#01 Flakey Floont
#01 Flakey Floont
Last Gasp August 1970
It is telling that the inaugural issue of Mr. Natural had already warranted the inclusion of “The Origins of Mr. Natural” story, evidence of his enormous popularity before this title ever launched. Robert Crumb’s signature character had been featured in the sensational Zap Comix since 1968 and made appearances in the East Village Other, Bijou Funnies and Yellow Dog before earning his own comic book serial. And Mr. Natural’s own comic book proved to be an instant best-seller, commanding reprints of 20,000 copies every three months to satisfy public demand in the first year.
The three-page, mostly text story of Mr. Natural’s origin in this issue illuminates Crumb’s thoughtful crafting of the character. Crumb bestowed his pseudo-guru with the birth name of Fred Natural and concocted an elaborate personal history that brilliantly establishes his backstory. Mr. Natural had been a popular jazz musician and faith healer in the 1920s before donating his personal fortune for charity and leading a life of poverty while traveling in Asia and working as a taxicab driver in Afghanistan. He came back to the states during the Beat era of the 1960s and was lured to San Francisco Bay area by the exploding counterculutre, which provided him with an endless parade of hippy hippie chicks and sycophants eager to buy into his extemporized spiritual pontification.
The origin of Mr. Natural provides a sublime background for the absurdity that pervades the rest of the book, as Mr. Natural successfully combats the onset of modern urban development, deflects racial animosity from himself to one of his followers (Shuman the Human), and nurtures an abandoned baby girl by allowing her to suck his dick. The latter triumph lands him in jail, but there’s little doubt that Mr. Natural will vanquish his oppressors in the next chapter of his life.
Mr. Natural #1 follows in the footsteps of Crumb’s efforts in Zap Comix, Motor City Comics and Big Ass Comics by opening the door to a diverse field of alternative objectives, perceptions and perversities, most of which linger quietly in some luxurious, reckless corner of our subconcious.
Cover art by Robert Crumb. “Sunny Side Up”; Mr. Natural sings the lyrics to the popular standard “Keep Your Sunny Side Up!” (by B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson). “Mr. Natural’s 719th Meditation”; Mr. Natural meditates while a city rises, collapses and turns to dust. “Om Sweet Om”; Shuman is teased by Mr. Natural to the breaking point while he’s meditating on the sidewalk. “The Origins of Mr. Natural.” “On the Bum Again”; Mr. Natural, sick of the city, heads out west. While on the train, a lady who asks him to watch her baby never comes back. Gandy Goose and Sourpuss illustration. Scripts and art by Robert Crumb. MATURE READERS. The comix underground’s most popular character, Mr. Natural, in his butt-kicking debut issue.
28 pgs., B&W. Cover price $0.50.
#01 Flakey Floont
