There was a long line outside the door of the Society of Illustrators in the Upper East Side of Manhattan that stretched to the corner subway station.
The attraction was a retrospective for Robert Crumb, the gangly pioneer of the underground comix movement. Crumb produced his first comic book, Zap #1, in 1968, selling them on the streets of San Francisco; later books were sold at head shops.
Crumb drew and wrote about the hippie lifestyle, chasing women and sex, and marketed his comic books for “intellectual adults.” They were an instant hit.
Also known for living on his own terms, Crumb, who once turned down an offer to illustrate an album cover for the Rolling Stones because he hated the band, now lives in the south of France with his second wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, with whom he is working on a new book.
