Self-portrait by Robert Crumb, created in 2020. ROBERT CRUMB
Real conspiracy theorists rarely admit to being such. So, when you finish Tales of Paranoia, the latest book by Robert Crumb, it's hard not to wonder: Does the king of American underground comics, who employs irony and provocation like no one else, actually believe a word of this jumble of anti-vaccine and conspiratorial claims, which he lays out with lots of words and very little coherence?
The Philadelphia native, now 82 years old, who left the US for France in the 1990s, spent his career drawing countless comic strips – funny or vile, depending on one's perspective – about incest, Black people, Jewish people, women, homosexuals... His nonconformity and love of political incorrectness served as a warning: What came from his pen was not necessarily meant to be taken at face value.
You have 91.03% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
