reflected Crumb’s own desire to find alternatives to Western monotheistic religion. His character Mr. Natural bears several similarities to a Zen teacher, and Zen Buddhist themes will reappear throughout Crumb’s career, for example in his The Zen Teachings of Huang Po. The chapter concludes with a discussion of another author Crumb also greatly admired who is sometimes associated with the Beat movement, Charles Bukowski. Crumb contributed his drawings to several Bukowski books, bringing out themes of alienation which Crumb experienced frequently in his own life.
