Editing Robert Crumb (section)

===''Zap'' and {{not a typo|underground comix}} (1967–1979)===

In January 1967 Crumb came across two friends in a bar who were about to leave for San Francisco;<ref name="nytimes_offense"/> Crumb was interested in the work of San Francisco-based psychedelic poster artists, and on a whim asked if he could join them.{{sfn|Holm|2005|p=47}} There, he contributed upbeat LSD-inspired countercultural work to [[Underground press|underground newspapers]]. The work was popular, and Crumb was flooded with requests, including to illustrate a full issue of [[Philadelphia]]'s ''[[Yarrowstalks]]''.{{sfn|Holm|2005|pp=47–48}}

Independent publisher [[Don Donahue]] invited Crumb to make a comic book; Crumb drew up two issues of ''[[Zap Comix]]'', and Donahue published the first{{sfn|Holm|2005|pp=47–48}} in February 1968 under the publisher name [[Apex Novelties]]. Crumb had difficulty at first finding retailers who would stock it, and at first his wife took to selling the first run herself out of a baby carriage.{{sfn|Harvey|1996|p=195}}

Crumb met cartoonist [[S. Clay Wilson]], an art school graduate who saw himself as a rebel against middle-class American values and whose comics were violent and grotesque. Wilson's attitude inspired Crumb to give up the idea of the cartoonist-as-entertainer and to focus on comics as open, uncensored self-expression; in particular, his work soon became sexually explicit, as in the pornographic ''Snatch'' he and Wilson produced late in 1968.{{sfn|Harvey|1996|p=195}}

The second issue of ''Zap'' appeared in June with contributions from Wilson and poster artists [[Victor Moscoso]] and [[Rick Griffin]]. Artist [[Barry Pressing|H.Fish]] also contributed to ''Zap''. In December, Donahue published the still-unreleased issue as {{No.}}0 and a new third issue with [[Gilbert Shelton]] joining the roster of regulars.{{sfn|Harvey|1996|p=195}} ''Zap'' was financially successful, and developed a market for underground comix.

Crumb was a prolific cartoonist in the late 1960s and early 1970s; at his peak output he produced 320 pages over two years.{{sfn|Goldstein|2013|p=517}} He produced much of his best-known work then,{{sfn|Duncan|Smith|2013|p=160}} including his ''[[Keep On Truckin' (comics)|Keep On Truckin']]'' strip, and strips featuring characters such as the bohemian [[Fritz the Cat]], spiritual guru [[Mr. Natural (comics)|Mr. Natural]], and oversexed African-American stereotype [[Angelfood McSpade]].<ref>Dowd, Douglas B.; Hignite, Todd (2006). ''Strips, Toons, And Bluesies: Essays In Comics And Culture''. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 76–79. {{ISBN|978-1-56898-621-0}}.</ref> During this period, he launched a series of solo titles, including ''Despair'', ''Uneeda'' (published by Print Mint in 1969 and 1970 respectively), ''Big Ass Comics'', ''R. Crumb's Comics and Stories'', ''Motor City Comics'' (all published by [[Rip Off Press]] in 1969), ''Home Grown Funnies'' ([[Kitchen Sink Press]], 1971) and ''Hytone Comix'' ([[Apex Novelties]], 1971), in addition to founding the pornographic anthologies ''Jiz'' and ''Snatch'' (both Apex Novelties, 1969).<ref name="Sabin-92">[[Roger Sabin|Sabin, Roger]] (1996). "Going underground". ''Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art.'' London, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press. p. 92. {{ISBN|0-7148-3008-9}}.</ref>

Crumb's work also appeared in ''Nasty Tales'', a 1970s British underground comic. The publishers were acquitted in a celebrated 1972 obscenity trial at the [[Old Bailey]] in London; the first such case involving a comic. Giving evidence at the trial, one of the defendants said of Crumb: "He is the most outstanding, certainly the most interesting, artist to appear from the underground, and this (Dirty Dog) is [[François Rabelais|Rabelaisian]] satire of a very high order. He is using coarseness quite deliberately in order to get across a view of social hypocrisy."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/friends/nastytalestrial2.htm |title=Nasty Tales Trial 2 |publisher=funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk |date=February 9, 1973 |access-date=January 14, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008023623/http://www.funtopia.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/friends/nastytalestrial2.htm |archive-date=October 8, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>"International Times" journal, {{no.|147}}, February 9, 1973, {{p.|17|20}}.</ref>