Mister Natural T1

Mr. Natural is one of Robert Crumb's best-known creations, perhaps the more sympathetic. He belongs to this fauna of crooks, evangelists, false prophets and charlatans of all kinds, who haunt the United States and who describe Herman Melville, Sinclair Lewis or Harry Crews. Born we don't know where, we don't know when Fred Natural leads a picaresque existence, alternately healer, magician, conductor, convict, tramp and taxi driver in Afghanistan, before reappearing in 1967, in the pages of Yarrowstalk, well determined to lead America to salvation. Between Charles Manson and Aimee Semple McPherson, this cynical and cunning Zen master walks the streets of Chicago and San Francisco, preaching the renunciation of material goods while seeking a commercial outlet for his aphorisms. Hunted by cretinous disciples, who demand that he reveal the meaning of the universe to them, Mr. Natural mistreats them with good-natured sadism and, after a definitive "Fuck you!", flees them in the desert, as befits a true prophet. Let him kick the ass of the feminists, launches into an anti-Semitic diatribe or praises the benefits of Sperm in baby food, the indestructible Mr. Natural offends good morals, outrages pure consciences and even manages to get himself expelled from Paradise. It represents a stronger, freer, more anarchic America, which exploits the self-centered naivety of baby boomers, but is also sometimes the victim.