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Taking the hit would always be familiar to Robert Crumb. One afternoon in the spring of 1962 his mother, Bea, hurled a solid glass ashtray at his father, Chuck, who ducked. It beaned Robert, eighteen, in the forehead. Robert was bloodied and dazed, once again a silent and enraged witness to his family’s chaos. Soon after, Bea took the car and disappeared for three days. When she returned to their home in Dover, Delaware, Robert found her suicide note tucked into the front seat. His parents offered no explanation, just depressed silence.

— Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life by Dan Nadel (3%)

Robert is fond of writing “No one understands… But of course, how could they?” This is him as a self-regarding put-upon artiste. Sometimes he means it, in which case it’s both self-inflating and a challenge to any would-be friend or interlocutor. At other times, he uses this line to undercut himself, showing how absurd such egoism really is and bitingly demonstrating his self-awareness. He knows how normal it is that we humans feel misunderstood and isolated, and he wants us to feel some comfort in our common plight. And like an infinity loop of self-absorption, once again we’re back at Robert playing the fool for the sake of a message.

So it was not a surprise, in November 2018, when over a leisurely breakfast in his warm and gently cluttered kitchen just steps from a veranda overlooking the Vidourle River in the south of France, Robert imposed just one condition on this book: that I be honest about his faults, look closely at his compulsions, and examine the racially and sexually charged aspects of his work. He would rather risk honesty and see if anyone could understand than cooperate with a hagiography. After I promised all of that, Robert agreed to this project with a shrug: “I’m not opposed to it.”

— Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life by Dan Nadel (2%)

He’s willing and compelled to expose his darkest impulses to exemplify the male id; he risks being shunned to demonstrate the viciousness of racism. He demands we pay attention no matter the cost. This is not an entirely unselfish position.

— Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life by Dan Nadel (1%)