Robert Crumb

Robert Crumb's, The Book of Mr. Natural, has a main character featured through out the whole book, heck his name is in the title, Mr. Natural. At first appearance, Mr. Natural is a mystic guru who spouts aphorisms on the evils of the modern world, and the salvation to be found in mysticism and natural living. He has renounced the material world and lives off anything he can get in exchange for his nuggets of wisdom. Mr. Natural is always depicted as slightly overweight, bald with a long white beard, and wears a gown which makes him resemble a prophet.
Crumb's bearded guru is too unapologetic to be called a con man. Despite his renunciation of the material world, he's an unrepentant sybarite. His straight talk, while refreshing, can get him into trouble, as when he was kicked out of heaven for telling God it's "a little corny" in "Mr. Natural Meets God". The stories that contain the character Mr. Natural always seems to keep things fresh brining a wittiness to the pages. 

Need More Love, a graphic novel by Aline Crumb, was a fun book to read. For one thing, along with text, there were comics to read, photos and paintings to enjoy looking at. Aline Crumb had a totally dysfunctional childhood, with a father who did not hold a regular job, but always looked for a way to scam a buck. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, she explored free love, drugs and rock 'n roll. She had a baby when she was young and gave the healthy boy up for adoption. It does not sound like their paths ever crossed again. After her father died, her mothers wanted to share a flat with her, and she married a nice Jewish boy instead to get away from mom. That marriage did not work out. After attending college as an art student, Aline eventually moved to San Francisco so she could explore her craft. She got involved with such feminist artists as Trina Robbins. She worked on "Wimmen's Comics", where she wrote autographical comics, which was very new, especially for women back in the 1970s. Due to some conflicts with some of the other cartoonists, she eventually worked on her own comics with other artists called "Twisted Sisters." 

In San Francisco, she met artist Robert Crumb, who already had a great following as a cartoonist and they started hanging out. Eventually they lived together and got married. They lived in Central California for many years, worked on comics together called "Dirty Laundry" and had a daughter Sophia. During one of their many travels, Aline fell in love with France and convinced her family to move there. They are presently living in South France in a beautiful home. Aline shows off some photos of her home in this book. Robert and Aline are still very involved in their writing and cartooning. 
I loved reading this book and learning about Aline and her family. Aline has a great sense of humor throughout her book. She makes fun of herself, her art and she emphasizes how difficult it was at times for her daughter to grow up with parents who are artists and had such a liberal past. I highly recommend this book for a good time. 

Tijuana Bible Blondie, is a very graphic piece. I did not expect to be reading such vulgar things from a comic book. I just thought this would be a good comic book since I never heard of it and I wish I did not. I do not understand the purpose of this, it was like the comic version of porn. To add to it, it looked like a young boy drew the characters making it even more uncomfortable to read it. Basically if you have not gotten it already, I did not enjoy it and do not think there should be much to say about it.